Page 128 of Hidden

“I’m not on the floor,” I argued. “And what do you mean ‘all day’? We just had breakfast an hour ago,andI was sleeping before that. I haven’t been hiding.”

“You were sleeping?” Bryce scowled, his eyes tailing over me in disapproval. “That’s even worse. Is that why you’re still wearing those unsightly pajamas?”

“Finn was there,” I said, not commenting on his lack of fashion sense. “Doesn’t he have stuff to do with Damen? So it wasn’t that late.”

“Finn was there because he was waiting to see you.” Brayden rolled his eyes.

“Which, by the way, was also something I wanted to talk to you about.” Bryce crossed his arms, bracing himself on the corner of my vanity. “Nobody outside of the family should be seeing you in your pajamas.”

I made a face at him, noting the warning look that Brayden shot in his direction, but decided not to comment.

It didn’t matter if Finn was there or not. He hadn’t even looked at me anyway.

As for the others—Bryce had better step down real quick or I’d ask Titus to eat him.

“Who cares.” Bryce changed the subject as he gestured toward me.

Sighing, as there was nothing better to do, and the more quickly we got this over with, the faster he’d leave, I dutifully went to the window seat. “Brayden and I were discussing some of our previous oversights regarding you—”

My eyes widened as my alertness sharpened.

Had they really? I hoped they accounted for them all. I might have to go over the list with them; I had noted at least ten transgressions already, not disregarding the pompous way he spoke to me.

Plus, he had the audacity to poke fun at my pajamas. These were vintage!

“—and we realized that in all the confusion, neither one of us hadactuallythought to go over the basics with you.”

Oh. So he planned on lecturing me about something? My stomach knotted—I hated showing weakness to him. “What do you mean?”

“Our family.” Brayden sat on the bench beside me. “Until yesterday, we didn’t realize that we never told you anything about our family or our life. You didn’t even know about our mother.”

The last of my annoyance faded away, and my hands twisted in my skirt. It was a wonder I wasn’t shaking.

“Why didn’t youask,Bianca?” Brayden face turned sad, and his hand gripped mine.

Bryce stood still, his arms crossed and expression expectant. Meanwhile, Brayden watched me, his gaze unwavering. Sympathy swirled in his gaze, and it caused a shameful heat to fill me.

“You know,” Brayden began. “Father wants to—”

I cut him off. “I don’t want to talk about him.” Regardless of the reason, a tiny part of me still felt as though he’d betrayed me.

The large room seemed to shrink around us. Even the naked angels on the ceiling were laughing at my cowardice.

But I didn’t care. I wasn’t ready to talk about my father.

Brayden’s brows furrowed, and he glanced at Bryce.

“Tell me about my mother.” I latched on to their offering of another topic. This was information I was too shy to seek out on my own, but now they were here, trying to reach out.

This, I could handle.

“What do you want to know?” Brayden tilted his head.

“Everything.”

Wasn’t it obvious?

“Um…” He looked at Bryce again.