Chapter 31: Chapter 31

My first instinct is to yank her hand off me and fight against her but I'm suddenly frozen in complete shock, staring straight at her. My mouth falls open and when recognition flashes through my eyes, she chuckles quietly —

"You know who I am, don't you?"

"It's not possible." I mumble, searching her eyes further.

"What's happening? You know who she is? Ruby?" Uncle Tobias questions loudly. I drown his voice out, unable to tear my gaze away from hers. Her eyes are the colour of the ocean, so bright and beautiful if it wasn't for the hatred filling them. When I look into them, I see one person and one person only . . .

My father.

"Who are you?" I whisper, my voice trembling. The context of my words has flipped entirely knowing she shares the same blood as my Dad. Her grip on my chin doesn't loosen and she continues staring down at me, almost seething with anger.

The first thought that runs through my head is that Dad had another child and she's standing directly in front of me, trying to kill me.

"Who are you?" I repeat again, needing her to respond to me.

"I'm confused, I thought you knew her? Why are you asking who she is? What the hell is happening?" Woody questions from in front of me. Again I ignore him and continue searching her eyes, feeling like I'm staring directly at my father.

"How do you know him? Tell me!" I demand her. She forcefully yanks my face away, stepping backwards. Pain flares through my face but I can't pay attention to that when a million thoughts are swirling through my mind.

"Are you his daughter too?" I question, stating the obvious. She scoffs in response, her lips curling up in disgust. It's almost as if she's been planning this her entire life and now that it's happening, it's becoming overwhelmingly too real for her.

"Who's daughter?" Tobias questions, desperately trying to get my attention. I turn towards him, wondering whether he can enlighten the situation for me.

"Look at her eyes Tobias." I tell him flatly. He frowns deeply, his eyes flickering over to land on her. She slowly turns towards him, almost amused by our reactions. It takes Uncle Tobias precisely two seconds before his eyes flash with recognition and his face turns pale —

"Holy fucking shit."

"Yep, holy fucking shit." I repeat. In front of me, Woody remains entirely clueless, his face a picturesque moment.

"Can someone catch me up to speed?" He says, sounding annoyed from being kept in the dark. If he'd ever met my father, he'd know exactly what we were thinking. It's almost as if their eyes have been copied and pasted.

"Am I your sister? You tried to fucking kill me!" I say angrily, kicking out at her. She rolls her eyes, taking a step back to avoid my pathetic attempts to hurt her.

"Oh my God, she's your sister?!" Woody exclaims, his eyes widening like two saucers. She turns towards him, giving him a look of complete disgust.

"I'm not your sister, you fucking dimwits! I'm Jake's sister!" She reveals. For a moment, a silence falls upon all four of us. We all sit and stare at her, wondering how the hell my Dad has a sister we didn't even know existed. I'm the first one to break the silence —

"Uncle Tobias, you didn't think she'd be a suspect?! A whole other sibling who's apparently been AWOL our entire lives?" I ask him in complete disbelief. He remains frozen in shock, his face still crumpled up in confusion. He turns to face me slowly as my words snap him back to reality.

"J-jake doesn't have a sister." He stutters helplessly.

"You didn't know she existed?" I ask him, warily glancing at my 'Auntie' from the corner of my eye. She almost seems bored with the entire conversation, her hand perched on her hip.

"I'm Jake's sister. My birth name is Jasmine Melvin. I was given up for adoption when I was two months old. Ring a bell?"

There's a prolonged silence in the room before Uncle Tobias finally breaks it —

"Holy fucking shit." He repeats in the exact same tone. I glare at him, wondering how he managed to forget an entire other sibling of my fathers.

"I remember you." He says firmly, his eyes flickering over Jasmine Melvin's appearance. I warily study her, completely bewildered that she shares the same blood as my father . . . Shares the same blood as me.

"That's great." Jasmine responds, sounding completely bored. I narrow my eyes at her, wondering what type of crazy it takes to kidnap your entire family and hold them hostage whilst trying to kill the youngest one.

Jasmine Melvin seems completely sane. . .

