Page 106 of Bound By Secrets

Brad huffs and as he starts to undress, Nate quietly walks back into the room with four bottles of water. He glances over at Brad who’s huffing and puffing as he strips his clothes off, then over at me and chuckles.

“I had a feeling that you would’ve won that battle.”

“He hasn’t won any battle. We’re gonna be switching,” Brad grumbles.

As they both quietly climb into bed, Callie’s body shifts. She wiggles between mine and Nate’s bodies, and her hands unclench from the covers. She groans as she twists around onto her stomach, stretching her arms out until they rest across our chests.

She kicks her legs beneath the covers and then huffs.

“Brad, lay down,” she demands, her voice laced with sleep.

He sprawls his body along the bottom of the bed, using his arm as a pillow and once he’s stopped moving, Callie twists her leg out of the covers and drapes it over him.

“That’s better,” She sighs, a small smile tugging at her lips as her body relaxes once more.

Silence fills the room as each of us watches Callie’s back rising and falling.

“So, we’re really doing this then?”

I glance at Brad and nod.

“There’s no way I’m letting her go. If that means I have to put up with you two as well, then I’m okay with that.”

“Same here,” Nate agrees, leaning over and switching off his lamp, bathing us all in darkness. “We’ll learn along the way, and I have no doubts that it’s going to be a rocky road, but we’ll manage.”

“As long as we’ve got Callie, we’ll be just fine,” Brad states.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Callie

Waking up this morning in Nate’s bed, surrounded by warm bodies and multiple different limbs laid across me, I felt happy and most importantly, safe.

Now, sitting across the table from Colin as he speaks on the phone to my mother, I feel sick. My hands are clammy, my pulse is racing, and my mind’s swirling with conflicting thoughts and emotions.

It was my idea to speak to her today because I miss her and I want to check that she’s safe and healthy. I also have so many unanswered questions, and my therapist has told me that knowing the answers to the questions I have could help me along my healing journey and it could give me some closure.

However, I’m also dreading this call. I can’t help but feel a little bit of disdain when I think about her and I do partially blame her for everything that the twins and I have been through these past few years.

“Yeah, she’s here now, Clarissa. Give me a moment and I’ll pass her over,” Colin says, removing the phone from his ear andplacing it on the table between us. He presses the mute button before glancing over at me.

“You don’t have to talk to her if you don’t want to, Callie. She understands-”

I shake my head, cutting him off.

“I’ll talk to her. I need to. She knows things that I don’t and there’s also a lot of things that she likely doesn't know about.”

He watches me for a bit and then nods his head and stands from the table. Before he exits the room, he knocks his knuckles against the doorframe and turns to me.

“Kat and the boys are in the living room if you need them, Sophie is also upstairs and has asked me to let you know that she’s there if you need to talk to her as well. You can stay here as long as you like, Callie. You’re a part of the family now, and we want to help you in any way that we can.”

His sincere words hit me with full force and tears form in my eyes.

Once he’s out of the room, I turn my focus to the phone lying on the table in front of me.

I can hear her soft breathing filtering through the phone and the sound of faint laughter in the background. The corners of my lips tilt upwards when I recognise the deep laughter as Uncle Johnny’s and hear the sweet little giggles of my sister, Crystal.

When I pick up the phone, I take a deep breath to calm my nerves, and then I unmute myself.

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