Final Debt

Her black eyes met mine, wide and horror-filled. “It’s okay? How can you say that? All this time, I hated my father for letting you take me, but I just found out my mother was the one who orchestrated it? He wanted to hide me, Jethro! And she stopped him! She was supposed to protect me. Tell me how any of this is okay? I don’t understand! First, I find out my grandmother was never killed, and now, I find out I have another…what? Sister?”

My fingers pinched into her elbows, but she tore out of my hold. “No! Don’t touch me.” Her cast blurred through the air as she shoved off her sling and grabbed her hair. “What does this mean? Jacqueline? Am I supposed to know who she is? What. Does. This. Mean?”

She whirled on me. “Who is Jacqueline, Jethro? Tell me!”

I stood there, buffeted by her emotional turbulence, wishing I had the answers.

But I didn’t.

I didn’t have a fucking clue who Jacqueline was.

I spread my hands in defeat. “I wish I knew, Needle. I’m sorry. My family had yours under surveillance for decades and not once has anyone called Jacqueline come up.”

Nila breathed hard, her tears drying as anger filled her instead. Her eyes flew to the window where the barely-there outlines of our combined family stood around the wooden pyramid.

Her hands balled, pain flashing over her face from her break. “I know who will have answers.”

My heart stopped.

I took a step toward her, trying to grab her before she did anything reckless. “Nila, listen to me. Calm down. You can’t go out there like this. You can’t—”

“I can’t, can I?” She stomped forward, avoided my grasp, and scooped the box off the table. The letter crumpled inside as she slammed on the lid. “My mother just cleansed her soul by dumping decade’s worth of secrets. It’s not fair. How could she do that to me?” She sniffed, ice filling her black eyes. “I won’t let her get away with this. I want answers and I want them now.”

“Nila…don’t. Wait until later. Stop—”

She bared her teeth. “Don’t tell me what to do, Kite. She was my mother, and this is my fucked-up history. I deserve to know what she meant.”

I stumbled to grab her. “You shouldn’t, not tonight—”

Crushing the box, she glowered. “Watch me.”

Turning on her heel, she bolted from the room, leaving me standing all alone wondering what secrets we shouldn’t have uncovered.

Damn Emma.

Perhaps the tales of the dead should remain dead.

Did I do the right thing?

Had I just kept a promise to a ghost and stupidly destroyed our carefully perfect world?

I won’t let that happen.

“Nila!” I charged after her, careening down the staircase and erupting onto the grass.

Her treadmill running days gave her a good sprint, and I didn’t reach her in time.

I couldn’t stop her slamming to a halt in front of her father.

I couldn’t prevent her throwing the box in his face.

And I couldn’t halt the torrent of questions spilling from her soul.

“WHO THE HELL is Jacqueline?”

I stood trembling in front of my father, fighting a vertigo wave.

Tex was almost comical as he froze, gaped, and swiped a shaking hand over his face. “How—how did you hear that name?”

Ducking, I ripped out the letter from the box at his feet and shoved it into his chest. V drifted closer, drawn by the air of animosity and questions. “Mum just told me.”

Tex gulped. “What? How?”

Jethro came jogging over the lawn, sternness on his face. “Nila…perhaps now is not the best time.”

I whirled on him. “If not now, when?” Pointing at the ready-to-blaze bonfire, I snapped, “I think now is the perfect time. Closure, Jethro. That’s what this is and that’s what my father owes me.”

Ripping my eyes from Jethro’s, I glared at Tex. “So, tell me. Who the hell is Jacqueline?”

“Threads…what’s going on?” Vaughn nudged my shoulder with his. “What’s gotten you so upset?”

My father didn’t look up as he read the same letter I’d just devoured, his pallor shifting to a sickly yellow.

My voice throbbed as I looked between my twin and father. “Mum left a note.” I pointed at it, rippling in the breeze in Tex’s fingers. “That one. She not only told me our grandmother was never claimed by the Debt Inheritance, but I was sacrificed over a girl named Jacqueline. So my question is…who is she?”

“Holy shit. What the fuck?” Rubbing his jaw, V glanced at Tex. “Well? I think we deserve to know.”

Taking a huge breath, Tex finished reading. His eyes darted to Jethro before locking on me and V. “She’s your sister.”

I’d already guessed as much, but it still hurt. “Older sister?”

The eldest who should’ve paid the debt. The sister who should’ve protected us by being the chosen one, not the saved.

Jethro came closer, barricading me against the wind. “I think you better spit it out, Tex.”

Tex nodded, fighting ghosts and things I never knew. How could he keep such a secret? How could my own father be a complete stranger?

Picking up the box, I hugged it, waiting for knowledge.

His body tensed, thoughts filing into collected streams, ready to tell me the truth. “There isn’t much to say. Your mother and I met young. We never planned on getting pregnant—she was averse to the idea of children right from the start. But the pill failed. When we found out, we agonised for days what to do. We couldn’t abort as my parents were very religious and had recently died, making me loathe to destroy new life. But we also couldn’t keep it.