Forty Six
Ash
His words stopped me cold. I could hear my own heart beat like drums inside me. The pounding of my heart was so loud it drowned out any other sound.
What was Ayden saying?
I observed the scene unfold before me almost as if I was out of my own body. I saw myself standing there just as if I were watching a scene from a movie. I saw Ayden sitting in the chair leaning forward on his hands with an evil smirk on his face. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth. Amber was shouting something to me as she held my hand.
But I didn’t hear a word she said.
My heart continued to thunder in my ears.
The look on Amber’s face said it all as she paled dramatically at the words Ayden was speaking.
But again, I didn’t hear him either. I watched with strange detachment as they argued back and forth. Amber tugged on my hand.
Looking down at myself, I noticed my hand was still clutched at my shoulder with Amber’s dress covering my wound. Blood had soaked the garment and was beginning to drip down my arm. Surely, the pain from that wound must be overwhelming.
But I didn’t feel a thing.
“ASH!” Amber’s sharp fingernails dug into my hand.
Suddenly, I was slammed back into my body. The pain from my shoulder exploded inside me.
And I could hear everything.
“So, Ash, did I shock you? Or couldn’t you see the resemblance between us all along?” Ayden slowly stood up next to the chair.
“What?” I shook my head to clear it.
“He’s your brother,” Amber murmured, still in shock.
“My brother? How can that be?” Snapping to my senses, I pushed the pain aside.
Ayden chuckled. “My name is Ayden Donovan, but it should’ve been Ayden Blackthorne.”
“So, my father is…your father?” I thought of Rita and all the other girlfriends my father had had.
Ayden began to pace the concrete floor as Amber kept a tight grip on the gun in her other hand. “Yes, he is.”
“Then, who was your mother? Was it Rita? Terri?” I tried to think of all the women I’d known my father to be with. Perhaps it was some woman I never knew about.
Ayden shook his head. “No, but you know her, Ash. You know her quite well.”
Again, I felt my heart began to thunder.
I swallowed hard trying to wrap my mind around it all. “Enough with the cat and mouse bullshit, Ayden. Tell me!” My voice echoed throughout the room.
“My mother…let’s see, well, she wasn’t the best mom that was for sure. No, she let drugs rule her life much like your mother did, Ash.”
As I let his words sink in, I realized what he was saying.
His mother was my mother.
His father was my father.
I closed my eyes. I couldn’t remain standing any longer. I collapsed against the wall slowly allowing myself to sink down.
“Ash, are you okay?” Amber knelt down beside me.
I nodded.
“He’s bleeding heavily, Ayden. I’ve got to get him to a hospital. Please, can’t you help us?” Amber pleaded with him.
Blood began to pool on the floor next to me. I felt faint. The lights in the room began to dim and Amber’s face floated before me.
Ayden stood up walking towards us. He rubbed his own bleeding face. “What makes you think I would?”
“Because he’s your brother.”
I heard them argue back and forth over me until I thought I would pass out. I managed to choke out the one question burning in my mind. “Tell me, Ayden, why didn’t my father tell me about you?”
Ayden’s voice took on a sinister tone. He crept closer to us. “Because he wanted to protect his precious son. But he was my father, too.”
I nodded, feeling darkness begin to close over my mind.
I gazed up to meet his hazel eyes. Now I understood why they were so much like my own.
My brother.
“Ayden…” I whispered as I felt myself falling through the darkness.
“ASH!”
Amber’s scream was the last thing I heard.