Chapter 149

NOAH “What?” Keith sounded stunned on the other end of the line. “Do you remember my birthday at Spago before I left to study abroad? Did Emma come that night?” I asked again, my voice hoarse and unsteady. “Noah, bro…” I got back into the car and closed the door behind me. The space felt suffocating. I leaned back in the driver’s seat and closed my eyes, my lips pressing together. So he remembered. That meant I really did say something. My birthday had always been the day I hated the most. Everyone would wish me a happy birthday, but there was never anything happy about it. How could there be? I was not supposed to be celebrating that day alone. I was supposed to share it with my twin brother, Elijah. As the years passed, fewer people remembered him. The kidnapping incident had been kept quiet. My family made sure of that. The world moved on, and eventually, so did the conversations about him. But we never did. Every year, my family still organized a birthday banquet. We would smile at