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Maybe… I have no idea what is going on.
It’s still a sea of secrets, a sea of lies. But at least now I’m floating somewhere near the surface. I can see a little bit of light. And there’s a hand wrapped tightly around me, and I know it won’t let me drown.
“Who are your idiot brothers, my queen?” Marco breathes against my hair.
I smile through my tears. “The rotten royals,” I say.
“Oh,” he says, sounding skeptical. “Right. It was them, after all, huh? Who are they, though, baby?”
“Hector is one,” I tell him and he inhales sharply. He didn’t know. I knew he didn’t know—but the confirmation fills me with so much relief, I go weak. He pulls me against his chest. “Angel is the other,” I finish.
“I’ll kill him,” he says at once, and I laugh.
Marco doesn’t.
“I’ll kill him myself first, don’t you worry,” I tell him. “There is so much more I don’t know. So much I don’t understand. How could my dad not know about Angel? Or did he lie again? How did—? I am so confused.”
“I’m so sorry, Olivia.”
I shrug. “I’m not. I’ve always wanted siblings. Now I have them.”
“Even Angel?”
“No, not Angel. Never Angel,” I laugh.
…
I call him that instant.
Right from Marco’s arms. I don’t care—let him hear everything. I’m not leaving the security of his arms, not for any reason. Guards try to approach us every few minutes, but I just look at them, and they stay back.
Angel answers at the second ring.
“You bastard,” I tell him.
“Yep,” he says at once.
“Is it true?”
“It is. You were right all along,” he says. “You are always right, O, if I remember correctly.”
Did he just call me ‘O’? He hasn’t called me that since we were kids. A lump forms in my throat. Gosh, he is so annoying.
Speaking of which…
“You remember correctly,” I say. “I was always right. And annoying.” Or so he thought.
“No, that was…” his voice sounds strange, strangled. It still takes some getting used to, listening his voice raw with emotion. I’ve heard nothing but a cold, dead robot voice from him for years now. “You never annoyed me, Olivia. I never hated you, although I sure as hell told you I did. It was easier this way.”
“Easier for whom?”
I hear him sigh. “For no one,” he says. “It’s just… that summer, I accidentally found out the truth about you and me. About your dad and my mom… It just wrecked me, you know? I couldn’t… I couldn’t face you afterwards. I shouldn’t have pushed you away like that, but I didn’t know what to do, and then I started getting angrier and angrier as the years piled on and the lies added up and…” he stops abruptly, his breath coming short. “I missed you, O,” he says, voice shaking.
“I missed you too,” I tell him. “I’m sorry, Angel. About your mom and about ruining your life, and…”
“Stop,” he interrupts me. “The only one who has ruined my life is me, ok? Don’t… I won’t let you shoulder the guilt for this too. It has nothing at all to do with you, it’s not even remotely your fault. Ok?”
I bite my lip. “I was the one who was punished, though. All these summers I missed you… I missed you so much, Angel.”
