The Cursed Series, Parts 3 & 4 (Cursed #3-4) - Rebecca Donovan Page 0,41

were friends. I called him Uncle Kaden, growing up, when he visited the island. They were close, and so now, we are too. Spent last summer with him in London.”

His answer corroborates what we discovered in his room, but it doesn’t reveal anything useful. Like if Kaden’s his father. Or if his mother came between him and my mother. I press my lips together to restrain myself from asking more, not wanting to waste a question that’s not on our list. “Your turn.”

“I’m going to ask you a question that you don’t know the answer to. But I want you to find out.”

I tilt my head. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I’m not answering another of your questions until you do.”

My mouth rounds in disbelief. “Are you kidding?”

“No. I told you I need answers and that you’d be able to get them. So that’s what I need you to do.”

I roll my eyes, exasperated. “What’s the question?”

“What happened between our mothers? Why did they stop being friends?”

“And what? I’m just supposed to ask my mother randomly about a friend from eighteen years ago she never told me about?”

“Show her this.” Brendan holds up the picture of them on the sailboat. “Tell her you met Maggie’s son and that he had this picture. Go from there. Pay attention to how she reacts, even more than what she says.”

“I know how to question my own mother, thank you very much.” I snatch the picture from between his fingers. “That’s it then?”

“For now,” he answers smoothly.

“Then get out,” I demand, standing with my arms crossed. “And don’t come back—ever.”

He flashes an obnoxious smirk. “You can’t stay mad at me forever. I’m your brother. We need to look out for each other.”

I shoot daggers at him, currently feeling stubborn enough to hold this grudge an entire lifetime. “You don’t know that. Lily could be your sister.” But in my gut, I know she’s not.

“We have a connection, you and me. I’ve come to terms with it. It’s time you do too.”

I grumble incoherently and then repeat, “Get out.”

Brendan slips out silently. As soon as he leaves, I secure the dead bolt on the bathroom and double-check my door.

When I turn, I search the room again. “What were you doing in here?” I ask the psycho.

Then I see it. One of the frames on the bookshelf. The picture of me and my mother. Our eyes are scratched out. I shiver. So disturbing. I’m starting to wonder if the psycho could actually be dangerous.

When I remove the photo from the frame, there’s a loving message written on the back in big black letters.

I shove the picture in my desk drawer and collapse on my bed, flinging an arm across my eyes. The message isn’t very original, but it’s the anger that bothers me most. This chick, or maybe dude, really doesn’t like me, which is the understatement of the century. Except this time, it’s directed at both me and my mother. And now I know exactly what this is all about.

To make you hurt the way you hurt him. You cut out his heart and left him to die.

Why do you think he wants to know?” Grant asks when I tell him about Brendan’s question … after he finished going off about Brendan’s lack of respect and boundaries. He knows I wouldn’t hesitate to defend myself, but he wasn’t happy to hear Brendan had snuck in at three in the morning. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him. But truth always finds Grant, slipping out much too freely. “Do you think he blames your mother for his mother’s death?”

“That’s if she’s dead,” I counter, pulling my legs up and draping them across Grant’s lap.

We’re hidden away in a swing-hammock thing suspended from a branch of the majestic tree in the middle of the Court.

“I ran a search on her last night,” Grant admits. I sit up straighter. “I found her obituary. She didn’t die when he was four. She took her life a couple years ago, when Brendan was fourteen.”

“Why is he lying about everything?!” I restrain the scream bubbling up in the back of my throat.

Grant rubs my bare leg in attempt to calm me.

“We won’t know until you talk to your mom. And this isn’t about helping him, not really. It’s about you.”

I sigh. The last thing I want is to upset my mother after not seeing her for a month. Especially since she’s finally starting to feel better. But I’ve always treated her like