Bound to my Enemy

Chapter 270.

The gun remains pressed against Elaine’s head while my finger tightens around my own weapon. Every muscle in my body is screaming at me to pull the trigge and end this right now but I can’t....not with Elaine standing there, not with our baby growing inside her.

One wrong move and everything is gone.

"Take one more step," Thomas says again. "I dare you."

His voice sounds almost unrecognizable now, broken and desperate.

Then movement catches my eye from the left and I immediately tense, only for Lucas to emerge from the trees.

For fuck’s sake.

A tired sigh leaves me.

"I told you to stay put, Lucas."

His head snaps toward me, even now, even in the middle of this nightmare. The man somehow finds time to look offended.

"You don’t tell me to stay put, Zane."

His voice is sharp.

"I’m not a fucking dog."

Under any other circumstance I would’ve told him to shut the fuck up. Instead I just stare at him.

Because right now I don’t have the energy, and I..... a voice cuts through the tension.

"Uhmmmm Guys... I don’t think now is the time."

Lucas and I both whip our heads toward the source. At exactly the same time and for a second I’m confused.

Because I’d been so focused on Elain, on the gun pointed to her head and on Thomas.

That I hadn’t really paid attention to the second figure standing nearby.

I knew someone was there, I ju just hadn’t looked properly.

The figure shifts slightly and Moonlight brushes across part of her face but it’s not enough, not enough to make anything clear.

I frown.

Who is she?

One of Thomas’s people? Another victim?

The woman takes another cautious step forward.

Then she speaks again.

"Lucas..."

And evverything stops.

Everything.

Lucas goes completely still beside me, like somebody just shot him and his face drains of all color as his eyes lock onto her.

"No."

The word leaves him in pu pure disbelief.

It looks like she crying and suddenly something twists painfully in my chest.

Because her voice, there’s something familiar about it...but it’s impossible.

"Lucas?" she whispers again and that voice.

Jesus Christ.

That voice.

My brain starts trying to place it, trying to force pieces together.

Memories, old conversations, arguments, laughter.

Memories of a little girl and me running through hallways, a littl girl stealing my food, a little girl driving everybody insane.

No.

No. That’s impossible.

Lucas takes a cautious step forward, then another, like he’s being pulled.

"Aria?"

The name barely leaves his mouth before the woman completely breaks. A sob escaping her and suddenly my entire world tilts.

No. No fucking way.

I finally see her properly, not clearly but enough. The shape of her face, her hair nd the way she stands.

And suddenly I can’t breathe.

"Hi, Lucas."

The words leave her through tears and I swear my heart stops.

Aria... My Aria.

The name echoes through my head, over and over again.

I stare at her, unable to move or to think, because standing there...Alive...Is my sister.

The sister I buried, the sister I mourned, the sister I spent years blaming myself for her death.

My knees nearly buckle.

"No..."

My voice sounds strange even to my own ears....its smal and broken

She turns toward me then and when our eyes meet.....i know, i absolutely know with no doubt or question that It’s her.

It’s really her.

"Big brother."

That voice.

God.....That voice.

My little sister’s voice....it sounds older now and different but still hers....still Aria.

And suddenly years of grief come crashing into me all at once. Every nightmare, every anniversary, every guilt-filled morning and sleepless night.

Everything.

I thought she was dead, I watched them lower an empty coffin into the ground. I spent years wishing I could trade places with her.

And now she’s standing right there.

Alive, breathing and Looking back at me.

Then she starts moving, towards Lucas, towards us and for one beautiful second I think maybe this nightmare is finally ending.

Then Thomas grabs her hard and yanks her back, the moment is shattered instantly.

Aria gasps as she’s yanked backward.

"Thomas!"

He ignores her completely, his face is twisted with fear now.

He drags her back against him, then suddenly releases Elaine. Elaine stumbles violently before crashing to the ground and my heart nearly explodes.

"Elaine!"

I move instinctively.....one step, that hat’s all I manage.

BANG!

