Remind Me

Chapter Thirty-Four

"Owen," I warn, my head spinning in circles. "What's going on right now?"

"Why don't we sit down," he asks, putting a hand on my shoulder. I shake it off as quickly as he put it there. I don't want him to lay a finger on me until I know exactly what this all is. He has a twin brother?

Owen sighs, shoving both hands in his pockets. He leads me down the lawn and towards a little outdoor dining area. He pulls out a chair for me and moves to the other side of the small table to sit down himself.

"Okay, Brinley, I need you to be patient with me," Owen says slowly. "And I need you to try to keep your temper under control until I finish every word of my explanation."

I purse my lips. "This had better be good, Owen. How could you not mention that you have a twin brother?"

"That isn't the only thing I didn't mention to you," Owen frowns, eyes looking sad. "That's only the beginning."

"Owen-"

"Please, just let me talk. I need to get this out," Owen says anxiously. "Not only me, but my family and yours kept an entire section of your life a secret from you."

I stare at him in disbelief. What could possibly be a good enough reason to take away a whole portion of my memories?

"Brinley," Owen catches my attention again. "You didn't lose your memory by jumping out of a car."

My eyes widen in shock. "What?"

"That did happen, though," Owen says, "You did jump because of the nasty things I said you. But that was hardly the beginning."

This is insane. This is insane. Was everything they told me a lie? I move further away from Owen slowly.

"You weren't too badly injured by that, mostly you were shaken up. And you were still very angry with me. So angry, in fact, that you broke up with me officially. And then you decided that you wanted to make me mad. The most mad you possibly could. So you began dating my brother, Ian," Owen sighs again, looking at the ground instead of me.

I don't see why they couldn't have told me at least this far into this story. It makes me angry and annoyed at everyone in my life.

"Let me tell you," Owen glances over at where Ian is on the pavilion with the girl. "Ian wasn't a great person. At all. We were nothing alike. That guy was horrible to you. As bad as Jonathan. And yet, you wouldn't admit that to anyone. You wanted to see me angry, and you succeeded greatly."

"Did you hide this from me so you could stay my boyfriend? That you wouldn't have another distraction in your way of getting back to me?" I ask, anger flowing through me.

"No," Owen says quickly. "Oh, gosh, no. I wouldn't do that. Listen, this is what actually happened. You walked in on him making out with a different girl, Rena, and she happens to be sitting right there." He gestures to the two people on the pavilion. "You caught him in the act of cheating. And then he was hitting you and he told you that if you told anyone about this, he would kill you."

"Why would he threaten that?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Because my mom said that if he would step out of line again, he would be shipped to military camp for a year," he sighs. "And then I saw all the bruises you'd received when you came home and demanded to know what they were about. You wouldn't tell me. So I went straight up to Ian, who was visiting with Rena at his apartment. You followed me there, begging me not to go inside. He assumed you told me, and he suddenly got so mad. He was yelling at you and cussing loudly and then all of a sudden you were out the window."