The Four Brothers ~ Completed

Capítulo Treze: O Estranho

Gemma's POV: 

The next morning I couldn't remember anything about my nightmares or Zion's touching moments the night before. But when I walked into the kitchen in search of coffee, I could tell something was different.

"Morning." I said softly, not wanting to disrupt the serious atmosphere. Damian waved at me from behind his huge stack of pancakes. Tobias didn't even acknowledge my existence. Sinclair gave me a smile from behind his mug of coffee. Zion looked too deep in thought to notice my presence.

"How often do you have nightmares?" Damian asked suddenly. I whirled around, both alarmed and confused by his words.

How did they know?

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said, knowing it was a stupid attempt to not talk about the nightmares. Damian arched an eyebrow at me.

"Seriously?" He asked. I shrugged. It was worth a try.

"I have a few every week. It's not a big deal." I said, thanking God when the Keurig whirred to life. The smell of coffee permeated the air, making me smile. 

"That's a huge deal. No child should be that afraid of something." Sinclair said, sounding interested in the conversation. 

"Eh, I'm over imaginative." I shrugged once more while sipping at my coffee. There wasn't a sound and I was starting to get worried that I had sent them into shock or denial or something like that.

"Do you think we don't treat you like our sister?" Zion finally spoke up. I arched an eyebrow, wondering what on Earth gave him such an outlandish idea. Pretty please note the sarcasm. It would do this old soul some good. 

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Damian snorted sarcastically, through a mouthful of food. I rolled my eyes at his poor table manners, but agreed with what he was saying.

"It isn't as if you treat me like I'm your long lost sister or anything. I get not treating me like I'm your sister. But could I at least get distant cousin who you're forced to tolerate?" I asked, a bit bitter if I do say so myself.

Zion was watching me with careful eyes, like he was trying to figure me out. If he ever figured me out, maybe he could let me know what he found out. I had no clue what was going on upstairs. 

"And what do we treat you as now?" Tobias finally butted in, sounding displeased with the whole conversation. It wasn't my fault he didn't know how to be anything more than cold to me. It also wasn't my fault for being slightly put out about how cold he was being to me. 

"A stranger." Was all I said. Tobias looked shocked, as if he couldn't imagine how I came up with that conclusion. 

Zion was still studying the counter intently. 

I finished my coffee in two quick gulps and hurried out of that awkward situation. I didn't handle those situations well. I was in the library before I could even think of a place to go. I guess my feet had minds of their own. 

Can you imagine that? Feet with brains? Ha, that's kind of a funny thought. 

I picked up a random book and started reading. I glanced at the first few sentences and groaned out loud. Someone in this family was a romantic and it wasn't me. Romeo and Juliet? Really? Didn't they have higher standards? 

I started looking through all of the books that were simply stacked on the tables and pushed my way through the piles. One book nearly hit my foot but I dodged. When I picked it up, a picture fell out of the pages.

A baby? The baby, I'm assuming it was me, had a pink bow in her hair. Her wide, brown eyes glowed with joy. Her lips were tugged into a drooling smile. There were four boys crowded around the edges of the photo. I could tell it was my brothers due to their beautiful, if not intimidating, eyes. 

Sharp grey, electric blue, emerald green, and one yellow lollipop. 

Yep, those were my brothers all right. 

I pushed the picture back into the book. It was a copy of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I smiled at someone's taste in books. Our tastes were very similar, apparently. I hid the book under the cushion of the armchair in front of the fire. 

I started sorting through the books in the shelves and noticed no disconcernable pattern to how they were put away. I bit my lip and decided that I would need a lot more time. I sighed, knowing I was about to make myself very tired but very happy.

Here's to redoing the library!

The door to the library opened as I finished up with the first shelf. I was taking every single book off the shelves, organizing them, and then putting them back on the shelves. But I intended to take every single book off every single shelf before reorganizing them. 

Needless to say, it was going to take a while. 

"What're you doing?" Zion asked, taking a cautious step closer. I arched an eyebrow at his careful behaviour. I wasn't going to bite him or something.

"Fixing everything." I said, gesturing flippantly at the shelves that didn't have any books on them. Zion hummed at my words, his head turning this way and that way as he glanced around at my work. 

"How long is that going to take?" Zion asked. He sounded tired. I was sitting cross legged on the ground. I turned my entire body around to face him. I saw the circles under his eyes, dark purple flowers blooming under his eyes.

"I don't know. A couple years, maybe." I joked, tilting my head up at the second floor of books. Zion chuckled and sat down in a chair a couple feet away from me, his hands trembling. I wondered what he was nervous about.

"Gemma, I just want you to know that... We're trying to protect you." Zion said. My lips quirked up into a half grin. 

"Protect me from what? Your own inability to understand what compassion is? I believe that." I mumbled, turning back to the stack of books I was sorting through for entertainment. Zion winced at my harsh, but true, words. 

"No, that's not it. We're a well known family with enemies and-" Zion's explanation, though I'm sure it would've been amusing to hear, was interrupted. The man from the first day I arrived, the one who was talking to Tobias, burst into the room.

"There's a problem." He panted.