Kieran
“Clara,” I called out for my secretary’s attention. “Cancel everything for today.”
Knowing better than to ask questions, Clara confirmed with a curt nod as I continued towards the elevator that took me to the underground garage where my trusted SUV waited.
It was the first time since I took over as CEO of the corporation that I could not focus on my job. Letters and digits were fluttering in front of my eyes, and the light on the screen was trying to gouge them out. My brain felt like mush, making it hard to think and be productive. After hours of pointless effort, I realized I needed to unwind the pent-up whirlpool of rage and despair that had been brewing in me for the last few days, knowing well that if I continued to ignore it, it would wreck me from the inside.
Leaving the King Enterprises building in the rearview mirror, I got lost in replaying all the wrong moves I made and how they led to where I was now – the place where the relationship with my only brother was hanging on a thin thread.
Touching the phone screen in the holder, I dialed Philip’s number. As the ringing resonated through the car cabin, nervousness from my stomach rose to my throat, pushing my self-control to its limits.
“Hello,” Philip grunted from the other side.
“Can you come by my place later?” I still hoped I could convince him to change his mind.
A long pause followed my request, bringing fret it might be denied.
“Fine.” Philip cut the call abruptly, but I sighed in relief.
If anyone ever told me that the little brother I’ve been taking care of my entire life would renounce me because of a girl, I would have laughed. No! I would have punched them in the face. Yet, here I was - about to lose the person I cared about the most to a little leech whose only target was the King’s family fortune. And there was no chance I was going to let it happen.
I arrived at my house with one goal in mind – the punching bag hanging in the gym. It was the only thing capable of absorbing some of the tension before I exploded. After quickly changing the navy-blue, three-piece suit I was wearing in the office, I hurried downstairs to the basement where the decently equipped workout space was installed when I bought the estate.
Skipping on bandaging my wrists, I let it all out.
With every punch I threw, a chunk of my frustration seemed to dissipate while the pain in my knuckles increased. I didn’t mind it, though. What’s more, I welcomed it. Each bead of sweat that coated my skin was proof of the wheels that relentlessly kept turning in my head.
We were close, Philip and I. We have confided in each other since we were kids, so when he first told me about this new girl he was seeing, I took it for granted. In the end, he had dated before. I brushed it off, thinking of it as a phase or a pastime, but when I realized all Philip could speak of was ‘his angel,’ it was too late to do anything; he was already too far gone. When he admitted they were getting serious and he wanted to propose, I lost it.
Actually, I had nothing against my brother settling down. What’s more, I looked forward to the day he would start his own family with some decent girl.
But he could not marry a little witch with a questionable background! It was out of the question. All he could get from that relationship was a broken heart, and I could never let my little brother experience the pain I knew so well.
By the time Philip came, I was relieved of the negativity and armored with zest and faith that some reason could be knocked into Philip’s head considering his’ girlfriend.’ But all of those dissipated as soon as I laid my eyes on him.
“Brother.” Philip greeted me curtly, his gaze not wavering from mine.
Resolution.
Pure resolution shone from the grey irises we shared, and although it wasn’t strange or uncommon to see him adamant about something, this time, it covered my heart with a blanket of ominous predicament.
“How are you feeling? You’re a little pale.” My worry about his health was genuine. Ever since Philip went to see a pulmonologist last week, I have been beyond distressed about what was happening to him. Even though I already knew the worry was unnecessary.
“Tired.” The distancing tone in his voice chilled me to the bone. “I’ve been sleep-deprived, as you already know.” Dark circles under his eyes witnessed his claim.
I observed him, not wanting to miss a single sign that could indicate he knew what I did, but there was nothing but a shadow of unhappiness looming over him.
“I’ve changed my mind, brother.” There. The words I dreaded to hear. “I cannot give Ellie up, and I’m sorry I ever let you persuade me that leaving her was the best for us.”
I inhaled sharply in a desperate attempt to control the fury building up inside me, a rage that threatened to swallow me whole.
“I’m sorry I listened to you. If I had explained it to Ellie, she would have understood. She would stand by my side.”
“Be reasonable, Philip!” I snapped, barely containing my fists from soothing the itch on the nearby wall. “That girl can never be a respectable match for you.”
“I don’t care what you think, Kieran! Not about Ellie. If you cannot accept that I am happy with her, that’s your problem. You will either have to accept it or...” He made a short pause as the bitter expression of disgust overtook his facial features. “I don’t even recognize you anymore, Kieran. This is not you. This is not my brother.” Every word he spoke felt like a knife to my stomach when everything I did was for him. Philip turned around, heading towards the door, and the discernment my actions caused drowned on me.