"I don't care who you are. All I care about is my parents. Where are they?" I snap at her, getting straight to the point. My words seem to ignite her anger and she breathes in sharply —

"That is my exact problem with you all! You don't care who I am, you've never cared who I am!"

"Spare me the sob story! Where are my parents? I swear to God if you've hurt them! — " My words are cut off as she lunges forward, slapping my right cheek hard. The skin instantly stings and I hiss in protest, gritting my teeth together.

"She's your niece! Why are you hurting her? You crazy bitch." Woody yells in protest. I glare up at her from under my lashes, seeing an evil in her eyes that I've never witnessed before.

"Because she wants revenge." I mutter quietly, holding her stare. Her blue eyes almost lighten up in a sick twisted manner and she points straight at me, beginning to laugh with a loud rumble —

"You know, despite being an idiot sometimes, you have your clever moments. I figure you get that from your Dad."

I feel the anger bubble away inside me at the mention of my father and I lunge towards her again, not caring that I'm tied up and forcefully get pulled back into place.

"Don't you dare speak about him! Where is he? Where's my Mum?"

She scoffs at me in response, walking away before retrieving a wooden stool and bringing it forward. She positions it between all three of us before taking a seat and propping her elbows on her knees.

"I think it's time we have a family bonding moment, don't you?"

"Screw you." I spit at her, desperately wanting my parents to be alive. When I first laid eyes on Jasmine, I didn't think she was capable of causing pain but now that I've seen the evil inside her, I begin to panic for my parents wellbeing. I don't care that my Dad has an entire sibling we know nothing about . . .

All I care about is finding them safe.

"Listen here, little girl. You're going to sit there and be quiet whilst I talk otherwise I'll head straight to where I've got your parents and slit their throats." Her eyes burn into mine and I immediately silence, sensing the truth behind her twisted threat. Part of me relaxes in relief from hearing that my parents are still alive despite their future being unknown. I glance at Uncle Tobias to see whether he's on the same page as me and he gives me a small nod to let me know he is.

"Go ahead Jasmine." Uncle Tobias says quietly, making time for her now that we know my parents are alive. She breathes in deeply, remaining silent for a second as she gathers her thoughts. I watch her curiously, noticing how damaged she looks. Not her physical appearance but rather her entire demeanour... The pain behind her eyes.

Unfortunately it's also mixed with absolute bat shit crazy.

"You all fail to realise I've never had a family, not a single soul. Your father was my only friend growing up and even he left me once Peggy moved." Jasmine says, her eyes glazed over as she stares off into the distance. I immediately frown in confusion, her words making no sense to me.

"Who's Peggy?" I ask her quietly. I know she threatened for me not to talk but now that I was showing interest in her life, she didn't seem to mind me asking questions.

Self centred people who pity themselves love nothing more to talk about their problems and their problems only . . .

"Peggy was the woman who adopted me. I'd love to say she was an angel who saved my life but the devil in disguise describes her better. She couldn't have children of her own so I became her one and only child. I was raised completely behind closed doors with no interaction with other humans beside from her fucked up family. Do you know how lonely that is?" Jasmine says angrily, staring directly at me. I slowly shake my head and she takes it as her cue to continue —

"I remember Jake visiting me as a child. I loved his visits because he was fun and someone other than Peggy's family. I didn't know at the time he was my biological brother, Peggy introduced him as a friend. He'd always bring me presents and I tried to build up the courage to tell him what was happening but Peggy always lurked around... So I wrote it down. I had a diary that I was going to give to him and ask him to save me but one morning, Peggy found it hid under my mattress. She immediately packed up our things and moved us away." Jasmine says, the distant look re-appearing in her eyes.

"Jake never visited us again after that. I haven't seen him for years . . . I'd almost forced myself to forget about him until Peggy revealed who he was on her death bed. She died six months ago and I couldn't be any happier about it." Jasmine grins, her eyes flashing with a deep hatred. She snaps her head towards me and I almost recoil backwards from the intensity in her blue eyes.

"When she told me he was my brother, I wanted to find him and reunite with you all. When I began looking for him, I discovered he had an entire family I wasn't part of growing up."

