Kidnapped in Sister’s Place and Emotionally Numbed: The Tragic Twin Cuts All Ties Chapter 05
After lunch, my parents messaged me. The Calders loved me. They wanted to move forward with the mating alliance right away.
The second Veyra found out the Calders actually liked me, she spiraled.
She’d spent her whole life believing she was above me in every way. Even Evander backed that up without question.
But a real alliance with a powerful pack? That would knock her right off her pedestal.
So by the time I walked through the pack house door, both my parents looked like someone had died.
They’d been thrilled in the texts. Now they could barely look at me.
Veyra was sick.
Evander canceled a trip to the northern territory the second he heard. Flew straight home to be with her.
I asked what happened. Nightmares, apparently. She’d been having them nonstop.
The whole pack acted like she was on her deathbed.
She was losing sleep. That was it.
I remembered the day I was discharged from the pack hospital.
Nobody had canceled anything for me.
“Liora, every time Veyra sees you, it brings everything back. She can’t eat, she can’t sleep…” Mother said.
“Last time I checked, I was the one who got abducted.”
Maybe I should’ve been angry. I couldn’t tell anymore.
I felt completely hollow.
“But you’re fine, aren’t you? Veyra’s different.”
“She’s never dealt with anything like this. She’s sensitive.”
“Maybe it would be better if you stayed somewhere else for a while,” Mother said.
I looked up at the closed door on the second floor.
Veyra told me once that no matter what I did, no matter what I achieved, Mother and Father would always choose her.
She was right.
“Fine,” I said, and headed upstairs.
Mother tensed up immediately.
“What are you doing? Veyra hasn’t slept in days.”
“She just fell asleep. Don’t wake her up.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Packing.”
“You told me to leave, didn’t you?”
Mother’s mouth opened, then closed. She had nothing.
It didn’t take long. I came down with one suitcase.
There wasn’t much to pack.
Everything I owned fit in the same bag I’d arrived with.
They all stared at me. Not one of them had expected me to go this easily.
“I’ve got a place in Boston. You can crash there.” Evander set a key on the table.
Mother and Father both looked shocked.
Evander had never done a single kind thing for me. This was a first.
Even Evander didn’t know why he’d said it.
Something about watching me standing there, alone, holding that little suitcase, made him not want to let me walk out.
But Veyra would be upset.
So he split the difference.
“Keep it clean. No guests. It’s temporary. Got it?”
“Don’t bother.”
“I already booked a hotel.”
That caught him off guard. He hadn’t expected a no.
The old me would’ve been over the moon.
But without the abduction, Veyra wouldn’t have needed me gone. And without the guilt of watching me leave, Evander never would’ve offered the key in the first place.
It wasn’t kindness. It was guilt.
His expression hardened.
“Packed fast,” he said. “Guess you couldn’t wait to get out of here.”
I didn’t take the bait.
I pulled my suitcase out the door.
Evander sat there staring at the key on the table. Then he grabbed it and shoved it into a drawer.
…
Kaelis was waiting at the airport. He grabbed my bag before I could argue.
“All good?”
“Smoother than I thought.” I shrugged. “They actually told me to leave.”
This was the deal we’d made. We’d leave together. He needed out just as badly as I did.
Kaelis knew what my family was like.
And I’d seen the way his face changed every time his pack came up. That wasn’t discomfort. That was hate.
Two people desperate to get away from their families. The math was simple.
“For what it’s worth, they’re gonna regret this.” Kaelis tilted his head, studying me. “I can already tell.”
I didn’t feel anything. I just watched the window.
The plane climbed, and Boston shrank to a grid of tiny streets below us.
“Maybe,” I said. “We’ll see.”
I was reaching to switch on airplane mode when my phone buzzed.
Evander.
[Where are you? The pack enforcers pulled new security footage from the trail.]
[That day… it doesn’t look like Veyra actually dropped anything.]
