Heartbreak Lover (Broken Hearts Academy #2) - C.R. Jane Page 0,1

with the urgency in my voice. “Are you a family member?”

“I’m his fucking brother,” I hissed, exhausted myself. I glanced around towards the waiting room, half expecting Everly to be there waiting. But she was nowhere to be seen.

“Identification?” she asked, and I pulled out my duct tape wallet that Everly and I made together and handed her the ID.

She finally handed it back to me after typing on her keyboard for what felt like fifteen hours. “He’s in room three-oh-five. The elevators are to your left.”

“Thanks,” I answered insincerely before racing to the elevator. I took a quick look into the mirrored walls to check the color of my eyes. I breathed an inward sigh of relief when they looked as blue as ever. I couldn’t really tell when I was going to get speedy. I didn’t recognize that I was acting different. But my eyes could usually tell me. Now was not the time for me to descend into one of my cycles.

The elevator doors finally opened, and I felt like I’d been to war and back by the time I got to Caiden’s room. I came to a screeching halt when I saw Caiden, lying there on the hospital bed, his body covered in blood, bruises, and bandages.

Phantom pain crawled all over my body, as if the twin connection was real and I experienced a portion of what he had to be feeling.

He was lying there, as still as a statue, and my heart felt like someone had reached inside my chest and grabbed it in a stranglehold.

My parents were holding each other in an armchair by the bed. When my mother looked up from my dad’s shoulder and saw me, she burst into fresh tears and jumped up from the chair. She rushed at me, throwing herself in my arms, her sobs filling up the whole room.

“Mom, tell me he’s okay,” I choked out. I didn’t know what I would do if something was majorly wrong with him. Caiden was my twin, half of my soul. I couldn’t imagine a world where he wasn’t by my side.

I pushed away the feeling of guilt that was battering at my skin over Everly. Caiden would understand when I told him how I felt. He would understand that I needed Everly to breathe. It had never been like that for him.

He would understand.

“He’s just sleeping, son,” my father said, walking over to where I was trying to comfort my mother and clapping me on the shoulder. For a second, it almost looked like he was going to hug me. I would have known things were really bad then. Since the moment that I’d received my bipolar diagnosis, I hadn’t received another hug from my father.

I had come to peace with that.

I breathed out a sigh of relief that my mother’s hysterics didn’t seem to match the situation.

Just asleep. I could work with that. Whatever Caiden needed, I would be there for him. Physical therapy, driving him around, bringing him food…whatever he needed.

Except her, a voice laden with guilt whispered in my head.

My father extricated my still sobbing mother off of me, and I pulled out my phone, frowning when I saw that Everly hadn’t responded back to me yet.

This wasn’t like her. Sighing, I sent her another text before returning my phone to my pocket and turning my attention back to Caiden and my parents.

“What’s wrong with him? What happened? Why was he driving in the storm?” I asked, the questions falling out of me quicker than they could answer.

My mother’s sobs abruptly stopped, and anger crashed over her features. She opened her mouth to say something, and then we heard a low groan.

Caiden was waking up.

My mother and father hovered around his bed, gazing at him hopefully. I took a step forward to join them but then stopped, something making me hesitate. I gazed at the picture the three of them made, the adoring parents with their golden son. It was a little ironic that I was the one that had inherited the golden looks. It had been the three of them since my issues had started, with me standing on the outside looking in.

I shook off the sick feeling I had and forced myself to walk to Caiden’s bedside.

He groaned again. His eyes slowly blinked open, and my mother started crying again, this time hopefully tears of relief.

His gaze flicked over to mine, confused, and I let out the breath I’d been holding since I’d heard the