On Behalf of My Love

Chapter 1

Nazareth
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"Your eyes betray your lies." I have always wondered how words so venomous could drip out of such a pretty mouth. But it was those five words that corroded everything. In that moment, every defining second, every pivotal memory which only seemed to have consisted of her and us flashed before my eyes before we became nothing.

Everything we ever were turned to ash as soon as she turned her back to me and walked away. And I let her. Because she was right, even though I never understood it. I never knew how she saw right through me, her brown eyes permeating through every layer of my soul and latching onto the truth.

I never understood it. Not until now, staring at the black void that took up most of my father's eyes because in them I see everything but also nothing.

Years of guidance but also not a speck of recognition in them. He stares at me like I'm a stranger in our home and it's suffocating. It was just minutes ago when he said he was doing well but I can see it in his eyes that he's slowly fading.

I was told we had a few more years before it got to this; at least two. I haven't had time to prepare myself for the blow. But how do you prepare for the only person left who stuck by you through your worst, to forget who you are? The man I've looked up to my entire life, who had singlehandedly raised me into the man I am today, struggling to recognise me.

Jared Hale was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's 5 years ago. Since then, it's been a neverending battle with his health. The first 2 years were manageable, being in stage three, the worst that happened was him forgetting that he had left the stove on once.

And then from the moment he had to leave his job, there had been a steady decline with his health. I was only 20 when I had to put everything in my life on hold, leaving everything I loved behind, including her.

I never had a chance to think twice about it because as soon as she looked me in the eye, she knew what I had to do but couldn't bring myself to. So she left, inadvertently ripping out my heart along the way and taking what's rightfully hers. All that's left now is a dark abyss, taking up the space in my chest and my entire being.

Then, 3 years later, we're here and he's staring at me with a certain blankness that aches. I've witnessed him slowly slip away, but I never wanted to believe we'd ever reach this point.

Seeing my father slowly lose himself to this disease was torture.

His eyes drift over himself, staring down at the white quilt that draped over his lap. Without saying a word to me, he brings it over his shoulders before lying down. He flips himself so that his back is faced to me and falls into a deep sleep almost instantly even though it's only noon.

"I was right, wasn't I?" Eden's whispered voice broke the silence in the room. He remained leaned against the doorframe as I stayed rooted, staring at my father. "You know what this means, right?"

I don't respond to my brother. Instead, I stand and push past him, hoping he'd get the message that I didn't want to talk, least of all, to him.

"Nazareth," he trails behind me and when I reach the threshold of my room, he grabs me by the arm and spins me around to face him.

"What, Eden?" I hissed, flicking his arm off of mine as I stared him down.

We were both the same height, 6'3, something we got from our father but that's as far as our similarities go. His blonde hair was a stark contrast to my black, his blue eyes paler than my hazel and his frame leaner than mine.

No one would be able to tell we were related, ironic since we were twins.

"It's time we call Haven Grove," he says which does nothing to calm the brewing storm in my head.