My sister, Leona, has always been the dramatic one. Growing up, she loved making everything seem bigger than it was—turning minor family arguments into full-blown betrayals, acting like she knew things the rest of us didn’t. So when she called me one night and said, “I have a secret that could destroy our family,” I rolled my eyes.

“Then maybe don’t tell me,” I joked. But she didn’t laugh.

“It’s about you, Nico.” Her voice was low, serious. “And you need to know.”

That got my attention. I told her to just spit it out, but she hesitated. Said it was better if we talked in person. So the next day, I met her at a café, my stomach twisted in knots.

She didn’t sound like herself when I walked in. Her usual dramatic flair was gone, replaced by something darker, something I hadn’t seen before. She was sitting in the corner, fidgeting with her coffee cup, her eyes not meeting mine.

I sat down, trying to mask my nerves with a smile. “Okay, Leona. You’ve got me on edge. What’s going on?”

She took a deep breath and glanced around, making sure no one was listening. “Nico,” she started, her voice shaking just a little, “I don’t know how to say this, but… I’ve found out something about you. Something you don’t remember, but it could change everything.”

I laughed nervously, thinking she was just trying to get a reaction out of me. “What are you talking about? I’m not hiding anything from anyone.”

Her face turned pale. “It’s about Mom. And Dad. And you.”

I raised an eyebrow, confused. “What do you mean, about me?”

She looked up at me, her eyes wide with an emotion I couldn’t quite place. “Nico… you weren’t supposed to find out. But I couldn’t keep it to myself anymore.”

I waited, my heart thumping in my chest. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I could tell by the way she was speaking that this wasn’t some petty gossip or imagined drama.

Leona glanced around again, lowering her voice. “You weren’t the first child, Nico.”

I blinked, trying to make sense of her words. “What? What are you talking about? Of course I was.”

She shook her head slowly, as if the weight of the secret she was carrying was finally getting to her. “No, you weren’t. You had an older sibling. A brother. His name was Marco.”

My world stopped. My mind refused to process what she was saying. “What… what do you mean? I don’t have any brother named Marco. I would’ve known.”

She sighed, the exhaustion in her eyes making my heart ache for her. “Mom and Dad never told you, Nico. They erased him from the story of our family. But I found out when I was a teenager. They had him when they were young—before they had us. Marco was… different. There were things about him, things they couldn’t explain, and when he was just a little boy, he disappeared.”

My throat went dry, and I felt a lump forming. “Disappeared? What are you talking about? You’re telling me there’s an entire part of our family that no one ever mentioned?”

Leona looked up at me, her eyes desperate. “I don’t know all the details, but Marco’s disappearance wasn’t normal. Mom and Dad told me they had to let him go because he was ‘too much to handle.’ They never explained what they meant by that, but the secrecy, the way they just pushed it all away—it didn’t sit right with me.”

My pulse quickened as the pieces of the puzzle seemed to shift into place. I didn’t understand. It didn’t make sense. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how little I actually knew about my parents’ past. They had always kept things from us, their lives before us a mystery. I had never questioned it. Until now.

“Leona…” I whispered, struggling to understand. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Why now?”

Her eyes filled with tears. “Because I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want you to feel like you were missing something, like there was something wrong with you. But you need to know, Nico. This… this secret could destroy everything we thought we knew about our family.”

I sat back in my chair, my mind spinning. I was on the verge of asking her more questions when she added, almost as an afterthought, “I found a letter. From Marco. It was hidden in one of Mom’s old books. It’s dated right before he disappeared. He wrote about something terrible, something he discovered about himself.”

My head spun. “What did it say? What could he have found out?”

Leona hesitated, then nodded, pulling out a small envelope from her bag. It looked old, the edges worn. I could feel my heart pounding as she slid it across the table toward me.

I took the letter, my hands shaking as I unfolded it. The writing was scrawled hastily, the ink smeared in some places. But the words were clear.

“Dear Mom and Dad,

I’m sorry. I found out the truth. I know what I am. I know why I feel the way I do. And I know I can never be part of this family again. The truth is, I’m not like you. I never was. I’m not human.

I’m leaving. I don’t expect to be found.

Please understand. This is something I have to do.

Goodbye.

Marco.”

I couldn’t breathe. I stared at the words, unable to comprehend them. What did Marco mean? Not human? What was he talking about? My head was spinning, and everything that had seemed so normal suddenly felt wrong.

Leona watched me closely. “I don’t know what he meant, Nico. But this letter… it’s the only clue we have. Marco must have known something about himself that was too much for Mom and Dad to handle. That’s why they pushed it all away, erased him from our lives. And that’s why they never told you.”

I dropped the letter on the table, my mind reeling. I needed answers. But I didn’t know where to start.

The next few days were a blur. I couldn’t focus at work. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Marco’s letter. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something dark was hidden beneath the surface of our family’s story. I needed to confront Mom and Dad, but the thought terrified me. What if they had been lying to me my whole life? What if there was something I couldn’t unsee?

Finally, I gathered the courage. I sat down with both of them, the letter resting in my hands.

“Mom. Dad. We need to talk.”

They looked at each other, their faces stiff. “What is it, Nico?” Mom asked, her voice tight.

I didn’t waste time. I slid Marco’s letter onto the table between us. “You’re hiding something. I need to know the truth.”

For a long moment, neither of them said anything. Then Dad sighed deeply, his face heavy with regret.

“Nico,” he said quietly, “you deserve to know. We never wanted you to carry the burden of Marco’s story. But we can’t keep running from it.”

And then, they told me everything. How Marco had been born with strange abilities, things that couldn’t be explained. And how, when he reached a certain age, he started acting erratically, uncontrollably. They didn’t know what to do. Fearing for his safety and for ours, they made the decision to send him away, never to return. They had tried to protect us, to keep our lives as normal as possible.

But that was the secret they kept hidden from me, from all of us.

I left that conversation feeling numb. But in a strange way, I also felt free. I finally understood why my parents had been so secretive, so protective. I had spent my whole life feeling like something was off, like I was missing a piece of myself. But now I knew why.

The truth had been buried so deep, hidden in plain sight. But by uncovering it, I had finally found the peace I needed.

And in a strange way, the truth had set me free.

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