10
+25 Bonus
My brother closed his eyes, his jaw tight. “What about the house?”
“I also found footage from the surveillance cameras outside your property from three days ago. The necklace was thrown out of a second–floor window at 3:42 PM. The camera angle doesn’t show who threw it, but the timing lines up with when Selene claimed your sister attacked her.”
“And my sister’s story that Selene had the necklace?”
“Consistent with our findings. I’ve sent people to search the area where it would have landed, but it’s been several days in heavy rain. I’m not sure if we’ll find it. I’m sorry, Alpha.”
My brother’s expression shattered, though he struggled to maintain his composure, his Alpha training kicking in even now.
“I understand. One more thing–it’s from a while back, but I need you to investigate it thoroughly. The graduation night incident that sent/ my sister to rehabilitation. I need everything–witness statements, camera footage if it exists, medical reports. Everything.”
“That’s over a year ago, but I’ll do my best.”
“Whatever it costs. Whatever it takes.”
After the call ended, my brother completely fell apart. The careful composure he’d maintained crumpled like tissue paper. He slid down the wall to the floor, the teddy bear still clutched in his hand, unable to process the magnitude of his betrayal.
I wonder if he was thinking about how, in my final moments before plunging the silver dagger into my chest, I had waited desperately for just one sentence from him: “I believe you.”
But he never said it. That validation never came. That was the final straw that broke me after enduring so much.
With shaking hands, my brother kept looking through the things I’d left behind. When he discovered the folded scraps of paper I’d hidden inside the teddy bear’s torn seam, he unfolded each one carefully, reading the desperate pleas I’d written during my time at the rehabilitation center.
The first note was stained with what might have been tears or blood:
“Brother, I want to come home! I’m in so much pain! Brother! My body is covered in wounds. They’re ugly and they hurt so much. Please come get me!”
