You Are Mine Little Sister (by Syra Tucker) novel Chapter 202

Her eyes flooded instantly.

"You remember me!"

She rushed forward and wrapped me in a hug so tight it stole every bit of air from my lungs.

I knew I'd have tried to pull away so I could breathe before, but I didn't. I hugged her too because my soul had missed her.

"My God, look at you." Tears shimmered in her eyes when she finally pulled back. "You look so..."

Her hands moved over me in small, frantic checks. My short strands. My cheeks. The bone at my neck.

"What happened to your eyes?" She whispered.

Another lady slid in beside her. "Please, tell me you remember me. Otherwise, I'm killing Ver tonight."

A laugh burst out of me It was hard not to remember someone like her. "Ruby?"

"Yesssss!" She stuck her tongue out at Veronica. "I told you she was gon remember me. Hater!"

I hugged her before she proposed it. God, this felt like being alive again.

I looked past her shoulder to the two women staring at me with judgy eyes. Marovelle and Rosaline. Davis stood off to the side with his wife and child. Even my colleagues from work were here.

How in God's name had this happened? Why would the monster, of all people, even do this?

"Marv!" I ran to her for a hug, but her hand was out, stopping me before I could reach her.

"No. You don't get to touch me."

"Marv..."

"You come any closer, girl, and I'll give you the spanking your mama never did."

I looked at Rosaline for help, but even she looked pissed.

"Well, what were you expecting, Rali?" Rosaline said. "We thought we were one big family. Then, you just ran off and abandoned us without a word."

Oh...

Marovelle took over. "I understand you were scared after seeing those guys and didn't feel safe. I'm not completely against you running—even if it hurt me. But what I'm against is you keeping it a secret from me. Do you have any idea how worried we were!? If kind Dominic hadn't come over to explain things to us, I'd probably be in the hospital by now, fighting off a stroke."

I turned subtly to glance at Void. Of course he had a smug expression on.

The son of a bitch. So, he actually told them I ran away, whereas he was the one who abducted me.

Well, it isn't completely far from the truth, Rali. You did try to leave without telling them, remember?

"I'm... I'm deeply sorry." I turned to them. "You probably won't understand, but I didn't have much of a choice. I was just...scared and didn't want to involve you in my mess."

"You were scared?" Marovelle scoffed. "Scared of who exactly? You really think a few touts are enough to handle me? Rosaline, tell her who I was."

"Well, my sister used to beat those niggas' asses back in the day. Parents even hired her to deal with their misbehaving sons."

My jaw dropped. Wow... I couldn't even doubt that. Marovelle 'did' look like someone who could snap a man in half with her bare hands.

Rosaline continued listing her exploits proudly while Marv nodded along, her hands planted on her thighs like a retired warrior remembering her battles.

"But like I've been saying, it's 'was.'" Rosaline finished. "She 'used' to be all that when she was younger. Now I'm damn sure she'd land in the hospital if she tried to fight anyone."

"He did something I can never forgive. He knows I'll hate him forever; that's the reason he's been holding me against my will. Although, it's not the first time he's abducted me, it's the first time I'm planning to escape him for good." I took a deep breath. "Void killed my parents."

Ruby gasped.

"Of course, he kept that from you," I went on. "When he was younger, he was hired by my mother's sister to kill them, purely out of envy."

Ruby's hand went over her mouth. "Oh, my God..."

"This is something I can never forgive. Now, I don't know what his plans are, but I'm not going to sit around and let him rot me in captivity for the rest of my life, because that's what it'll take to keep me with him."

Veronica hadn't reacted the way I expected.

Either she was hiding it too well… or she wasn't shocked at all.

"Rali..." She brushed her fingers through her hair. "About that, there's more to the story than you know."

That was the same thing Void had said.

"You know about this already?"

"I do. Long before now." She paused for a moment. "Listen, I actually didn't want to do this, but Void insisted that I be the one to tell you."

"To do what? Tell me what exactly?"

"The truth, Rali." Her throat bobbed. "I don't even know if you're ready for it, but at this point, I think you just have to know."

I wasn't liking the sound of this anymore.

"Your mother is still alive."