Damien's standing in the driveway when we arrive.I didn't say much to him during the phone call, I just gave him the street name and waited for his driver. He was there two minutes later and I'd never been so glad to see anyone is my entire life. I feel sick, really fucking sick. Something isn't right. The stress, it's getting to me. I'm under pressure and I'm so tired of fighting, but I can't give up now.Ethan Keller is my brother.How crazy is that? It's unbelievable, inconceivable. And the craziest part? My mother knew this whole time. She knew Ethan was my brother, yet she lied to me and told me she didn't know where he was. Why would she do such a thing? Was she afraid of Ferdinand finding out, is that why she never said it out loud? But Ferdinand knew. Everyone knew.Except for Damien and I.And Theo, I won't forget to include her. He's her brother, too. They grew up as cousins yet they were siblings. That's messed up, and I don't know if Damien will even believe me. I don't e
Damien closes the door to his bedroom.With his good hand still on the knob, he wonders how the fuck he's going to tell Ethan all this. It's two in the morning, but this can't wait.He'd want to know, too.He stops by Theo's room, because she's the one who knows how to deal with situations like this, and she was eager to find out who their brother is, too. Her room is dark, but he switches the lights on. His right hand hurts like a bitch, but he'll ignore the pain. In fact, it'll keep him anchored to reality because it feels like he's in a fucking nightmare.She groans before sitting up in bed with some difficulty. She rubs her eyes and squints at him. "If the world isn't ending, we're going to have a fucking problem, Damien.""It's Ethan," he says without introduction. He closes the door and makes his way to her bed. He sits on the edge, cradles his sliced hand."What do you mean?" she asks. "And what the hell happened to your hand?""Ethan's our brother. He's Daisy George's fucking
I can't sleep.Damien's been gone for about two hours. I want to know what's happening, how Ethan reacted to all this. I don't know why I care, but I do. About his reaction, I mean. I'm anxious. I'm imagining all sorts of reactions from him, but he isn't happy in any of them. I don't believe this will change anything between us. He won't see me differently now just because he found out we're related.I'm only interested in what they'll do about my mother.I have to fight the urge to venture downstairs. I better stay in here, where it's safe, but I don't know what to do about my anxiety. There's nothing to distract me here, anyway. All I have are my thoughts, and they're not helping. I wonder how she's feeling right now. She knows they want me to kill my own brother, that's not something that can be taken lightly. She's already lost Aaron. She didn't know Ethan, I think, but that doesn't mean anything. She fought to keep him safe, to keep him away from Ferdinand. She loved him, of cour
"A Jasper Huntington is here," the boy says, shifting nervously on his feet and not staring anyone in the face.Sebastian looks around once. He hates this place, and whenever it's announced that there'll be a meeting, his stomach drops. The fact that they're under the ground in a forbidden place gives him the chills. It's a small cramped space and their plastic chairs are arranged in a circle around the dark room, their backs to the wall. There's some bottled water in a small wooden table nearby, but if he has another bottle he'll need to relieve himself and there isn't a bathroom anywhere down here. How easy would it be for someone to put an end to them. No one would even know where to look. It'd be as if they never existed. He shakes his head lightly to clear his thoughts.No one's paying attention to what he said and he isn't sure why. Jasper could be an asset and it's the only reason why he decided to join this meeting. He's Ethan Keller's brother and if he wants to meet them, tha
I'm about to go inside the doctor's office when another wave of nausea hits me. I suppress the urge to double over and instead keep walking and place my hand on the brass knob.It's been getting worse, the nausea. I feel like throwing up all the time now. I'm not sure if it's a symptom or if my body is overreacting. Everything's a blur. I feel like my own body has betrayed me and I don't know why I feel this way. It could just be a missed period, there could be a simple explanation behind it. Yet I know that that's impossible.I feel it in my bones that I'm expecting.When I told Damien of my suspicions, he went all silent on me, which is the worst thing that could ever happen. I was hoping he'd say something, especially since we talked about it briefly earlier. I don't know why I didn't click; I mentioned pregnancy, yet I didn't remember my missed period. It's been two weeks and I didn't notice it. I wasn't paying attention to my body. I should've been more careful, but it's too late
"Pregnant!?" Theo practically screams on the phone.Her ears must be deceiving her. Damien did not just call her to tell her that he got Amelia pregnant. This can't be happening to her family. This is it, the last nail in the coffin. There's no going back from this. The Keller Family has officially disbanded. Ethan's already leaving, and this pregnancy isn't going to convince him to stay.She hangs up the phone. She sits on her bed and seethes. Her family is breaking apart and there's nothing she can do about it. She grabs the nearest lamp and hurls it across the room. She'd tear this house down if she could, if her leg weren't still healing from the accident that killed her girlfriend. She really liked her, and every time she thinks about her death, she's filled with guilt. She only died because of her, because she was involved with a Keller. And Damien promised to take care of whoever tampered with their brakes, but so far he hasn't done a thing about it. He never gets involved in a
Damien puts down the phone.I can't believe he just called Theo and told her about the pregnancy. He said she had to know, but maybe we could've kept this a secret until a later date? Why tell them now, when everyone's still so upset with everything that's going on?I cross my arms over my chest and stare out of the large window in his office. It's getting dark, I didn't realize so much time has passed. I spent the entire day with him, just sitting on that sofa in the corner. He doesn't trust me to leave his side, that's what he said.We haven't talked much about the pregnancy, and I was surprised when he called Theo. Why did he do that, I wonder? If I didn't know any better, I'd think that perhaps he's happy about it. But this was unplanned and unexpected, and we haven't even discussed other...options.It crushes my heart to think of that. I didn't plan on being a mother either, but I don't think I can bring myself to terminate the pregnancy. I grew up in a religious home, and mother
Devon gulps down his whiskey.Pregnant? Dammit. He could believe it when his spy, Courtney, told him over the phone. Amelia's fucking pregnant. Expecting Damien's child. That's fucked up. That fucked him up.He didn't see this coming. He knew she was living with him currently, that he had killed Ferdinand and took her with him. He knows her mother is with Bertha's sons—yes, there's two of them. He couldn't believe it when Kaitlyn told him. She had twins and both are Ferdinand's. He was right about the alias, too. He—or rather, they—are known as 'The Ghost'. That's because he could disappear and be in two different places at once. No one knew how he did it, and they quickly turned to the supernatural, but come on. That makes sense now, and there's a simple and quite rational explanation for it. They couldn't think that perhaps there were two of them? With the exact same face? He wouldn't have guessed either, but still. The world is a pathetic place.He thinks of her again and his stoma