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All Chapters of My Brother, My Ruin: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

143 Chapters

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Chapter 131: The Question in the Doorway Cassandra Alexander stood in the bathroom doorway staring at me. I was still on the floor, one arm wrapped around my middle, the taste of bile sharp in my mouth. The small guest bathroom felt even smaller with him filling the frame. “Cassandra.” His voice was quiet, careful. “How many times has this happened?” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and tried to straighten up. My legs felt unsteady. “A few. It’s just stress. Or something I ate. I told you I’ve been off.” He stepped inside, closed the door halfway, and crouched in front of me. His eyes moved over my face like he was looking for something I hadn’t said out loud. “You’ve been throwing up for days. You’re exhausted no matter how much you sleep. Certain smells make you turn green. You’re barely eating breakfast. That’s not just stress.” “It can be.” I sounded defensive even to myself. “We’ve been through hell. Bodies crash. Mine is crashing.” Alexander didn’t argue. He simp

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Chapter 132: The Result Cassandra Alexander held the test in one hand and me in the other. The guest room stayed completely still except for the sound of our breathing. The little plastic window had already said everything it needed to say, positive, clear and undeniable. I pressed my face harder into his chest. His heart was beating too fast. Mine was doing the same. “Say something,” I whispered. He set the test on the dresser carefully, like it might break, then wrapped both arms around me. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. We’re going to figure this out the same way we’ve figured out everything else.” The words were steady. His body was not. I could feel the tension running through him. I pulled back enough to see his face. His eyes were wet. So were mine. “I’m pregnant.” Saying it out loud made the floor feel less solid. “We’re going to have a baby. And we have almost no money, a temporary room, jobs that barely cover food, and a family that already decided we’re a disgrac

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Chapter 133: Real Numbers Cassandra The clinic papers stayed on the dresser for two full days before either of us touched them again. The sample vitamins sat beside them. Every time I walked past I felt the fact of the pregnancy settle a little heavier and a little more real. Six to seven weeks. A due date that was still far enough away to feel abstract and close enough to force decisions. Alexander left early for a double loading shift he had begged for. I went to the grocery store and worked my register with a sleeve of crackers in my apron pocket. The nausea was manageable if I ate small amounts often and stayed away from the rotisserie chickens. By the end of the shift my lower back ached and my feet felt swollen in a way that was new. I clocked out, met Alexander outside, and we walked back to Aunt Linda’s without saying much. Inside the guest room he closed the door, took the clinic folder off the dresser, and sat on the bed with it. “We need a real plan,” he said. “Not jus

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Chapter 134: Three Weeks Cassandra The room we had looked at on the edge of town was still available when Alexander called first thing Monday morning. The woman on the other end sounded bored and practical. Cash for the first month. No lease. Available in sixteen days. She would hold it until Friday if we put down a small deposit. We counted the envelope that night. Between the extra loading shifts, my additional store hours, and what was left of Brady’s money, we had just enough for the deposit and the first month if we spent almost nothing until then. Alexander walked to her house the next evening and handed over the cash. She wrote a receipt on the back of a grocery receipt and said the room would be ready on the date she had given. Sixteen days. Aunt Linda accepted the news with a short nod. “Good. That keeps things clean.” She didn’t ask about the pregnancy again. She didn’t offer advice. The boundary she had drawn stayed in place, and in a strange way the clarity helped. T

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Chapter 135: A Door of Our Own Cassandra The last week at Aunt Linda’s passed in a blur of work and careful packing. We left nothing to the final morning. Bags by the door. Notebook and clinic papers in the top of mine. The prenatal vitamins in Alexander’s jacket pocket so we wouldn’t forget them. When Aunt Linda came downstairs she was already dressed, keys in hand. “Ready?” she asked. “Yes,” Alexander said. She drove us across town without small talk. The house with the room for rent looked the same as when we had first seen it— plain, slightly worn, with a side entrance that led down a short set of steps. The owner, a woman in her fifties named Carol, met us with the key and a short list of rules. Rent due on the first. No loud noise after ten. Shared laundry in the basement. She took the cash for the first month, handed Alexander the key, and left us to it. The room was exactly what we had paid for. One open space. A narrow window high on the wall. A double mattress on a sim

