Chapter 10 - Jonah Thought Being Chosen Meant He Had Betrayed Me
My brother stopped sleeping properly after the fire.
He started asking our aunt Tessa if I was angry at him.
At first, I didn’t understand why.
Then one night he came into the guest room where I was staying and stood beside my bed.
“I didn’t tell them to leave you.”
I sat up.
“I know.”
“They took me first.”
“I know.”
“I tried to tell Mom you were still inside.”
That part I had never heard.
“What did she say?”
Jonah started crying.
“She said Dad went back.”
I reached for him.
He flinched, not away from me but from his own guilt.
“I got the mask.”
I understood then.
He had seen the three masks afterward.
He knew one was meant for him.
Children are frighteningly good at turning adult failures into personal guilt.
I pulled him beside me.
“You were eight.”
“But they picked me.”
“You didn’t pick yourself.”
He cried harder.
“You’re my sister.”
“I know.”
That was the first thing about the whole disaster that felt uncomplicated.
Bennett and Corinne had built a hierarchy.
Jonah never had.
He had never asked to be loved at my expense.
May you like
I refused to let their choices destroy the one relationship in the family that had never been dishonest.
---
Related Stories
