I Loved My Foster Brother, So I Fled

Chapter 1

I was a kid nobody wanted.

The only reason the Millers brought me home was because my birth chart matched their wealthy son's—a cosmic arrangement that traded my luck for a second chance at life and a respectable last name.

Then came my eighteenth birthday. I was tossed out, left to sink or swim on my own.

So the second Jonah re-entered my frame of vision, every instinct screamed at me to run.

"Selena."

He spoke my name, and the sound sent a sharp chill down my spine, pinning me to the floor.

Two strides were all it took for him to close the distance.

He towered over me, his gaze sweeping down my body from head to toe, slow and calculating.

"You really outdid yourself this time."

The words slipped through his teeth like a quiet threat.

I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. Head down, I just clenched the faded fabric of my work apron until my knuckles turned white.

"We're going home," he said, reaching for my wrist.

Before his skin could touch mine, my shift replacement stepped in between us.

"Who the hell are you? She's not going anywhere with you." My coworker, Aaron Donte, a college student from a nearby university, swatted his hand away, immediately putting himself in front of me like a shield.

I instinctively grabbed a handful of Aaron's sleeve, clinging to it like a lifeline.

"I'm her... brother."

Brother?

Hearing him say the word made me duck my head even lower. A bitter, soundless laugh caught in my throat.

It was the most pathetic joke of my life: an unwanted orphan, living off the scraps of her savior's family, shamelessly falling for her saintly, untouchable "brother".

Pure delusion. Utterly pathetic.

"Oh! You're her brother." Aaron let out a breath, visible relief washing over him. Noticing that I hadn't argued, he chuckled. "Man, Selena, for a second there, I thought he was an ex coming to cause trouble."

"Do you mind giving my sister and me a minute?" Jonah asked. His voice was smooth, warm—playing the protective older brother to absolute perfection.

I shook my head violently, panic rising in my chest.

Workplace politeness won out, though. Aaron just assumed it was a standard family spat. He clocked in, gave me a reassuring push, and nudged me out the front door of the convenience store.

"An ex-boyfriend?"

Outside, Jonah casually unbuttoned the top two buttons of his crisp dress shirt. He was showing off the faint, jagged scar I'd left on his collarbone years ago.

"Yeah."

I tore my eyes away from his chest, desperately fighting off the flood of memories, and breathed out the lie in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

"So, why did you break up?" he asked softly.

To anyone watching, it looked like a sweet, mundane moment between long-lost siblings catching up on lost time.

I went completely rigid, clinging to my silence like armor.

"Whatever. He was probably a loser anyway," he said after a quiet beat, offering me an easy way out like a good brother should.

I didn't want his mercy. A sudden, violent impulse burned through me—a desperate urge to rip away the last illusion of decency holding us together.

"Why do you think?"

I finally snapped my head up, forcing myself to look straight into those clear, infuriatingly unbothered eyes.

"Because I'm in love with my brother."