Page 1 of Hush 3: Hidden Family

CHAPTER 1

You’re my Brother

Michael

I promised Nico and Annabella that when I turned eighteen, I would find our older brother. I might be the youngest, but I’m skilled at finding people and things when I want. I wasn’t sure if it would happen at first.

Then my mother started to act odd during certain times of the month. I decided to follow her to see where she was going and why she would return looking so upset. As if she had lost someone or her heart had been broken.

I never thought she would lead me right to my brother’s doorstep. I’ve known where to find Uri for a month now. I’ve been working up the courage to meet him face to face.

“You can do this. Just follow him and tell him who you are,” I mumble to myself as I follow him up this dark, secluded street.

I’m in awe of Uri. I’ve been following him since I found my mother with him. Once she returned home, I followed his every move. I have learned a lot about my brother.

His life is very different from ours. He is connected to a lot of dangerous men. I can’t help but think about how different my life could have been if I had been raised by whoever raised him.

Anything other than being raised by Roberto Zuko had to be better. I still don’t understand why Uri has been kept away from us. Nico and Anna remember him more than I do.

I was only one year old when our father was killed, but I do remember there being one more of us. I remember him playing with me as I learned to walk and then he was just gone.

“Why are you bloody following me?”

The sound of a gun cocking as it’s pressed to the back of my head fills my ears seconds before the cold steel placed flush against my head registers in my skull. I close my eyes and freeze. How did he get behind me?

“Don’t shoot. I’m your brother, Michael,” I plead.

“I know who you are. That’s not the question I asked.”

I pause to think over the question he did ask me. My heart is racing, and my mind goes blank for a second. If he knows who I am, why does he have a gun to my head?

“I wanted to meet you. We all do. We don’t understand why you’re being kept from us.”

“You have come here on your own? You are either very smart or very stupid,” he says.

I note that he has an accent that’s much different from mine. It’s not Italian like the rest of ours. It has a hint of Italian mixed with a British one.

He removes the gun, allowing me to breathe. I still don’t move. I’m fighting with everything in me not to show my fear.

“Turn around,” he commands in Italian.

I turn to face him and put my hands up. I suck in a breath as we come face to face. Nico and I look a lot alike, but my brother standing before me now could pass for my twin. Even though there is a five-year age gap, he looks just like me.

The same blond hair, the same blue eyes, we have the same exact face and build. We are almost the same height. Give it a few years and I might catch up to him.

It’s like looking into a mirror. However, the scowl on his face is not the same as the expression I have in this moment. I give him a slight smile, wanting to pull him in for an embrace.

“I will ask you this once. If you don’t give me the answer I want to hear then I will shoot you and make you disappear.”

I nod as I lick my lips and wait for his question. This is not at all how I thought this would go. I wasn’t expecting him to be so … cold?

“How did you find me?”

“I followed Mama. She always looks so heartbroken after her visits with you. I noticed and decided to follow her. I didn’t know it would lead me to you. I’ve been searching for you since I turned eighteen.”

“You have found me, now what?”

I shrug. “I would like to hug you. After that, maybe we could talk and get to know each other. You are my brother. I want to get to know you. Nico and Annabella miss you. We only want to be a part of your life.”

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