Apricity✓|Editing

Chapter FORTY- FOUR

Alexandrea's P.O.V

I gulped as Nick said those words. This is it! He's gonna tell me everything. I don't understand why it bothers me so much that I know little to nothing about him but I'm glad he's gonna open up.

"Does Zoey know you were both adopted?" I asked, not moving my gaze on him.

"She doesn't. We might be twins but she was carefree and never bothered about anything. When we were here, she didn't understand most things that I already did because I took it upon my responsibility to take care and watch over her. Since she is my only family left" he explained and I nodded in understanding.

"Then what did you tell her?" I asked, still looking at him. He was not meeting my gaze but was staring at the building in front of us, his expression unreadable.

"I told her...." He sighed before continuing " I told her that we have been staying in the house, waiting for our grandma to come for us. She doesn't know Granny is not in any way related to us by blood" He said as he put his hands into his front pocket when a cold breeze blew by. I wrapped my arms around my chest as well.

"Okay..." I said. I have so many more questions. "What about your parents?" I asked and mentally slapped myself after because I already knew the answer to that.

"Dead" he answered. I was about to ask how they died but he interrupted me "They died in a car accident. I made researches on them and turns out we were 'not expected'."

I blew out a breath. The breeze had started to get chilly. "Right" I said.

"Things were easy. At least to us while we stayed with granny. She bought us whatever we wanted. Sometimes, Zoey would come home and complain about getting bullied while crying. The sight of her that way made want to rip out the jaws of those bullies. So I would secretly sneak out and keep a watch on Zoey while she is in school. I studied the face of the bullies one by one. Then I would snake out again but this time, it was to beat the shut out of those bullies" He said and glanced at me. A small smile was on my face, encouraging him to continue. He looked away and blew out a breath.

"She hated it when I did that. I mean Zoey. She hated it when I fought with her bullies and I hated it when she defends them. She called them her 'friends'." He chuckled bitterly. "So I stopped. I stopped sneaking out. Until one day, Zoey never came home. I went out of my mind. Granny and I went searching for her at possible places she could be. We searched the school, the park, we searched everywhere she could be. Granny eventually gave up and said we should leave it to the police." He said and licked his dry lips.

"Leave it to the police? I couldn't do that. When granny and I got home, I made sure she went to sleep and I sneaked out again to look for her. I had this feeling that something was terribly wrong and my feeling was confirmed when I saw my sister lying almost lifeless on the ground of an alley. I ran over to her and lifted her up with all my strength. She was so....so pale and she wouldn't move or speak" Nick said and stopped for a while. I took his hand in mine for support.

"Let's sit" I said and he gave me a slight nod. We went over to a bench that sat a few feet away from the building we were standing in front of earlier.

"I rushed her to an hospital. I was so scared. She was my only family left and I didn't want her to leave me. I slept at the hospital waiting for her recovery. Granny came rushing over in the morning, asking the details from the doctor. She hugged me and apologized for not searching harder. After many nights at the hospital, Zoey woke up. She told me what happened. She told me that those same bullies beat her up and left her in the alley. I couldn't hold back the rage I felt when I heard that. I felt like snapping someone's neck" He said and looked at me as I rubbed my hands together, due to the cold. He was wearing a black hoodie that had splash of blue and white.