Page 78 of Caged Bird

Morbid curiosity had me peeking around the tree.

One last glance at the house I’d raised a baby in. One last glimpse of the building that had been my prison before I walked away from it forever.

My heart stopped.

A man and a woman stood on the back porch, only their profiles visible to me as they argued about something.

A strangled cry ripped from my mouth.

Zane’s eyes flew open, and he yanked me toward him, covering my mouth with his hand, but I battled him, pushing him away, fighting against his strength.

He let me go. Unwilling to hold me against my will, even when he thought it was for my own good.

Proving once again he was nothing like his brother. Eddie had never let me make a decision. Never let me have a mind or will of my own.

And here Zane was, so unwilling to hold me down he’d rather I give us away.

A million emotions raced through my body at the realization, and I wanted to hug him and kiss him and cry and laugh all at the one time.

And I probably would have.

If the two people standing on my back step, peering into the woods right at us, weren’t my brother and sister.

I stumbled toward them, weaving between the couple of trees, Zane right behind me.

My brain tried to play tricks on me, Eddie’s voice in my head whispering they were a mirage and nobody was here to save us. That nobody cared about me. That they all thought I was dead and had given up looking.

But my heart knew. It pushed me forward, propelling all doubts away, my gaze locked on the two people I’d pushed out of my life once, because I wanted nothing to do with the business they were in.

But never because I hadn’t loved them.

I broke back out into the sunshine, my mouth struggling to form the right shape to call Ophelia’s or Vincent’s name when all I could do was cry.

They both froze at the sight of me. Neither of them moving an inch.

My sister’s gaze locked with mine.

A sob finally fell from my lips. “Ophelia.”

Her face paled to white. There was a tremor in her fingers that was visible even from this distance.

In the end, it was me who went to her. Me who limped across the yard, whimpering her name, Zane at my back the entire way, catching me every time I nearly fell because I could barely coordinate my limbs.

“You’re dead,” Ophelia whispered from the top of the stairs. “You’re not here.”

She was right. I was dead in so many ways.

But just the sight of her gave me the strength to get up the steps. We stood eye to eye, her trembles turning into full-body shaking as she stared at me like I was a ghost.

And for once in our lives, it was me who got to be the strong one. It was me who folded my older, stronger, much more capable sister into my arms and held her while she cried.

She sobbed into my shirt, and I held her tight, watching my brother over her shoulder, a thousand emotions flickering through his dark-brown eyes that were so much like Otis’s.

In the end, I said nothing.

Just held out my arm to him.

He crushed Ophelia and me to his chest, wrapping his arms around us both, and it was then I finally let go, my knees buckling because I knew both my brother and sister were there to catch me.

---