“How old is she?” he whispers later on when we’re laying in bed.
“She’s your twin,” I whisper back. He squeezes me tighter and buries his face in my neck.
I feel sunlight on my face and blink my eyes open slowly. I can’t even remember falling asleep last night. I look over and find Cole looking through the pictures again. My heart hurts for him, but there isn’t much I can do, other than help him and Aimee get to know each other again.
“Good morning,” I say huskily.
He turns his face and smiles at me. “Hey, baby.”
“How’d you sleep?”
“Good, actually. I always sleep good when you’re beside me,” he says as he lays down next to me and kisses my forehead. “I’m starting to remember things.”
“Really?” I ask surprised.
“Yeah. I remember Aimee and my mom. They used to go to Aimee’s piano lessons while I went with my dad to the farm, I guess that’s why she never went with us. I remember the night they took me, she had a cold and was sleeping with my parents.” I caress his face and feel my heart flutter as I look into his beautiful green eyes.
When Cole is in the shower, I heard Aubry get home and go to the living room. I see him and Aimee standing in the kitchen making themselves coffee and take a deep breath before greeting them. I ask them to sit down and start to tell them everything. Aubry already knew my story for the most part, so I’m mainly filling Aimee in on it, until I get to the part about Cole. I tell her how I got kidnapped as a child, and there was a boy named Nathan with me. I tell her how I met Cole at Maggie’s. She already knows a lot about our relationship because I’ve told her about him in the past. I told her that my freak out and throwing up at her house wasn’t because of the tuna I ate—but because I figured out that Nathan was Cole.
“What are you talking about, Blake?” Aimee asks horrified as Aubry sits there with his mouth hanging open.
“Your brother, Nathan, is alive. It’s...” I take a deep breath. “It’s Cole,” I say softly and wait for the news to sink in.
A plethora of emotions pass her face as she looks at me while she fidgets with the napkin she has in her hand until she tears it in little pieces. “No,” she sobs. “No. He’s dead. He’s dead. He was never found. Those people killed him.”
I sigh and take her hand in mine, looking into her brown eyes with a sad smile. “No, babe. He’s not dead. He’s alive, and he’s here, and if you don’t want to meet him today, it’s totally fine. We just found out yesterday, he’s still having a hard time with it himself.”
“No,” she says shaking her head. “I want to meet him. I have to. Oh my God,” she weeps as she launches herself into me for a hug. We hold each other tightly and Aubry gets up and holds us both in his arms. The three of us snap our heads up when we hear Cole approach us and Aubry lets us go and goes to him and goes him tightly.
“I’m so sorry, bro,” Aubry cries as he hugs Cole. Their chests both heave as they talk quietly to each other. I smile through the flow of tears that fall down my face as I watch them together. The two boys that have known each other since they were children and were raised brothers. My heart doesn’t hurt as I watch them, though. I know Aubry is glad that Cole is getting the answers he’s been searching for his whole life. Cole separates himself from Aubry and winks at me as he walks over to dry my tears before he looks at Aimee.
“Hi, I’m Cole,” he says, extending his hand. Aimee, who’s not one for handshakes, wraps her arms around him and begins to sob loudly again. I try to stifle my own sobs with my hands as I look on. My heart swells for them because they found each other after living apart for so long, but I feel sad because I know I’ll never have this with my own family. I feel Aubry’s arms wrap around me and his head rest on my shoulder and the thought evaporates. I have the family I need right here.
“Aimee,” she says when she lets go. “And I missed you so fucking much,” she continues as she wipes the tears from her face again. Cole laughs but has tears running down his face. I crack a smile because I’ve never seen him this emotional, and it makes me feel so good that these are happy tears. We all spend the rest of the night together, drinking wine and catching up. Cole asks Aimee not to tell their parents anything yet.