Forbidden Love

38

Luna

I stare at the view in front of me. Jaxon Gray standing above my mom while she lays in bed, totally unaware of his presence. It's an odd thing having Jaxon here knowing the truth.

All I know is that I messed up big time. I don't even know how I called Jaxon, but I did. And now I have to deal with the consequences of that action.

"Is it cancer?" Jaxon asks. His voice is low as if worried he'll disturb her sleep.

I nod to the hallway, if only to let him feel more comfortable speaking louder, though I'm not sure she can even hear us.

"It's a rare gene mutation." I tell him once we get to the hallway. "She developed early onset frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson's disease. I know, she won the gene lottery." A laugh comes out of me, but it's not out of humor, it's out of anger. Anger that my mother—my sweet, happy, energetic mother—is forced to live an unlivable life. "She inherited it from her mother who died at fifty-two."

"But I remember her," Jaxon says. "From when I was younger. How did I not know?"

"She started getting sick around the time you and Corey stopped being friends. You couldn't have known."

Jaxon seems to process the information before he asks, "Is that why you guys never go out? Do you take care of her?"

"We mostly watch over her. The doctor and nurse come every once in a while, to check in, but—"

The front door opens, and my head turns too late. Corey walks in with Nurse Chelsea in tow.

"How is she?" He asks as he shuts and locks the door behind him and then looks over at us. It takes him a moment to piece together that Jaxon Gray is here. In his house. And then his face goes completely and utterly blank.

In the middle of my relief, I completely forgot about Corey and Jaxon's rivalry.

Corey's going to murder him.

Chelsea barely has time to give me a smile as she rushes into Mom's room, but I'm too occupied watching my brother's face turn a scary shade of angry red. I didn't even know that was possible.

"Luna, you have five seconds to tell me why Gray is standing in front of me right now." Corey's jaw tightens as well as his hands.

"He was, uh, in the neighborhood," I tell him.

Corey looks at me then. His expression unreadable to anybody but his family. "Luna?" The question in his tone is unmistakable.

"He knows."

"Don't worry, Stone, you can trust me." Although Jaxon truly means the words, Corey definitely takes it condescendingly.

Not even a second later, Corey's unreadable face turns furious. He grabs Jaxon by the throat and pushes him against the wall.

"Corey!" I gasp. "Stop! Stop it!"

He ignores me. Jaxon doesn't move. He doesn't even fight to get away. His eyes are locked on me, waiting for me to give him the okay to fight back. He's not getting it.

"How long did you think your secret would last?" Jaxon manages to ask. His eyes are on me, but the question is clearly for Corey.

My brother tightens his grip. I can see it in the way his knuckles turn white. "Don't you dare ask that, and don't you dare tell anybody either."

Fear claws up my throat for the second time today because Corey isn't usually a violent person, but there is nothing he wouldn't do for family. I know that deep in my bones.