Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Ryder’s POV

I spread Mom’s yellowed letter and the DNA report across the dining table. The papers looked small and fragile under the overhead light.

My brothers drifted in one by one, first Logan, then Grayson, and then Colton. No one spoke at first. They just stood there, eyes moving back and forth across the pages, reading the same lines over and over like they hoped the words would change if they stared long enough.

Silence stretched until it hurt.

Then everything broke.

Colton slammed his fist down so hard the table rattled. His voice came out low and rough, like it had been scraped raw. “This can’t be right. She’ s… she’s our sister? Full sister?”

Grayson dropped to his knees right there on the hardwood floor. His shoulders shook hard. Tears hit the ground in fast, dark spots. He didn’t try to hide them. He just kept staring at the report, whispering, “No… no, no, no.”

Logan pressed both hands over his face. A sound came out of him, half sob, half growl. His whole body trembled and he couldn’t say anything.

I stood at the head of the table. My voice shook when I spoke, but I forced the words out anyway. “We thought she was a disaster star. A curse. Something we had to push out. We treated her like an enemy. But she was our sister. Our full sister. And we… we broke her.”

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Chapter 7

The room filled with quiet, broken sounds, sniffles, shaky breaths, and the occasional choked sob.

Colton spoke first, voice thick. “Remember her birthday? The soup. Aunt Vanissa dumped it on her. We laughed. I laughed. I said she deserved it. God, I said she should starve instead.”

Grayson wiped his face with his sleeve. “I tripped her that night. Stuck my foot out like it was a joke. She hit the floor so hard. And I… I just kept laughing.”

Logan lowered his hands. His eyes were red. “I poisoned her food. Three times. Thought it was funny. Thought she’d puke and cry and that would make her go away. I never asked if she was okay after. Never once.”

I swallowed hard. My throat burned. “I ignored her. Every day. I let the rules stay on her wall. I told her the consequences were on her if she broke them. I carried her to the hospital that first time she tried to… and then I told her she’d ruined us twice. I told her she cost us money. Like she was nothing.”

We kept going, one after another, like we were taking turns confessing in some awful courtroom. Every memory came rushing back, the insults, the locked doors, the nights she ate cold scraps in secret, the way she flinched when any of us walked by. We remembered her kneeling on the floor, begging, tears streaming, and how we sneered down at her like she was dirt.

Colton pressed his forehead to the table. “We made her kill herself. We pushed her to do so. All of us. What kind of brothers do that?”

Grayson rocked back on his heels. “We will never be able to forgive ourselves for this.”

I stared at the DNA report until the numbers blurred. “Mom wanted me to

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