Page 146 of When Hearts Awaken

Lexy shifts, no doubt wondering what has drawn my attention away from her.

She cocks her head to the side, bewilderment in her voice. “Lil’ Tay, is that you? What are you doing here with my brother?”

Chapter 60

I stare at theone person I thought I wouldn’t see again, the person whose betrayal cut the deepest after my assault.

Alexis Evans. My best friend.

She abandoned me after the darkest night of my life. She looked at me with revulsion when she found me naked and battered in the lounge. She told me she was quitting ballet.

I don’t understand. Nothing makes sense.

She stares at me, a quizzical look on her face as she cocks her head to the side.

“Lil’ Tay, is that you? What are you doing here with my brother?”

My mouth runs dry as I stare at her, unable to form words, unable to calm the icy kick of adrenaline sending my heart in a tailspin.

I see Charles slowly getting up, the worry clear in his beautiful blue eyes. Eyes I now see are identical to Alexis’s.

What on earth?

Alexis frowns. “I-I don’t understand what’s going on.”

Just then the door sharply opens behind me, and I see my brother, Ethan, rushing in, his dark brown hair windswept, his eyes wild as he scans the room before landing on Alexis.

“Oh fuck,” he mutters, rushing forward, ignoring all of us, and crushes Alexis into his arms. “You’re awake, mynova, you’re awake.” His voice chokes up at the end. “I knew you were going to wake up. I’ve never given up hope.”

A few seconds of bewildered silence pass by as I struggle to find my voice, to ask what the hell is going on. I see a similar confusion in Charles, who mouths something to Liam, who shakes his head and murmurs, “I don’t fucking know.”

Alexis stiffens, and she pushes Ethan back, her wide eyes scanning my brother’s face. “W-Who are you?”

“What?” Ethan staggers back. “Lexy, you know me. Don’t joke right now. Please, I’m going to have a heart attack. Please don’t joke with me.”

Alexis shakes her head and scurries to the edge of her bed, her eyes not leaving Ethan’s face. Clearly sensing their sister’s confusion, Liam and Charles gather around Alexis, as if protecting her from Ethan, who looks like he’s been slapped across the face.

“Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” I step toward the group, my heart beating out of my chest, my eyes clearly taking in a scene my brain cannot understand. “How is my best friend, your sister?”

“Your best friend? The one who abandoned—” Charles begins, the color slowly draining from his face as he makes connections I still can’t see. “Fuck. That’s why she disappeared. Because your best friend is my sister. Holy shit.”

Alexis stares at me again, like she can’t believe what she’s seeing. Her gaze darts to my wrist and I glance at our friendship bangle. “Our bangle? I don’t remember. I don’t—” She shakes her head, like she’s trying to remember something, and she looks at her own wrist. “Where’s mine?”

“Fuck,” I hear Charles whisper.

My mind is still having trouble catching up as I turn my attention to him. He opens Alexis’s nightstand drawer and pulls out her bangle, similar to mine, but in a different pattern. A matching set.

He shakes his head, clearly still in shock. “I should’ve known. I always thought your bracelet looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.”

His words reverberate as logic finally turns back online. Alexis Evans dropped out of my life abruptly almost eight years ago. Charles’s sister sustained traumatic injuries in a car accident, leaving her in a coma almost eight years ago.

I never heard from Alexis again because she was here, in a coma, all along.

Looking at Alexis, my emotions still reeling, trying to understand what this means in the grander scheme of things, I ask, “Your last name isn’t Vaughn. It’s Evans. Why?”

Alexis swallows. “It’s our grandmother’s maiden name. I never use Vaughn in my everyday life. It’s too high profile. Why are you staring at me like this? Why do you look so different? Did I do something to hurt you, Lil’ Tay? I don’t get it.” She looks around the room, the blood leaving her face again. “You all look so different.”

A delirious chuckle threatens to rip from my throat. Did she do something to hurt me? That’s an understatement of the century. Even as I reel from the news that my former best friend is Charles’s younger sister, who was in an unfortunate coma until now, it doesn’t erase the fact she left me on the darkest night of my life.

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