Dissolving

Chapter 41 - Scared

The nervous silence that follows Will's confirmation of Aidan's statement is almost killing me.

I have been on edge ever since Jack dragged me into their bedroom and hearing what Will is telling us about his trip to the East Coast is not doing much to make me feel more relaxed. Although he hasn't managed to find all the evidence I have been hoping for, it is still more than what we knew before.

We all seem to be in agreement that this unknown dead girl must be our sister.

After Will's adamant confirmation that he believes that our father was somehow involved in Sienna's death, we have just been sitting here, wondering what to do next. At least that's what I think my brothers have been doing for the past five minutes.

I, on the other hand, have been preoccupied with not totally freaking out about this whole mess we have uncovered. Losing it right now would be fatal when it comes to me playing any kind of significant role in this "investigation". The moment I appear to be breaking under the pressure of it all, they'll push me to the side and continue on their own.

Or they'll go and confront the older guys before we are ready for it.

So, basically, I have to stay strong for a bit longer before I can allow myself to drown in the misery of it all. Whether I can do that, is another question. I am barely hanging on by a thread as it is and that's scary. That has become a regular occurrence ever since I found those boxes with Sean's and Sienna's things in the attic.

And just like that, thinking of those mysterious pieces of evidence, I have an idea.

"Did you check for their mom's death notice in any of the libraries?" I ask quietly.

I am a bit uncertain whether my siblings are interested in any more of my input.

"What do you mean?" Will asks, narrowing his eyes at me.

Fortunately, not in an annoyed or intimidating way. It's more like this is his thinking face.

"When I looked through the boxes in the attic, the ones I think belonged to Sienna and Sean, I found a death notice of... of their mother, remember?" I try to jog their memories.

"There's nothing to remember. That's the first I'm hearing of this, runt," Will says, sounding very confident about the state of his memory.

"But we talked about it with the guys when we had that horrible family meeting where we found out that we even had a sister in the first place," I insist. "I clearly remember how we confronted them about the death notice and it then lead to them telling us that we don't all have the same mom. Which obviously was news to most of us, too."

"I think that was after these two ran out," Noah speaks up from behind me, waving his hand in some kind of uncoordinated movements near my face.

He is still sitting in that same spot, but his hold on me has loosened a bit. I can sense his close presence though and it is rather soothing. I think Noah is pointing at Will and Jack.

"After Jack and Will legged it out of the living room as if the devil in person was after them, you mean?" Aidan clarifies, confirming my thoughts.

I glare at him for being so blunt, still very vividly remembering the talk I had with Jack and Will after their emotional reactions. That was anything but fun. It showed me clearly that not only our oldest brothers have some dark secrets, but that their early childhood was horrible, too.

"Shut up, Aidan. You don't know what you're talking about," I rebuke him, only for him to lazily flip me the bird.

The others ignore our petty behavior and Jack backs up Will's claim that they have never heard of any death notice before.