Chapter 3

Since then, so as not to trigger the family’s anger, I restricted myself to plain oatmeal and finished my food quickly before excusing myself from the dinner table.

Next, I retreated to the piano room, practicing pieces for an international music competition.

Barely a few notes in, Danny covered his ears and shrieked, curling up on the floor and trembling.

He cried out, “Stop it! Stop playing! The sound reminds me of pigs being slaughtered in the countryside. I’m scared… I’m so scared…”

Emma burst into the room and slammed the piano lid shut.

If not for my reflexes, my fingers would have snapped in two right there and then.

“All you do is play the piano! Don’t you know Danny is traumatized? Can’t you just give it a rest?” Emma’s eyes bulge in rage.

I shakily explained, “Mom, I have a competition coming up next week…”

“Who cares? Danny is terrified, and all you can think about is the competition.”

The next day, the piano that had been in my life for all of my childhood and teenage years was removed.

As I stood in silence in the empty piano room, Liam approached and gave me a piece of his mind.

“It’s just a piano. Wipe the look off your face. Quit intimidating Danny. Stop acting so entitled.”

I learned to walk on eggshells at home, my nerves constantly on edge.

Still, it didn’t matter. So long as I was part of the household, my marriage with Kyra still stood. I could put up with everything.

My only source of solace during those dark days was Kyra.

Kyra was there as Liam and Emma’s constant berating trimmed the pounds off me. She would embrace me in heartache.

“Fear not, Rhys. You still have me.

“It’s not your fault. You’ve done so well. I’ll give you all the love in the world. You can always count on me even when it’s you against the world.”

Sharing my resentment, she made Danny the enemy.

Kyra made her stance clear to Liam and Emma. “I only recognize Rhys as my fiancé, and no one else.”

Each time Liam and Emma showed favoritism toward Danny, Kyra would step in and pull me away.

She had no qualms taking my side in public. “Mr. and Mrs. Green, Rhys is innocent in all this. It’s not his fault that there was a hospital mix-up at birth. It’s true that he has been devoted to you as a son for the past twenty years.

“Rhys has already been accommodating of Danny since his return. Why must you treat them differently?”

While brushing past Danny, Kyra would shoot him a look of disgust and say icily, “Save your mind games for someone else. I won’t engage in this silliness.”

I was lucky to have her in my life.

Yet somehow, everything changed.

Danny was assigned an internship at the family company.

He would stand outside Kyra’s office building in the rain, just to bring her a homemade lunch.

Kyra would walk away differently when she saw his lips turned purple from the freezing cold.

Her silhouette from the back remained resolute, though her tense footsteps betrayed her true feelings.

For once, Kyra accepted the food out of embarrassment, and that was when she spotted the scar on Danny’s wrist.

Danny recounted his horrific details of her childhood in the most nonchalant tone.

Kyra said, “What does that have to do with me? Spare me those sob stories.”

However, she gradually stopped defending me altogether. In fact, she persuaded me, “Danny has had it tough. Don’t be so petty with him,”

She started taking Danny to the amusement parks for the carousels and watched the sunset at the beach, which was supposed to be our thing.

With my anxiety gnawing at me, I stuck close to her and felt as though I were walking on a fragile bubble that could burst at any moment.

Kyra’s initial guilt grew into annoyance.

The agonizing dynamic dragged on until last month, on the day of my birthday.

Just before dinner, Kyra got a call from Danny.

Danny was inconsolable. “Kyra, there’s a thunderstorm. I’m terrified. Back at the orphanage, someone would always sneak into my room during this time…”

Without another word, Kyra snatched her car keys and was on her way out.

I grabbed her sleeve, my expression numb, “Kyra, it’s my birthday today. Plus, the house staff and my parents are home. Nothing’s going to happen to him.”