“You don’t understand!” I roared, following him outside. I had to make him see what I saw. I had to help him perceive the depths of the abyss he was staring into.
“No!” he yelled back at me, taking me completely by surprise. I had never seen him infuriated like this. “You are the one that doesn’t understand, Kieran. Ellie is not Nora!”
The mere mention of her name threatened to send me down the memory lane I fought hard against every day, and Philip knew it. Yet, he used her as a weapon against me, and I was lost in figuring out how to feel about it. But wasn’t playing dirty something I did first?
“And you would have realized that if you only gave her a chance! But you just have to be too stubborn and hardheaded to even consider being wrong.” He marched relentlessly until he reached his car. Only then did he stop and turn to me.
“Meet her, Kieran. Give her a chance to prove that she’s not what you think.”
He served me with the last opportunity to cross the drift between us. There wouldn’t be another one.
I stared at him without blinking, my mouth dry from the bitter taste of defeat.
“Fine!” I huffed in anger, raising my arms in surrender. “Let’s have dinner. The three of us.”
Philip eyed me suspiciously, trying to determine whether I was sincere, but the bond we formed and strengthened almost twenty years ago made him nod his head in confirmation. He wasn’t willing to renounce me any more than I was ready to lose him.
“I’ll text you the details.” Hope lit up in his eyes, and just for a second, I wondered if I might really be wrong. “If she returns my calls…” I wasn’t sure if Philip intended for me to hear his mumbling before he got into his car and drove off, but I did.
It took a moment or two for what was said between my brother and me to settle down, for my swelled-up brain to process the words spoken between us and realize the ultimatum hidden between them.
The resentment directed towards that girl I had never met and didn’t bother enough to remember her name built up in me, ready to explode. I wanted to break something! I wanted to destroy something!
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
The realization that I was the only one to blame for this outcome settled into my every pore, igniting every fiber of my being with the eternal fire of hell! I miscalculated, jumping on the first boat of opportunity that came my way, and I sank like a Titanic with a bang while the orchestra still played its melody in the back.
I stepped over my principles and destroyed the carefully built tenets and rules I lived by. I didn’t recognize myself or how I acted, and all in the name of sparing my brother the agony I knew would come. And it was all in vain.
A loud roar of infirmity escaped me again as I punched the massive door, but the pain that shot through my fist brought no relief I expected.
I’d never fallen so hard in my life. No other battle seemed to be lost at a higher cost than this one.
Overwhelmed by everything that had happened, I continued to vent my anger on every object I passed, whether it was an antique mirror on the wall that I smashed into a million pieces or an Art déco figurine that flew across the living room and landed in the middle of my flat-screen TV.
None of those objects meant a thing, and instead of subsiding my rage, they only pushed me further over the edge.
Unconsciously, I found myself back at the gym, punching the same bag repeatedly until my knuckles bled, and I was out of breath with dark spots dancing in front of my eyes.
I failed. I fucking failed.
Kieran Losing track of time, I had no idea how long it had passed since the sand-filled bag started taking the hits I so generously kept throwing at it, but judging by my bleeding knuckles, I was down in the gym more than I should’ve. But it was worth it. The physical pain I inflicted on myself, the exhaustion that overtook my muscles and made it hard to breathe, relieved my swelled-up brain of some pressure, making it easier to think rationally and analyze all the wrong moves I made in my poor attempt to separate my brother from the girl I was convinced wasn’t the right choice for him. I fucked up. I relied too much on Philip and his rationality when I should’ve known better. He was desperately in love, and there was no way of knocking sense into him, no way of making him realize the truth. It was a mistake trying to coax him into breaking things off on his own. It was a mistake trying to use his illness to persuade him that leaving her and breaking her heart at the beginning wa
Sophia What happened to me? What in the world made me knock on an unknown person’s door and attack him like I had no functioning cell in my brain? Had I gone completely mad? Probably. But considering the turmoil in my head that refused to settle down and let my thoughts clear out, it was no wonder I fucked up. “Kieran…” his name rolled off my tongue as I marched away from the estate gate I had intruded so rudely. Who the hell was he? Darkness started enveloping the peaceful part of town I found myself in, so I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called a taxi. After what happened earlier, I could never again feel safe without light. Memories of what could’ve ended differently at my former workplace flashed through my mind, and I shivered in fear. As if it wasn’t enough, being reckless almost cost me my life not so long ago. If I had died on that threshold, who would have been there to take care of Ellie and her baby? By the time my ride arrived, I was shivering. Getting inside
