Fused With Him (The Merge #2)

Prologue

GUILTY. The word repeats through my mind as the sound of the judge’s gavel bangs heavily, echoing in the courtroom. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Guilty. The word keeps repeating. I know the judge is delivering the sentence, but I can’t concentrate on anything other than that one word.

I look across to my sister, Holly, my twin, my other half, and see the tears free falling down her face—her hands are trembling slightly.

Holly brings her eyes to meet mine. No words are needed.

I know exactly what is going through her head right now.

What the fuck are we going to do now? How do we survive this?

Holly is sitting on the other side of my mother, both of us grasping one of her hands in ours, knowing if we let go, even for a minute, she would crumble to the floor. My mother’s tears are not silent. Her cries I’m sure can be heard across the city.

As I sit here, repeating the word over and over in my head, I have to wonder how much one woman can take before she completely breaks. My mother is strong, probably one of the strongest women I know, but this last year, to say it’s been tough is an understatement.

My little brother Dylan was killed in a car accident.

My mum was driving home after a footy game when a drunk driver swerved into her lane.

She escaped with a broken leg, my brother, my baby brother who was only fifteen, died on impact.

Making the sign of the cross, I send a little prayer upwards as I think of my brother.

I’ve never been a very religious person; each prayer I’ve sent heavenly these past twelve months has gone unanswered and a bit of my faith has diminished alongside them.

There was a court case for the drunk driver, where he got off. He killed my brother and managed to get out of doing any time in a cell, where he bloody belonged. This destroyed my father, to know that the person who killed his son was out walking around free. It did not sit well with him.

My father decided to take matters into his own hands.

He followed the drunk home one day and shot him, point blank in the head.

A clear kill shot. I don’t feel any remorse for the drunk, maybe I should.

Maybe I’m a horrible person not caring that my dad took the life of another.

But that son of a bitch killed my brother and has led to the events of today.

To my family being torn apart even more.

At seventeen years old, I’ve just finished high school and should be out celebrating and living life to the fullest before I have to start university next year.

But as I hold my mother’s weeping body up, and attempt to listen as the judge drones on, all I can think is how am I going to survive this?

How are my mum and sister going to survive this?

My father has just been sentenced for murder. He’s been my rock my whole life, and now I have to figure out how to get by without him, without having his support and guidance, his unyielding love.

My mother’s scream startles me out of my thoughts and I watch as she falls to the floor, Holly dragged down with her force. I can see her heart breaking. They were supposed to grow old together. My mum and dad were the definition of soulmates, of true love.

As I watch my mother crumble, I make a promise there and then that I will never let a man have that kind of hold over me.

I will never get so attached to a man that my life would fall apart the moment they are no longer in it.

And I swear on everything holy that I will never let myself fall in love.