The Truth

The Truth
Emilia's POV

I felt him tremble with so much fury around me, his teeth shattering as he growled, his eyes full of murder as he glared hard at my brothers. 
“Who is this dirty man, Emilia? And why is he dressed like he just stepped out of some medieval commercials?” Aaron demanded again. “I hope he isn't your—”
Sebastian didn't let him finish; he lunged fast for him, throwing a punch fast for his face. “Stop! Sebastian. There are not…”
But he wasn't listening; he moved around me to make his punch hit, and his fist jammed against the side of Aaron's face. Aaron staggered back, blood staining his lips and teeth. Nathan and Brian had to catch him to stop him from falling over.
“Bastard. I will make you pay for everything you have done to my wife.” He growled.
“Who the hell is this big fool, and who the hell is your wife?” Brian barked, his whole face tightened in a huge frown. He dropped Aaron to Nathan's arms, and he charged fast at Sebastian. Sebastian dodged his punch easily. His strong, steel fingers claimed Brian’s neck, tightening, strangling him slowly to death.
My heart thrashed hard against my chest, slamming against my ribs, as I ran fast to his front before things got worse. I grabbed his arm, pulling him back. “Stop! Sebastain. Stop!” I screamed at him.
He looked down at me, his eyes tightened in pain. “But they hurt you, Emilia. They hurt you. They took you away from me.” He growled, though his voice was dangerously low now. So low, I barely heard him.
I kept pulling his arm, whose fingers Brian’s neck was still trapped under. “No! Sebastain,” I screamed at him. “They aren't the ones that killed me. They aren't the one.” I kept yelling at him.
Nathan came right then, and he swung his fist for Sebastian’s face. With Sebastian engaged with me and Brian. He was defenseless against the blow. It swept his face to the right, and he groaned hard in pain as the blow rocked him back.He pulled away from Brian, staggering back on his feet. I ran fast and caught him before he could trip on the stone and fall.
Nathan charged for him again, but I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Stop!” I yelled, my voice tight, tears sliding down my cheeks as I could no longer stop the flow. “Just stop fighting. Just stop.” I echoed.
Sebastian shook his head hard, pushing back the sting of the blow he received. And as soon as he got a grip on himself, he grabbed me and pulled me back into his arms, his fingers caressing my hair. “Don't cry, Emilia. Don't cry, wife.” He cooed gently. "Don't cry. It breaks my heart when you do.” He said.
I loved to be in his arms like this, enveloped in their comfort, basking in the warmth of his body, the heat from him seeping into me, but I heard the furious grunts and the charging feet behind me, and I pulled from his arms, whirling to see Nathan and Aaron charging for Sebastian. 
“Just stop, Nathan, Aaron. Please just stop.” I yelled at them. Somehow, I got through to them, and they stopped, dropping back a foot. Aaron cleaned the blood on his lips with the back of his hand. He nudged his jaw to Sebastain. “Who is the man with the big belly and bad manners behind you, Emilia? And why does he call you wife?”
“You know why, bastard. Because she is my wife. And you bastards didn't rest until you killed her," Sebastian growled from behind me. I turned my head to him, and I slanted him a scolding stare. He growled softly, his jaw clenched tight as he turned his head away.
Nathan scoffed, “She isn't your wife, punk. She is our sister.”
“Actually, I am his wife, and he is my husband.” I said, my voice dimmed to a strange quietness, but I tweaked up, knowing no matter how wrong and shocking it would sound to them, it just has to be said. It has to be.
“What?” Nathan screamed.
Brian echoed something similar; while rubbing blood back to his neck, his jaw hung open, eyes fastened on me.
Aaron shook from the shock in his eyes and just threw his eyes at Sebastian, intense heat splitting the blue of his eyes. “I don't want to know whatever sham marriage you try to tie my sister down with; it wouldn't hold up in any court, because we didn't give her to you,” he yelled.
He reached to pull me away from Sebastian. And I stood back. I wouldn't let anyone take me away from Sebastian again.
Aaron touched his fingers when I dropped back from his reach and towards Sebastian. There was pain in his eyes as he looked from his fingers to me. “Don't tell me that in the three months in which you went missing, you actually absconded with this man, a man that cannot even take care of himself, one that looks dirty and unkempt,” he said.