Sophia “What do you want, Philip? Weren’t you the one who said to forget you, not to look for you? So, what are you doing here?” To a stranger listening to Ellie’s rant, she would’ve sounded cold and distant, accusing... But I knew my sister better. I heard how her voice trembled; she fought to keep it steady, not allowing it to break and uncover her pain. “Please, Ellie. I need to talk to you. I need to explain…” the young man pleaded. “Mind if we take this inside? I’m not a big fan of giving a free show to neighbors.” Kieran interrupted the scene, his deep voice startling me. Ever since we showed up, he didn’t take his eyes off of me, not giving a shit about the scene happening between his brother and my sister. I could feel his intense stare on me as he assessed me, scrutinized me, making an army of ants crawl down my back. “No, Philip. You don’t need to talk to me. You need to leave.” Ellie stood her ground, and I admired her for that. Just yesterday, she was a broken little gi
Sophia Every time I faced catastrophe in the past, I found a way to make things right; I found a way to hold all the strings that my life consisted of tightly in my hands and not let go, no matter how much those strings were cutting into my flesh. This time, though, things were falling apart in front of my eyes, and all I could do was watch. I was sure my sister was about to destroy her life and that Philip King, the father of her child, could bring her nothing but trouble and tears. Her happiness was the most important thing to me, but I believed she could never have the life she deserved with the man she chose. Ashamed of my thoughts, I kept quiet and never voiced them out. I tried so hard to mind my business and not meddle in her decisions, letting her be an adult but controlling my never-dying wish to protect her, even if that was from her own actions, was a struggle on a whole new level. It’s been a few days since the King brothers raided our apartment, and from that moment,
Sophia I had to give Philip a chance for Ellie’s sake. My rationality persuaded me to be patient and listen to whatever he had to say while my heart screamed at me, flooding my mind with images of an orange pill dispenser and my sister in tears. The silence surrounded us for just a few moments before Philip spoke. “I know you don’t like me, and I understand. I deserve it. To be honest, I will never forgive myself for what I did, no matter what you think of me after I tell you my reasons for acting the way I did. But what I want to say is that I love Ellie more than my life, and I would never intentionally hurt her.” Sincerity was beaming from Philip’s eyes, entrapping me in their depths. Intrigued by the hint of mystery in his voice my senses picked up like a hound hunting a rabbit in the woods, I unconsciously leaned towards him, not wanting to miss a single word, as I pushed aside all the other things that bothered me. Philip had my full attention. “That was exactly why I wante
Sophia “What is it with you strangling me every time you see me? Is that a fetish or something?” I squeaked; every word I uttered felt like sandpaper on my constricted throat, causing tears to blur my vision, but I didn’t back off. Not this time. I watched him straight in the eyes, and I didn’t waver. No matter the rage and hate that blazed in his grey, stormy eyes, I held his gaze with all the courage I could muster, and it angered him even more. He shoved me inside and advanced after me, and as soon as he crossed the threshold, Kieran slammed the door behind us and forced me further in until we reached the living room, which was just a few steps, really, but now it seemed to be a hundred-mile-long journey. “What do you want?” I spat, whispering. Kieran’s nostrils flared, his jaw clenched, and I was sure he was holding himself back from snapping my neck. I wasn’t afraid of dying, though. At least it would serve a good purpose. Kieran would go to prison, and Ellie and her baby wo
Sophia Ellie and Philip stared at Kieran and me for a few moments since we were still standing too close to each other. Her eyes flickered towards my neck, but she couldn’t see anything thanks to the dim light and my soft, blond locks that were let down freely. Upsetting my pregnant sister with the truth about her future brother-in-law was the last thing I’d want if she didn’t already have her own suspicions. And Kieran never really tried to hide his bigotry towards us. “Why are you so giddy?” I asked, catching Ellie’s eyes, pretending I did not know what was happening. A diversion was always the best strategy, and it worked like magic. As soon as that question was out, Ellie’s face lit up with a smile that showed how happy she was. “We have something to tell you,” Ellie mused. I didn’t miss her small hand searching for Philip’s and his finding hers. “Yes, we have an announcement to make, and as you two are the most important people in our lives, you deserve to be the first to kno
Kieran She was driving me crazy. Sophia Howard. She wracked chaos in my soul; she dominated my every thought, and as if it wasn’t enough for her to torture me during the day, she was there every night, too, creeping around in my dreams. She was all I could think about, she and the ways I could make her submit to me and do as I wanted because nobody ever dared to defy me the way she did! And she had to be punished for that. She was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, I was sure of it! All I had to do was prove it, and I would have her trapped. She would have to abide by me. Although I had no doubt Philip was the father of that baby, I still insisted on Sophia breaking them up. It was only a test for Sophia because I could never wish harm to my nephew or niece. My brother’s kids were my kids. She passed the test successfully, which made me more conflicted with myself as I tried to reconcile two impulses: punishing her for not doing as I ordered and wanting to own her because she didn’t do a