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Chapter 136: New Faces Cassandra The room still smelled a little like cleaning solution and old carpet, but it was ours. That fact carried us through the early mornings when the nausea hit and the late nights when we counted the same thin stack of cash twice. Rent for the next month was going to be close. Close enough that every extra hour mattered. Monday morning Alexander left for the warehouse before sunrise. I walked to the grocery store with a sleeve of crackers in my bag and the prenatal vitamins already swallowed. The air was cool. My lower back ached in the dull, persistent way that had become familiar. I had been on the register for twenty minutes when the first of the new cashiers clocked in. Her name tag said “Jess.” She was short, sharp-eyed, and moved like someone who had never once been told to slow down. She took one look at me leaning on the stool between customers and grinned. “You’re the new one who actually shows up on time,” she said. “I’m Jess. I work the exp

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Chapter 137: First of the MonthCassandraThe envelope on the small table held the rent money in careful, counted bills. We had checked it three times the night before. Alexander had checked it once more before he left for the warehouse at dawn. When I woke up to the usual low nausea, the first thing I did after the crackers was look at the envelope again to make sure it hadn’t somehow shrunk overnight.It was still there. First of the month. Cash. On time.I got dressed slowly. My jeans were definitely tighter than they had been two weeks earlier. Not obvious yet, but enough that I noticed every time I sat down on the stool at the register. The baby was still a secret we carried between us and a handful of clinic papers. At eight weeks it felt both abstract and completely real depending on the hour.At the store Jess was already in the express lane, attacking a display of impulse-buy candy with the energy of someone personally offended by poor shelf organization. She spotted me and p

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Chapter 138: The Weight of Ordinary Days Cassandra The crib stayed in pieces against the wall because there was nowhere else to put it. Every time I looked at it I felt the future press a little harder against the present. Ten weeks. The nurse had said the nausea might start easing soon. So far it had only changed shape—less sharp in the mornings, more like a constant low tide that rose whenever I got too hungry or too tired. Alexander left for the warehouse before it was fully light. I walked to the store with the ginger chews Jess had forced on me and the prenatal vitamin already taken. The air was cooler. My jeans bit at the waist in a way that meant I would need to do something about clothes soon. Another expense we hadn’t fully written into the notebook yet. Jess was already at express, restocking gum with unnecessary aggression. She glanced up as I clocked in. “You look like someone who slept. Miracles happen. Earl left you a banana that is only morally compromised, not ful

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Chapter 139: Noise Travels Cassandra The text sat on the phone like a hand on the back of my neck. “Heard the pregnancy rumor reached the grocery store. Shame. Family’s talking more than you think. Some of them are less content to stay quiet than others. Watch your back.” Alexander and I read it twice in the dark. Then he turned the phone completely off and set it on the floor face-down. “We’re not answering,” he said. “We’re not chasing it. Same rule as the old threats. Silence first.” I nodded against his chest, but sleep did not come after that. Every creak of the house made me tense. The baby was only the size of a raspberry according to the last pamphlet, and yet the idea of it was already large enough to draw blood from people who had already decided we were a scandal. Morning arrived too early. The nausea was sharper than usual, probably from the stress. I ate crackers in bed while Alexander dressed for the warehouse. He kissed the top of my head and reminded me to keep

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Chapter 140: BoundariesCassandraMom’s visit left the room feeling exposed for the rest of the night. Alexander double-checked the lock and the chain. We kept the phone on the floor between us, volume low but not off. Sleep came in short stretches. Every time a car slowed on the street I woke up. He did too.In the morning he sat on the edge of the mattress tying his shoes while I ate crackers and tried to settle my stomach.“If anyone from the family shows up, we don’t open the door,” he said. “We tell Carol. If they push it, we call the police. This is our place. They don’t get to turn it into another family meeting.”“Agreed.”He kissed me, rested his hand on my stomach for a second the way he always did now, and left for the warehouse. I walked to the store with my shoulders tight and the phone in my back pocket on silent.Jess took one look at me and raised an eyebrow. “You look like you slept inside a washing machine. Family noise again?”“Something like that.”“Want me to star

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