Forbidden Read online

  Leah, I can’t think of an easy way to say this, so I’m just going to come right out with it. Your brother was adopted.

  What? Leah stared at the letter in confusion. It couldn’t be! It just couldn’t. But… She read the line again. Yes, it really said that. Really said that Owen was adopted. But how? And why? Well, read the rest of the letter, stupid. Eagerly, she did so.

  I imagine you’re sitting there with a shocked look on your face right now, which isn’t surprising. No one would ever guess it, I know. You and Owen look so much alike, how could anyone know that you aren’t truly siblings by blood? But it’s true.

  Back when your father and I first married, we wanted to start a family so badly. But no matter how we tried, nothing happened. I went to a fertility specialist, and he said I might never be able to conceive. That was when we started looking into adoption. We’d barely started to look, when lo and behold, a lovely young girl came forward with a beautiful baby boy she couldn’t care for. She let us have him freely with only one condition—that we never, ever under any circumstances tell him or anyone else that he was adopted. Your father and I even had to sign a legally binding agreement to that effect!

  Well, I’ve kept our promise all these years, but I feel the need to break it now. Once I’m gone, Owen needs to be told. I know what you’re thinking—why didn’t I send this letter to him? The answer is because we’ve grown so far apart these past few years. I know your brother has been busy with medical school and his own life, but I just don’t feel that I’m able to talk to him anymore. And besides, he needs someone to break this news to him gently. That will have to be you, my dearest Leah.

  I confess I have an ulterior motive in sending you this letter instead of Owen. I had also hoped to bring you two back together somehow. You were so close as children, and it hurt to see the way you grew apart. You need each other now that I am gone, and I hope and pray you find each other again as adults and learn to love each other the way you used to.

  Love,

  Mom

  Leah crumpled the letter in her fist and took a deep, gasping breath. So that we can learn to love each other? Oh, Mom, if only you knew.

  Unable to help herself, she started to cry—great, rasping sobs that shook her entire body and felt like they were tearing her apart from the inside out. All this time. All this time she and Owen had been fighting against what was a perfectly natural attraction. Tearing themselves up—especially Owen—over what they thought was an illicit, incestuous love, when there was no blood relation between them at all.

  And all this time I had the letter in my suitcase. If only I hadn’t been such a coward! If only I’d opened it sooner! And poor Owen. How is this going to affect him? To learn that Mom and Dad weren’t really his parents. It’s so strange. So traumatic. How can I tell him without hurting him? All those years and he never knew…

  Leah took a deep, hitching breath and tried to calm down. Forget about the past; she had to think of the future. And the main thing was that she had the letter now. She could show it to Owen and gently break the news. Then, once he was over the shock, maybe they could move on to other subjects. Like the fact that their love wasn’t wrong after all. That they could be together without breaking any taboos. They could even get married, she thought excitedly. Have a quiet little wedding with just the two of them. Go on a honeymoon and finally finish what they’d started at Owen’s loft.

  But that was a long way down the road, she was sure. First Owen would have to get over the shock of learning he was adopted. And Leah intended to be there for him every step of the way. She wanted to support him, to let him know she loved him as much as ever, despite the bad way they’d ended their last encounter.

  I have to tell him. Have to call him right now and set up a time to meet. I can’t tell him over the phone, of course. Have to convince him to see me face-to-face. That way I can take things slowly and sort of ease him into it.

  Just as she was searching for her cell phone, a sharp rap sounded at the flimsy front door. Leah jumped, startled by the noise that reverberated through the otherwise silent apartment. After going cautiously to the door, she peeked through the peephole to see Mr. Filcher, her new landlord, standing outside with a sheaf of papers in one hand and a toolbox in the other.

  He looked about the same as he had the first time she’d asked to see the apartment—balding and scruffy, with a huge, hairy belly hanging over the front of his too-small black pants. He wore a wifebeater that might have been white at one time. Now it was yellowed and covered in stains. It showed the thick slabs of his arms, and a patch of coarse black chest hair sprouted from the top.

  “Ms. DeMarko?” he called, rapping again with the hand that held the paperwork. “Got your lease papers here.”

  Leah’s hand hovered over the doorknob. For some reason she didn’t want to open the door. There was something she couldn’t define—a chill in the air. A feeling of wrongness that crept up her spine like an icy finger. But it was just Mr. Filcher, and though he was grubby and extremely unattractive, he didn’t strike her as dangerous.

  “Ms. DeMarko?” he said again. “Look, I don’t got all night.”

  Sighing, Leah opened the door a crack. “Yes, Mr. Filcher?”

  “Got your lease papers.” But instead of handing them to her, he took a step closer. “And I came to look at that leaky faucet too.”

  “The faucet?” Leah had almost forgotten about the leaky bathroom faucet she’d noticed when she first looked at the apartment. Of course, it didn’t really matter now, since she was sure she’d be moving out almost as fast as she’d moved in. She was positive Owen would ask her to come back as soon as she told him the good news.

  “Sure, the faucet. Gotta get it fixed. Drives up the water bill if you let it go.” He looked at her, his pale blue eyes somehow eager. “Won’t take but a second.”

  Leah frowned. What’s wrong with his eyes? Weren’t they brown before? “I’m sorry, but I just ran a bath in there, so I don’t think you can work on it right now,” she lied, thinking fast. “Maybe you could come back later—”Like after I’m out of this hellhole.

  “Nah, we can let it drain. I got time.” Before she could make another excuse or shut the door, he had pushed his way inside.

  “Mr. Filcher, really—” Leah began, but he had set the toolbox on the floor and was already getting something out of it. Her eyes widened when she saw what he had in his hands—a roll of silver-gray duct tape and a piece of yellow nylon rope.

  “Run, Leah! Get away!” The voice in her ear was so loud, it was nearly a shout. Leah wasn’t sure where it came from since there was no one standing beside her, but she didn’t care. The feeling of wrongness had grown into a pocket of freezing-cold air that enveloped her entire body.

  She turned and leaped for the half-open door, intending to get as far from her new landlord as fast as she could. She reached, her fingertips brushing the cheap wood of the door; she was almost out—

  A rough fist grabbed her by the hair and pulled so hard that Leah was yanked off her feet. Pain blinded her, and she landed flat on her back with a breathless gasp as all the air left her lungs.

  Suddenly Mr. Filcher was straddling her, leering down at her with a frightening grin that exposed brownish teeth that had somehow grown long and sharp. His pale eyes had red flames dancing far back in their piggy depths.

  “Now, you little angel cunt,” he said, his voice thick and distorted. “We’re going to have some fun.”

  * * *

  “Jael? Jael, can you hear me? I’m in terrible trouble here. Ariel’s been taken. By one of the upper-echelon demons, I think. He’s possessed a human, and he’s got her, and I can’t get to her. Because there are so many of them—too many of them—between me and her. Every time I cut one down, twenty more appear.”

  A listening silence, but no reply.

  “Jael, please! If you can hear me, come. And bring anyone you can to help. There are too many…too many.”