Secret Of The Rose (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

relationship with the twin’s dad.
    My gaze traveled farther along the family tree, and I saw my father’s name and birth date listed. But there was extra writing around my dad’s name. Beneath the date of his birth in 1964, I read in smaller lettering the name: W. Sutherland Born:1967.
    Right below that, his marriage was noted to my mother Susan, and the year of the wedding was listed as 1988. I ran my finger along to the right of my father’s line on the tree and saw that there were two prongs for children filled out.
    Shocked, I promptly bobbled the book.
    “What?” I gasped. Merlin hopped out of the trunk and came to sit next to me. “ Two children?” I whispered and tried to steady the book on the edge of the open trunk.
    I sat there in that beam of sunlight with my heart pounding and made myself look carefully again. There was my name entered: Autumn Rose Bishop. Born: September 23, 1990. And on the line above was an entry marked as: Son. Born: 1985.
    “No. They would have told me this ,” I said, and felt tears rise to my throat. I double checked the date written for my parent’s marriage. It was clearly listed June 3, 1988. That was right as far as I knew.
    Thinking fast, I did the math. If there had been a child born to my father in 1985, my dad would have been around twenty-one years old. And that child had been born three years before he’d married my mother.
    The proof of it was right in front of my eyes. ‘Son. Born: 1985’. That meant that I’d had a brother. I continued to focus on my father’s branch of the family tree and realized that with the positioning of the entries, W. Sutherland was probably the mother of my father’s son. So, technically, that baby would have been my half-brother.
    “But what had happened to the baby?” I said, letting Merlin climb into my lap. The entry only said ‘Son. Born: 1985’. There was no name listed. Did that mean he’d been stillborn or died shortly after his birth? An overwhelming sadness hit me.
    “More secrets,” I hissed. God damn it! There were more secrets! I had almost gotten to the point that I was beginning to forgive my father for hiding his family’s legacy of magick from me. I tried to understand why he’d bound my powers when I was little. I had almost convinced myself that he’d been noble and tried to protect me by stealing that damned grimoire we were now desperate to find.
    I really hadn’t thought anything else would ever shock me again. But seeing this entry about a brother who had died at birth was devastating. A tear rolled down my face as I mourned for the brother I’d never even known existed until today.
    I’d always wanted a big brother. When I was little, I’d been so lonely for a sibling— that I had actually created an imaginary brother. My breath hitched as I recalled how I used to blame him whenever I got into trouble.
    I set the old book aside very carefully. I folded my arms on the open edge of the trunk, and let the tears come.
     
    ***    
     
    I wasn’t sure how long I sat there with tears running down my face, but eventually they ran their course. I hiccupped a little, and wiped my runny nose on my jacket sleeve. I belatedly searched my jacket pockets for a tissue, found a slightly used one, and put it to use. As I mopped up my face, Merlin began head-butting my belly insistently. I reached blindly for his head to pet him when, suddenly, I smelled roses. I swung around half expecting to see the gardening ghost, but nothing was there. I saw that the old rocking chair was moving slightly, but I wasn’t sure if that was because I had touched it earlier.
    I pulled my phone out of my jeans pocket and checked the time. It was close to supper now, and I’d spent more time than I had realized up in the attic uncovering old family tragedies. Resigned, I put the baby albums and vintage clothing back in the trunk. I kept the family tree book. I closed the trunk and tried to pull myself together. My phone rang, and