Page 92 of Deviant Illusions

“I will, Mr. Xandros. I hope Mrs. Xandros feels better.”

Dad smiles, nods, then leaves to check on Mom. Asher checks the time and gestures to the door. “We should leave now. Your mom doesn’t like it when we’re late.”

Has he had a personality transplant?

My brother never gives a fuck about what anyone else thinks of him and if he knows something is going to piss them off, he’ll do it on purpose. But we walk out, accepting the fact that he’s becoming a better person. It’s even stranger when he goes to his car and says to me, “Sit in the front. Delilah can get in the back.”

She doesn’t react, other than opening the back passenger door to get in. I have so many questions—mainly if they’re still together. If they’re not, then she’s free to be mine.

I pat my pockets, looking for my phone so I can ask her, but it’s empty and I turn around, speaking over my shoulder, “Go without me. I forgot my phone.”

“We can wait,” Asher says.

Weird as fuck.

I don’t respond and go back inside, but the hushed voices coming from the kitchen make me pause at the bottom of the stairs. My dad is talking to someone, and he sounds happy. “They’re getting along. That talk with Asher must have worked.”

“No,” my mom snaps. I slowly walk to the end of the hallway, hiding in the alcove beneath the staircase to watch her grip the edge of the sink as she stares out into the garden.

“Dora, it’s a good thing.”

“No. It’s not. I wish we never had him. Now they’ll get close, and this is all your fault.” She’s fighting tears with her shoulders hunched forward as my dad gently places his hand on her back.

“You don’t mean that, they’re our sons.”

“We should have only had Asher,” she openly cries, turning into his chest. “If I knew there were two of them, I wouldn’t have had them.”

My dad doesn’t defend my existence. He simply whispers, “I know.” He hugs her, consoles her, because my existence is what causes her pain.

I don’t get my phone, and walk out of the house instead. Asher has already left but I need to get the fuck out of here, so I take the first car that has keys inside. It’s my mother’s pride and joy, the one she always drives and feels comfortable in. I want to drive it off a fucking bridge. She’d mourn the loss of her car more than me, so I do what I always do and stay quiet. Follow what’s expected of me to make everyone else’s lives easier.

It’s always the same.

With my parents.

With Asher.

They wanted to watch Asher play football, so I made sure that all my achievements were on different days than his. He wanted Delilah so I never said that she was mine.

I pull up outside Leroux Manor with no recollection of the route I took and get out, ignoring everyone around me. Brows go up and people pause, whispering to each other. But I don’t give a fuck. Right now, I don’t have to be Kane, the forgotten brother and unwanted son. I can be whoever the fuck I want.

It’s that thought that motivates me when I see Delilah slip away from her parents’ guests and go into the piano room she practices in. I cut through the crowd, following her, and she stands like a haunted figure in the dark room, only illuminated by the moonlight coming through the large windows.

My reflection is muted in the glass, but she sees it and flippantly says, “Fuck off.”

I don’t say anything and storm towards her, grabbing her neck and turning her to face me as I lift the bottom of the mask to take what I want.

She fights me for all of a split second, then her lips soften, and she moans into me, “Kane?”

I grab the back of her thighs, lifting her to have everything I need without a thought for anyone else. Not Asher, my parents, anyone. We’re the only people who exist in this moment as she wraps her legs around me. My fate is sealed when I stop her from asking questions and deepen the kiss, trying to convince us both that she’s mine and only mine.

40

KANE

Helene is like a vulture circling me as I stand beside the fucked up bench, looking out at the waves softly rocking over each other.

“There’s a part of the tale that no one knows,” she says, stopping beside me, watching the same thing I am. “There was speculation regarding a curse, but they couldn’t fathom how deeply it ran. You see, my mother speaks to anyone who will listen to her senile ramblings of a curse, but no one ever stays long enough to hear how that curse evolved.”

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