AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you for having me,” Bru said before shaking Brielle’s hand too. She said something similar to what Ramses said. Her voice didn’t crack, but it sounded raspy.
I was still frozen before her, before them both, and a hand came over mine. It gripped the hand on his arm, and a reassuring squeeze followed.
“They’re more nervous than you.”
I couldn’t see Dorian. I couldn’t look at Dorian, but I knew he was there.
It proved to be enough.
I was able to let go of him and my brother to approach Ramses and Brielle, and I recognized so many of my own features between them. Especially Brielle. She was older, but each sweeping angle of her defining features I definitely recognized in the mirror, her nose button-tipped and her lips like two soft strokes of a paintbrush. She wore a red lipstick, and whenever I did, I looked exactly like that.
“You and I have met, Sloane,” she said, nodding. “Though, of course, I didn’t know. I…” She glanced back at her husband, her fingers touching her mouth again. She shook her head before facing me. “I’m happy you’re here, and that you felt safe enough to come.”
I did feel safe. I felt overwhelmed, but safe. My throat constricted. “I’m sorry I ran.”
“Oh, honey.” She took my hand, and I thought I’d die. A wave of emotion crashed over me, and I held onto her. We held onto each other, and I think we both needed to in that moment. She squeezed my hand. “We’re sorry. We’re all sorry. We hadn’t been thinking about you or your brother, and had we been, things probably would have been different.”
They shouldn’t blame themselves for me. Me running wasn’t their fault and something I still had to deal with. I wanted to run now.
I’m chaos.
I closed my eyes, trying not to shed tears. I was a fucking mess.
“You’ve done nothing wrong, sweetheart,” Ramses said, and out of the two, he appeared to wear his emotions the most. At least, in the moment. He was blinking a lot, and though he kept everything in like me, his struggle was clear. He placed his hand on top of mine and Brielle’s, and when he grabbed Ares, I thought I would cry.
Ramses hooked an arm around his son, my… brother. Ares had his arms braced, but when his dad grabbed him, Ares pushed an arm around him. Ramses pressed his mouth to Ares’s head. “We’re all going to be okay, all right?” Ramses said, then glanced at Bruno. He smiled at him. “All of us. We are all going to be okay and get through this.”
Bru nodded at Ramses, and when Bruno breathed out a harsh breath, I knew this was difficult for him too. Ramses waved him into the circle. He welcomed him.
So kind.
The words of a dark prince touched me again, one that wasn’t so far away. Because in this circle, his parents touched Ramses and Brielle, their hands on their backs, but their son went another place. Dorian had one hand on Ares.
But the other was on me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sloane
It was an emotional day, an emotional night. Ramses and Brielle gave Bru and me a tour of their home, and that was nice without Ares’s partygoers. They had a beautiful home, and after, we all sat down to dinner with the Prinzes. I got to hear my birth story there and how I’d been sick at the hospital. I’d been underweight and hadn’t adjusted as well as Ares had when we’d been born. He’d been underweight too, but his organs had been more developed. Because of my issues, I’d required more care. I’d spent a lot more time away from them, and during that period, I’d been taken.
And that was it really.
It was such a simple story, but so complex for all those involved. Godfrey and Marilyn had ruined my life, and now, I carried their namesake. I mean, I went by Sloane. It was all so fucked, and that was when things kind of got emotional. It was hard for Ramses and Brielle to tell the story, and eventually, that was when the Prinzes would sway the conversation. They were a good buffer, kept things light, and Dorian was so much like his parents. His dad carried a strong air about him that made you just want to respect and listen to him, and his mom, well…
She was lovely.
He was like the perfect mashup of them both, and it was nice to have him there too. He talked to Ares mostly, but cut in when he saw the empty spaces in the conversation. The ones where Bru and I couldn’t speak when we were asked about anything related to our parents.
His parents.
My brain was going to have to do a lot of reprogramming, and gratefully, I didn’t have to say a whole lot. The adults in the room just seemed content to have me and my brother there, and I did get to talk to Brielle’s parents, as well as Ramses’s. The couples called in separately via FaceTime, and I got to find out that I was Syrian on Ramses’s side, Mexican and Puerto Rican on Brielle’s, and European on both. It was wild to find that out, and emotional too. Ramses’s mom was crying while talking to me, and that was hard. It was all hard, and this was day one.
Maybe tomorrow would be easier.
The adults got Bru and me set up in rooms near Ares’s, and we did eventually say goodbye to Royal and December. December ended up giving me her line just in case I needed it, and both offered to be around if my brother or I needed anything at all. I got that a lot from everyone today. If I needed something, they were all there for me.
I guess I did have a lot of support.
