The Queen They Buried

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Emery thought, ‘She was, what-fifteen? A kid from an orphanage suddenly got into a family full of strangers. Of course her first instinct was to go home when she was abandoned.

“That isn’t some kind of power play. It’s just human.’

Emery laughed bitterly. “Bryan, Mom told me once-when you were little, she took you to a friend’s house and forgot about the time while playing cards. She left you there for hours. You cried your heart out, screaming for your mom.”

Bryan frowned. He didn’t get why Emery was bringing that up now.

“You were like twelve. Not exactly a toddler,” Emery added.

Emery continued, “You hearing yourself right now? Even you were crying in a house full of familiar people, and you were older than Aubree. But now you expect a fifteen-year-old girl, lost for ten years, dropped into a strange place, not to freak out? You were yelling for Mom. All she wanted was to go home. What did she do wrong?”

Emery felt a crushing sadness. He’d only heard about that incident through others later.

Back then Emery had thought, ‘What’s the big deal? Now it all just feels sick.

‘So that’s how it worked: the favored one got comforted for every little thing, while the one who actually suffered got told they needed more discipline.

little attention. You knew Daxton made her do it. You mocked her, but did you ever stop to think-she got lost at five, hadn’t seen her family in ten years. Maybe all she wanted was someone to notice

She could kneel in the cold all night if that meant being acknowledged. Carmen fakes a heart problem out of guilt, and you feel bad for her. But the kid who got lost for ten years doesn’t deserve

a while, the room went

eyes widened a little. Something seemed to click-but he still didn’t think he

He just felt cold all

had thought they all just misunderstood Aubree. But now Bryan was saying it out loud-they’d known. They just chose to

wake someone who’s pretending to

how much Aubree cried or begged back then, nobody cared. If it’s Aubree, then it has to be

Aubree turns out… I’m part of

siblings. So how does it

police to help look for her…” Bryan

looking for?” Carmen’s voice suddenly came

bruise on Bryan’s face and gasped.

Suddenly, he didn’t know how to face Carmen

Chapter 26

smiled. “Nothing, I tripped. Carmen, what are you doing

sheepish. She replied, “Sorry, Bryan.

happened?” Bryan asked right