"We didn't know you needed help." Tobias interrupts, his face almost taken over by complete shock. I don't blame his reaction.

"That's bullshit! Jake knew! Jake saw the life I lived with Peggy to an extent and I would have told him all of it if she hasn't have found that stupid diary and forced us to move! He knew and he still didn't do anything about it." Jasmine argues back, her anger directed towards Tobias.

"It doesn't make sense to why you kidnapped him and Emily." Uncle Tobias hits back at her. He struggles against his restraints desperately —

"And also tied us up."

Jasmine stands up, kicking the stool she was sat on. It falls over, creating a loud bang that echoes through the atmosphere of the warehouse.

"Because you're all fucking idiots!" She yells, throwing her hands up in complete dismay. I turn to watch Woody who upon noticing me looking at him, widens his eyes and gestures at her with a small nod. Despite the seriousness of the situation, my lips flicker upwards into a small smirk.

Call it a Melvin trait to find bat shit crazy a form of humour.

"I track you all down and despite having an entire family. . . Nobody sees each other! You ran away to save Dimples over here and completely abandoned Jake and Emily and your only niece. Ivory separated herself with her drug business and you won't even speak to her! She's your sister!" Jasmine exclaims at Uncle Tobias. He narrows his eyes further, confusion filling them.

"So you did this. . . For what?"

"To bring you all back together. You were one of the most tight knit families and now you're practically strangers to one another." Jasmine says passionately. My eyes widen at her reason for kidnapping my parents and I scoff in complete surprise. I can't even begin to comprehend the thinking behind her actions.

"I bought you all together so you could find Jake and Emily and it was supposed to work! We could have all been a family, something I've wanted my entire life." Jasmine says, desperation lining her voice. I stare at her with my mouth hung open, probably resembling a dead fly. A shocked silence falls upon us and Jasmine turns to look at each person, her chest rising and falling.

"I like that you called me Dimples." Woody says casually when she turns towards him. I turn to glare at him and he shrugs his shoulders in response, sinking further towards the floor.

"That is the most craziest shit I've heard in my entire life! The entire sixteen years I've been born, I have never heard such a bullshit excuse! You can not justify your crazy actions with wanting to bring the family back together again!" I yell at her, the shock slowly wearing off so I can speak my true mind.

"It won't work either." Uncle Tobias adds in quietly. Jasmine whirls towards him, her finger outstretched —

"Aha! That's the reason why I lured you to this warehouse. When I realised you and Ivory would never get over the killing of Trish, I knew it was hopeless. All of my efforts are for nothing!" She says angrily. I stutter in disbelief, turning to give Woody the are you hearing this? look. He mouths over to me — "Cray cray."

I couldn't agree more.

"So what's your plan now? Ivory and I will never be family again." Tobias says firmly. Jasmine almost stomps her foot like an enraged toddler, the fury practically steaming out of her ears.

"You're all delusional not realising what you have!" She yells, her eyes beginning to fill with frustrated tears. If possible, my eyes widen further and I glance around the warehouse quickly, scanning to see if there's any cameras rolling. . .

Someone should really be recording this shit.

Jasmine angrily glares at all three of us, her chest rising and falling as the anger sparks adrenaline to run through her body. She's probably imagined this moment her entire life, being reunited with her biological family only to find out they aren't really a family anymore at all . . .

Mix the disappointment with crazy and you have a barrel of bad news.

"If I cant have the family I've always wanted, I want revenge!" Jasmine yells, reaching up to wipe away her tears hastily. She whirls around until she stops at me, her eyes burning holes through mine. Uncle Tobias' eyes flicker over to me and I watch as the colour from his face drains. It's like he knows what's about to come and before he can open his mouth and warn me, Jasmine pulls out a gun from her pocket.

I find myself staring down the barrel of a pistol, aimed directly between my eyes at the age of sixteen years old.

Jasmine's lips curl up in satisfaction, her pretty face twisted and turned into something sinister with the amount of hate cursing through her body. She places a hand on the trigger of the gun, her fingers twitching for revenge —

"And you're how I'm going to get it."