After I Died, My Sister Cried with Regret

Elliot's POV

This was the first time in ten years I had seen my elder sister, Melanie Grant, go ballistic.

Even the day Mom and Dad passed, she hadn't flown off the handle at me like that, despite knowing the accident only happened because they made a U-turn for a cake I wanted.

That day, when Melanie arrived at the scene, all that greeted her was her deceased parents, a little brother who had lost his mind, an insurance agent, and a remorseless drunk driver.

My hands shaking, I tried to wipe the tears from the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry. Please don't cry, Mel…"

Without hesitation, Melanie swatted my hand away. My skin swelled from the pain, looking more serious than the scald mark on our adopted little brother Noah Cooper's hand.

She clenched her jaw and fixed her gaze on me. "Why did it have to be Mom and Dad? Why couldn't it have been you, Elliot Cooper?"

After she finished speaking, she took Noah by the hand and led him to the first-aid kit.

I stood alone in the living room, dazed. I wanted to follow them, but I thought it would only irritate them more. Helpless and overwhelmed with concern, I could only stand there and mutter, "I'm sorry…"

Soon, Noah returned. Thanks to Melanie, his hand had been dressed and bandaged. I sat against the wall, hugging my knees, and looked up at him.

He sat beside me the same way. "Actually, I did that on purpose."

I looked at him in shock. No wonder Noah seemed different that day.

"Mel is a mathematical genius, Elliot," he said. "She was featured in the news and praised by professors at a top university. But to make money to pay for your treatment, she gave up studying the subject she loved the most and went into finance."

Noah continued, "After graduation, she turned down offers from abroad because she wanted to stay close enough to take care of you. She settled for grinding away at some small company here, building up her career from scratch.

"She could've been somewhere she loved, studying mathematics, which she was so passionate about, with Mom and Dad's home-cooked meals waiting for her every month. But all of that became impossible because of you."

I parted my lips, only to realize I was at a loss for words. "I'm… sorry."

"Don't apologize to me," Noah said, barely glancing my way.

"You should be apologetic to Mel and your parents instead. Call me cunning or whatever, but I only got to where I am in life today because of Mel. I won't sit back and watch her take what she doesn't deserve.

"I'm just a guy she adopted, but even I feel terribly sorry for her. Why can't you, her brother, feel anything?"

Noah rose to his feet and slammed the door behind him, the sound echoing through the room.

Over the next few days, neither Melanie nor Noah paid me any attention. I had a rough idea of what I had done wrong, so I held back from bothering them.

Still, I was starving. They seemed to have forgotten I hadn't eaten for quite some time.

So, once they fell asleep at night, I tiptoed into the kitchen. I was just about to stuff a piece of bread from the fridge into my mouth when a cold voice sounded behind me.

"Take one bite of the food we got for Noah's birthday party in two days, and you're out of this family."