“Is that true?” Nathan quizzed in a sharper tone, eyes narrowed on me.
Brian’s orbs squinted at me, but he said nothing.
I had always avoided the truth. Now, I could no longer afford to. “I was actually with him for those three months. But it isn't as you think. I didn't abscond with it. It is actually much more complicated than that.”
“How complicated,” Aaron demanded. There was steel in his voice. “You went missing with your friends for three good months, three good months of which we searched painstakingly for you, when all along you were hiding in some place with a man.”
“She wasn't hiding anywhere. She married me. You were…” I whipped my head back to Sebastian. Giving him a sharp yet hard look with my eyes, begging him not to make this any worse.
He made an exasperated sigh, and he just held my waist, holding me to his body, as if wanting to claim me as his before my own brothers. I let him hold me so close, not because I wanted it, but because I had no idea of the development of his madness now.
Him being busy holding him so close should keep his mind grounded here. If my brothers found out he has mad episodes, it would only make things worse.
I looked onto their faces, searching through their anger and confusion for the brothers I know loved me enough to believe every word I say. “I can explain what happened, Aaron, Nathan, and Brian.” I called their names, letting my gaze jump from one to another. “Can you please just let me do that, please? And can you please believe me? Will you trust me enough to believe that every word I say is the truth and that I would never lie to you?” I said.
Brian rowed his head gently, forcing a hard smile. “I would believe anything you say, Emilia. You know I trust you.” He said.
Aaron and Nathan looked sharply at him, and he gave them the same half-assured smile he gave me. They turned to me, and they echoed something like they trust me too.
I left Sebastian’s arms, and I threw myself around them, hugging them as much as I could with my small arms. Aaron and Nathan were reluctant at first, but soon their big arms swooned behind me.
I eventually dropped back from them and returned into Sebastian's arms. I looked from one to another, holding tight to their curious stares, and I narrated everything that had happened to them, how I got to the book world, met different versions of them there, and how I was treated by the version. I summarized everything as best as I could to them.
Even before I was done, I could already glimpse disbelief clawing at their eyes, their lips twisting in ludicrous snares.
Aaron shook his head. He scoffed loudly and bitterly. “I want to believe you, Emilia. But I don't think I can. This seems like some fantastical story.”
“But it's true, Aaron. That is what truly happened those months that we went missing,” I said.
“It’s true, Nathan. It’s true, Brian.” I said, looking to them. “I am telling the truth. You all know I have never lied to you before, and I would never have. It's really true.” I begged desperately, my voice low and tight, my eyes jumping from one to another, urging them to just please believe me, while tears dripped from my eyes again, wetting them up. The pain and anguish in my chest, squeezing up my heart inside of me.
Aaron swept his eyes to me, sharply. He took another look at the tears in my mind's eyes, and he shook his head carefully. “I love you, Emilia. And I want to believe you. But I will have to confirm that bookstore owner. Can you take me to her?” He looked to Nathan and Brian. “Us. Can you take us to her? If we see her take you or this man back to this world you claimed he comes from, that would be all the proof we need.”
“Okay,” I answered. “I will. Maybe then you will believe me.”
Sebastian spun me around to face him. He looked over my head to my brothers and then back to me. “Why do you want to take them back to the book world? They will kill you again, wife. They will hurt you again.”
I stretched my lips wide in an assuring smile, and I lifted my hand to caress his cheeks. “They are my real brothers, my brothers in this world, and they are different from the ones in your world. These ones are good. They love me with all their hearts.” I told him.
“Are you sure?” he asked again, looking sharply from me to them.
I built more on my smile, and I dragged his eyes to stay on mine. “I am very sure, Sebastian. Just trust me, like always.” I said.
His lips parted as if to complain, but he quietened and instead steered them for me. His lips were about to drop on mine when Nathan pushed him back.“Don't you dare kiss my sister, especially not before me.” He snapped.
Sebastian growled. “And she is my wife.”
“And she is our sister.” Aaron, Nathan, and Brian yelled at him together, in unison.