Aanya. He had called me that. As if he had forgotten all the days we played hide and seek and he would run behind me calling my name, Caera.
NOT AANYA!
Who was this Aanya?
The words struck me like a slap to the face. Aanya? My heart froze, and my feet stopped in their tracks, my breath caught in my throat. He was calling me by someone else's name. A name that wasn't mine.
"Aanya, don't leave me!" His voice broke, and his hands reached out frantically, as if trying to pull himself from Irene's arms, desperate to escape, desperate to find the person he was screaming for.
"Aanya, please—don't leave me!"
I staggered back as if I had been hit, my chest tightening with a pain so sharp I couldn't breathe. Aanya. He was calling for Aanya. Not me.
Not his sister. A name I didn't recognize, but his heart bled for her, not for me. The realization crashed over me like a tidal wave, and in that moment, the room spun around me.
