Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates-Chapter 697-Only She Defends Him

Helanie:

"I don’t know what you all are accusing me of. Can somebody tell me what the fuck I did?" Emmet yelled as he finally grabbed his brother’s hands and pulled them off his collar, pushing him away.

That was when Maximus and Kaye decided to hold on to Norman so he wouldn’t attack Emmet again.

I didn’t know the confrontation would go this badly.

"You sacrificed my child for someone who was already dead because she didn’t listen to you that night and went out," Norman yelled, his eyes red with rage.

"Enough, just stop," I tried to stop Norman.

That was when Emmet gestured for me to step aside.

"No. Let me talk to my brother. Let him say what he has to say," Emmet warned me before looking back at Norman.

"Do you seriously think I would ever do anything to hurt you, to harm you, brother?" There was pain in Emmet’s voice, pain I was sure everyone could hear.

"It’s not about you hurting me. You didn’t even remember that time that I am your brother and she is Helanie," Norman grunted, finally freeing himself from his brothers, though he didn’t attack Emmet again. He began covering his face with his forearm, maybe even wiping away tears.

"Do you think I sacrificed your baby for her?" Emmet asked, pointing toward what was likely the guest room.

"We found the traces in your room, Emmet!" Norman yelled as he recalled the pages he had found, the ones with the scribbles.

"The pages?" Emmet screamed back.

"The pages where you said you had to sacrifice Helanie so Azura could come back—life for a life," Norman said word for word, and my body shook again.

At that point, I didn’t want to intervene. Norman had every right to be upset. It was his child too.

"Really? Is that why you were all acting weird around me? Why didn’t any of you tell me? Why did you guys let me walk around thinking, oh, maybe I did something wrong, maybe not. But all this time you were looking at me like I’m some fucking murderer!" Emmet screamed, pointing at his chest.

This was the first time I had seen Emmet lose his mind so badly, but then again, what he did was extremely wrong too.

"We’re not saying you did it in your right mind. We’re just saying you forgot about everyone. You only remembered Azura and the fact that you had to bring her back." Kaye hissed Emmet scanned all our faces.

"I think I would’ve remembered something like that," Emmet said, shaking his head.

"But you do forget. The only person you remember is Azura."

As soon as Kaye said that, I muttered, "And that’s because she cursed you, with a broken heart curse when she was dying,." I looked at Emmet, who now turned all his attention to me.

"Tell me, you really think I did it?" I felt my heart stop for a moment.

"Say it," he demanded.

That was when Norman stepped between us.

"No. You will not put her through this. We saw the evidence. You did it. You fucking sacrificed my baby."

Norman’s voice was stern, and rightfully so, but there was something else in Emmet’s voice. A certainty in how he said those words. And that made me believe there was probably more to the story.

"But I don’t remember ever writing those things," Emmet yelled in frustration.

Norman nodded, running a hand through his hair as he paced back and forth, until he finally faced Emmet again, hands on his waist.

"Did that thought ever cross your mind?" Norman asked in a soft and gentle voice. But the question carried a lot of weight.

Emmet suddenly went silent.

"Tell me, did it ever cross your mind? Did you know you had to kill Helanie in order to bring Azura back?" Norman said every word with clarity.

Kaye and Maximus squared up, their shoulders broad, their eyes on Emmet.

I was looking down when I suddenly tilted my head, then to the side, to look at Emmet. He avoided looking at any of us and just kept staring into Norman’s eyes.

"I mean, the thought did cross my mind. I don’t know how, but it was in the back of my head—like, repeatedly." But as Emmet said that, I guess there was nothing else left to say.

"And then, you wrote it down because you always forget," Norman understood. He had put two and two together.

Emmet started to shake his head. "I don’t know. I cannot do that." He began to shake—break.

That was when we all understood. He wasn’t even certain if he had done it or not. But it was true: the idea had been in his head, and all the evidence pointed at him.

"And you were the one who had told Helanie to come to the well," Norman reminded him, and Emmet started shaking his head aggressively.

"I did not say that to her."

I watched his face in disbelief.

"I remember you did. We had a conversation, Emmet."

That was so confusing to me. I understood that he forgot, because he forgets, but the way he was opposing the idea of asking me to come to the well made me believe that is how he forgot about the other things and was so confidently saying he did not remember.

"What do you have to say about that now?" Maximus hissed at Emmet. Even he was judging him.

I would have hated for anyone to pile up on someone, but it was the truth. Emmet was in denial.

"Why are you all ganging up on Emmet? I understand that a life was lost in order to bring me back, but I don’t think Emmet did it while knowing what he was doing. He had forgotten everything. He had lost his memory of people. The part of him that held love for everyone was gone at that time," Azura said, speaking in her soft, gentle voice.

Everyone turned to her, including Norman.