The gunshot tears through the night, the sound echoing through the entire forest as birds explode from nearby trees and everybody freezes.

The smell of gunpowder fills the air and Thomas lowers the gun slowly after firing into the sky.

His hand is shaking now badly.

"Don’t."

His voice cracks.

"Don’t you fucking dare."

The barrel presses against Aria’s head now, not Elaine’s anymore.

Aria.

My sister....the sister I just got back.

"I’ll blow this gun right into your sister’s head."

The words hit me like a punch and I stop moving immediately, every instinct in my body screaming, every protective urge fighting against common sense. Because for years I’d convinced myself there was nobody left to protect.

That she’d been taken from me and now.....Now she’s here and she’s in danger.

Again.

I slowly look at her, trying to memorize every detail of the woman she’s become.

The years I missed, the birthdays, holidays.

Everything.

Gone and taaken from us.

Then my eyes slowly lift to Thomas and something inside me breaks. Not anger, not yet...Something worse.

Betrayal.

Raw crushing betrayal.

"I..."

My throat tightens painfully so I swallow and try again.

"I thought you were dead."

Aria starts crying harder and I don’t think she even realizes she’s doing it.

My gaze never leaves Thomas, not for a second.

"I thought she was fucking dead!."

My voice rises.

The hurt finally bleeding through. Years of hurt and grief.

"You watched me mourn her."

Thomas says nothing.

"You watched me destroy myself."

Still nothing.

"You stood beside me at her funeral."

My voice cracks.

"You stood beside me while I thought buried her."

The memories hit hard, standing beside that grave. Unable to breathe, unable to look at her for the last time.....I couldn’t , I just couldn’t. I wanted every memory of her in my head should be her alive and bubbling...not her laying still in a freaking box dead. Now looking bad I should have...I should have mustard on the courage to look at her, if I did I would know that damn person laying the casket wasn’t my sister....if I did all these wouldn’t happen.

Believing my little sister was inside that’ casket While Thomas knew the truth all along.

"You knew."

The realization makes me feel sick.

"You knew every fucking day."

My chest aches, actually aches liek somebody is crushing my heart in their fist.

"You watched me suffer for years."

My voice lowers, dangerously low.

"How could you?"

Silence.

The question hangs there painfully.

Because I genuinely don’t understand, this wasn’t revenge anymore, this was cruelty.

Pure cruelty.

The kind that steals years from people, the kind that can never be given back.

I stare at my sister.

At the woman she had become without me.

She’s Nothing like the little girl I remembered, noothing like the child I’d promised to protect.

She’s grown now.

A woman...a stranger and somehow still my little sister.

The realization hurts more than anything, because Thomas didn’t just steal her.

He stole years....years I’ll never get back.

Years none of us will ever get back.

And standing there looking at him, I realize I may never forgive him for tha

"Why?" I ask.

"You had her."

I point toward Aria.

"You knew she was alive."

Thomas doesn’t answer immediately. The gun remains in his hand, though his grip on it has loosened.

"You watched me bury an empty coffin."

His jaw tightens.

"At first it was easy," he says quietly.

"I hated you....."

His eyes find mine again.

"I hated your father.... hated your family."

Aria’s face crumples.

"Thomas..."

He ignores her.

"I wanted you to suffer....i wanted you to feel what I felt."

His eyes are distant now, looking somewhere years behind us.

"Every time I saw you grieving..."

He swallows.

"...it felt fair."

"Then years passed and the lies got bigger."

His hand trembles slightly around the gun.

"I kept telling myself I’d fix it."

His laugh is hollow.

"Bury the truth. Then reveal it later."

Another pause.

"Then it became harder...and after a while..."

Thomas shakes his head, like he’s disgusted with himself.

"The first few years I wanted revenge."

His voice is barely above a whisper.

"After that..."

A painful smile touches his lips.

"...I didn’t know how to stop anymore."

---

Elaine’s POV

I slowly push myself up from the ground.

My body and head aches....Everything aches. But none of that compares to the ache sitting in my chest.