Page 9 of Silent Betrayal

“You want us to leave? You can’t even prove who she is. You don’t know her, butwedo. We’re not leaving you alone with her,” Jasper spits out, sounding angry.

“I’m sorry, but it’s time for you to leave her in our care. I assure you, we’ll take good care of her, and I will have her call you to let you know she’s okay.”No, don’t leave me!

“She can’t even speak!”

“We’re not leaving her.”

“Over my dead body.”

A chorus of angry voices rise around the room on my behalf. If there was a time for me to wake up and tell the truth, it would be now. Squeezing Max’s hand as hard as I can, I use his reaffirming grip to give me strength as I grapple to open my eyes. It takes me longer than I’d like, my eyelids as heavy as lead when I try to blink.

I hear Max’s whispered voice, sounding like he’s inches from my face. “Sweetheart? Are you in there? Are you coming back to me? To us? This would be a really good time for you to wake up.”

I squeeze his hand to let him know I heard him and he softly gasps. “Mina?” I try to turn my head towards his voice, but I don’t think it moves at all. I try to pry my eyes open, but it’s just so hard, likebeing stuck in that state between sleep and awake. Tears of frustration start to build, but I try to fight through it.I can do this.

Voices continue arguing around me, but Max’s voice is a steady anchor in my ear. “That’s it, Sweetheart, you can do it. Come back to me now. It’s been a little rude of you to sleep through the first few days of being my girlfriend, but I can probably find it in my heart to forgive you.”

A smile tries to form on my lips, and the room seems to go quiet.

“Now, I know I didn’t actually ask you, but I was going to, and you sort of decided to take a long nap, so I had to make the decision for you. You should have heard how mad Atlas was when I told him. He had the biggest pout on his face.”

I can picture it, and it makes me want to smile even more. I keep trying to pry my eyes open, and the tiniest sliver of light breaks through before everything goes dark again.

“It’s not my fault, though! When Ben proclaimed himself your husband, I knew I had to act quick to be hubby number two. Since Dom is going to adopt you, I guess that makes him your daddy, so then he’ll be my daddy-in-law. And since Jasper is my twin, we’re a package deal. You knew that, of course, so that’s four of us. Then the others can either get in line to be brother husbands, or they can be your daddies too. Whatever floats their boat, you know?”

“Max, if you ever call me daddy, I swear to god I’ll stab you in the dick,” Atlas growls.

“Atlas! I can’t believe you just said that. Did you forget she was stabbed?Multipletimes?”

The room falls silent and tension simmers in the air.

“Shit, I’m sorry Malishka, I didn’t mean it,” Atlas says from my other side.

“Come on, Sweetheart, open those gorgeous green eyes. I want to see you.”

I take several deep breaths and push all my energy into opening my eyes. They strain and flutter as I finally start to blink heavily. I open and close them for a minute, but everything is blurry. I keep blinking until things finally start to come into focus. The first thing I’m able to see clearly is Max’s smiling face looking down at me.

“Hi, gorgeous,” he says with a huge smile. He looks exhausted and his hair’s a mess. Usually it’s in his signature bun on the top of his head, but it hangs limply around his face right now, like he couldn’t be bothered to style it.

I can’t help but smile up at him. I suddenly notice how dry my throat is and try to move my hand to touch it, but my arms won’t budge. I turn my head to look at them, but nothing seems to be restraining me.

I whimper.Am I paralyzed?The thought terrifies me, and the beeping noise starts to speed up with my heart rate. If I can’t speak or write…No, no, no. It can’t be true.I squeeze my eyes tight shut with worry.

“What is it?” Jasper asks from my other side, as he holds my left hand.

My throat is so dry, I worry if I don’t get a drink right now, my throat might close over. Hoping he understands, I open my mouth wide.

He frowns. “Your mouth… hurts?”

I make an exaggerated swallow. It hurts, and I grimace.

“Your throat! You want water!”

I nod in relief. Max holds a straw up to my mouth, and I drink greedily. It instantly soothes my parched throat. I keep sipping until the cup empties and Jasper is right there with another one. I drink until my throat finally doesn’t feel like sandpaper anymore.

“Alright, now she’s awake. It’s time you boys leave so I can speak to her in private,” the woman, Julie, says. I grip the twins’ hands as hard as I can and shake my head.

“See? She doesn’t want to talk to you,” Max tells her smugly.

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