Page 25 of My Haven
“Technically Thane, Law and Justice are our half-brothers, do you have any idea what would happen if we were to say such a thing?” Tristan asked.
“All three of you would get sense knocked into you,” a deep voice said from the door.
Caiden heard his brother’s voice and all the tension he had been holding on to evaporated. “See. Do you think they feel the same for Amelia?” he asked.
Meryn shrugged. “She was raised here and stuff.”
“What caused this?” Thane asked, his voice tight.
Kyran looked up and pointed to Meryn. “She thinks she has to solve all our problems, so we’ll overlook the tiny detail of not being blood related and like her.”
Thane scowled. “Meryn have you forgotten you are blood related to Amelia?”
“No. But that doesn’t mean they hafta like me,” she said, pointing to him.
Ryuu stepped forward. “Meryn do you love Pip, Nigel and Neil, even though they are adopted?”
“Duh.”
“You aren’t blood related,” he pointed out.
She thought it over for a moment. “But we chose one another, I kinda got forced on them,” she said, nodding to them, then the Ashleighs.
“Forced?” Justice whispered.
Caiden turned to his older brothers. “I am disappointed in you three. You’ve been around her the most and you made her feel like she was tolerated?”
The Ashleighs stepped forward to circle behind where Kyran and Tristan knelt.
Thane spoke first. “Meryn, you are my godsdaughter, there is nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
“Yeah, but that’s more because of my dad,” she said.
Law looked like he wanted to reach in to take her, but hesitated. “Meryn, I have known you the longest. If anyone can claim you as a sister, it’s me.”
“I was keeping you alive, so I figured that’s why you were nice.”
Caiden had never seen his older brothers at a loss for words.
Pip wedged his way into to stand next to them. Pip laid a hand on her head. “She is nervous, because you’re the first blood-related brothers she has met. She wants you to like her, but because you are related by blood, she is haunted by how she was treated by her grandmother.”
Meryn stared into her lap. “I figured if I like, top-loaded favors, then when I did something that made you angry, you wouldn’t…”
“Wouldn’t what?” Caiden asked, rubbing her back.
She shook her head.
Pip smiled sadly. “Beat her. Starve her. Ignore her. Take your pick.”
“You weren’t that way with me,” Lily said, looking distressed.
Meryn looked up. “You didn’t really give me a chance to get nervous, you just swept in like a small tornado.”
Law eyed Meryn. “Fine, we’ll adopt you.”
“Huh?” she asked.
“You have the Eirleas in Éire Danu, your father’s side of the family, right? We’ll claim you on behalf of your mother’s side of the family,” he explained.
