Chapter 3

After gently telling Leo to get some rest, Mom picked up another call from Maeve.

She anxiously asked before Maeve could say a word, "When are you done with that work trip, Maeve? Your brother's waiting for you to watch his game."

When I first came home, Mom and Dad had been too busy comforting the sobbing Leo. It was Maeve who'd taken my hand and led me into the house, telling me not to be scared.

She was the only warmth I'd ever known in that house.

On the other end of the line, Maeve paused before asking in surprise, "Is it Bas's math competition? I thought it's next month…"

Mom angrily cut her off. "Not Bastian! It's Leo, the brother you grew up with!

"How many times do I have to tell you that Bastian came back from who knows where and is full of bad habits? He's not worthy of being a Hawkin!"

Maeve sighed softly as if she couldn't understand Mom's hostility. "You shouldn't always believe what Leo says, Mom. Bas is a good kid, and you'd see that if you'd just look closer.

"I called him earlier, but he didn't pick up. He didn't reply to my messages for several days either. Is he not home?"

Mom gave a dismissive snort. "He's got legs, and I can't chain him up, can I? He's probably off doing who knows what.

"Anyway, Leo's tennis match is tomorrow, and if you can't come, so be it."

She paused before delivering her ruthless final words. "Tell Bastian that if he dares skip Leo's tennis match tomorrow with another one of his disappearing acts, he shouldn't bother coming back at all. The family's better off without him anyway."

Ignoring Maeve's attempts to speak up for me, she hung up.

Just then, Dad returned with his team. Noticing her grim expression, he curiously asked, "Is that body giving you a hard time?"

Mom shook her head and grumbled, "It's Bastian. He probably called Maeve to complain again, and now she's helping him play this stupid missing act."

Dad sighed heavily. "What an insensible kid! He knows we're busy and still pulls this crap! I'll call and give him an earful right now!"

Yet despite his attempts to dial my number, he never received a reply.

"Ungrateful brat! Might as well have stayed lost when all he does is bring us trouble!"

The criminalistics expert, who'd been listening in, sighed. "I remember when you both took a whole year off to look for him when he was kidnapped, so why'd you treat him like a mortal enemy now that he's back?"

A bitter smile tugged at my lips, knowing the reason was that they wanted a polished, well-spoken son, not a scrawny kid lacking decent manners.

When I was brought home at 15, I found Mom and Dad in the grand living room, holding the sobbing Leo close and comforting him.

Dressed in patched clothes, I stared down awkwardly at the hole in my shoes, where my toe poked through the rubber.

When Leo spotted me, his cries halted abruptly. Then, he asked with feigned innocence, "Who's this little beggar?"

Mom and Dad's expressions darkened instantly, not at Leo's words, but at the sight of me. I did not match the picture of the son they'd had for years.

That was when an officer approached with a report in hand. "Garrett, Dr. Brandt, we checked the missing persons files. Nobody reported a young man missing these days."

"Didn't his family notice he was gone? Could it be that they weren't close?"

"I can't believe any parents could be this cold and not care about their kid!"

The hushed whispers around me cut deep, and a heavy, crushing sorrow wrapped so tightly around me I could barely breathe.

Mom and Dad grieved for strangers whose families didn't lodge a report soon enough, but they never once wondered if I was safe while I was gone for the past few days.

Back then, they dropped everything to search for me when I was kidnapped. But now, they suspected that my disappearance was a stunt for attention.

Perhaps they were right; I should never have returned to the Hawkins. That had always been Leo's home and not mine.

Leo had claimed those years when I might have mattered most to Mom and Dad. And now, all the love that should have been mine would never find its way to me again.