Silver Moon (Colors of the Moon #3)

Chapter 1

I was eighty percent sure we were lost. The forest road in front of us didn't look like it had been used since the beginning of the twenty-first century, and the rough jolting of the car made it impossible for me to believe anyone sane lived at the end of this road.

"Are you sure you've never met her?" I dubiously eyed the dust our car left behind on the gravel road.

I was sitting in the middle seat of a gray sedan with my elbows resting on the two front seats and my chin nestled on my intertwined hands. It wasn't the most comfortable position because of the violent shaking of the car, but it allowed me to hear the conversation coming from the front.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" the girl in the passenger seat said. "We've never met her."

Her face was partly obstructed by the gigantic volume of dark brown curls, but I didn't miss the peak of her tongue as she stuck it out in my direction. I guessed some things never changed, no matter how old we grew.

"It's not a big deal." Her honey colored eyes dared my forest green ones to contradict her as she turned to face me.

She was my half sister Vivian, who I refused to believe was already seventeen years old. In my mind she was still the awkward twelve-year-old, who spent more time with her books than out in the real world.

Then again, since I was already twenty-two there was no way for me to keep denying her age. Time hadn't spared either of us.

"Yes, it's a big deal. I can't believe either of you would allow him to move in with her without first meeting her."

Because I wasn't getting anything other than another glimpse of Vivian's tongue, I turned my head in the opposite direction.

Behind the steering wheel sat a woman in her early fifties—my  step-mother Judy. Opposite to my soft brown locks, her hair was the same dark shade as Vivian's. However, hers was much tamer, which I knew came with age and wisdom.

I couldn't see her eyes because she had them glued to the dingy road ahead of the car. But I didn't need to see them to know they were the exact same shade as Vivian's. With the added bonus of smiling wrinkles surrounding them.

"You really allowed him to move in with a stranger you've never met?" I asked her.

Although she was trying hard to mask it, I could still see the soft crease of her mouth. No matter how many times they assured me it wasn't a problem, I knew it wasn't the truth. Either they weren't telling me everything, or he himself was keeping something from them.

"He's already twenty. Old enough to know what he's doing."

"No, he's not. He's still underage." I couldn't believe that I was the voice of reason in all of this. "What aren't you telling me?"

Because I wasn't able to look straight into Judy's eyes and demand an answer, I turned my head around to look at Vivian. The said girl, however, stubbornly refused to meet my gaze.

"The Rob I knew would never move in with a strange girl without at least first introducing her to his family."

"Well, then you don't know him anymore." A bitter tone sneaked into Vivian's voice. "It's been five years. He's not the boy you once knew."

I blinked, before lowering my eyes to the dashboard between the two of them. She was, of course, right. I didn't know Rob anymore. I didn't know any of them.

"Speaking about those five years." I felt Vivian's eyes bore into the side of my face. "When are you finally going to tell us where the hell you've been?"