My Brother Never Gave Me a Home Chapter 09
Three days before orientation, my mom and Ethan went with me to shop for supplies.
Stuff for freshman training. Dorm stuff.
We didn’t expect to find Leo waiting outside our new front door.
Ethan stepped in front of us. Guarded.
“What do you want? You’re not welcome here.”
Leo’s eyes were bloodshot. Fixed on me.
Threaded with red veins.
He looked worse than the most exhausted version of him I’d ever seen.
Like he’d aged years overnight.
“Move. I need to talk to my sister.”
Ethan was young. Hot-headed.
His fist connected with Leo’s face.
“Who the hell are you calling your sister? For three years, you couldn’t give her a single piece of proof. When
have you ever treated her like your sister? Have you ever shared a roof with her?”
“What have you ever solved for her? What makes you think you’ve earned the right to call yourself her
brother?”
Leo must not have slept in a long time.
He collapsed. Ungraceful. Weak.
Ethan lunged again. Mom and I pulled him back.
I rubbed his head.
“Don’t be reckless. Let me talk to him.”
Ethan’s eyes went wet. Furious.
“Talk about what? Are you seriously going back to him?”
I smiled. A little sad.
“What are you saying? You think I’m stupid?”
He wiped his eyes. Snorted. Turned his back.
Mom sighed and tugged him back a few steps.
Leo staggered to his feet.
Braced himself against the wall.
Shaking all over.
He pulled out a document. A consent form the school.
“The proof issue. I fixed it. You don’t have to stay tied to them.”
“I told you to wait. I told you I’d solve it. Why… why didn’t you listen to me?”
I stared at that paper.
The date was fresh.
It would’ve been fast to process. Probably simple.
I laughed.
“Very recent date. Should’ve been pretty quick to arrange, right?”
The color drained from his face.
“I… I had cash flow problems at the time. I couldn’t-”
All this time. I’d craved an explanation. Something to prove I hadn’t been easy to discard. Easy to set aside.
Now here it was. This flimsy piece of paper.
Ridiculous. Pathetic.
I cut him off.
“So cash flow problems, but you could still buy Chloe a house? Spend tens of thousands on her graduation
party?”
My eyes were calm. Unmoved.
Leo’s legs buckled.
Every trace of color vanished.
“You’re right. I messed up. But I always thought you’d have everything eventually. If I didn’t make it up to her now, it would scar her mentally.”
“Maybe my actions were wrong. But this is my first time dealing with something like this. I didn’t know what to do. I really didn’t. I never meant to not treasure you.”
“Joyce. Are you really going to throw away our reunion over a house? Over a party? I waited thirteen years
for you.”
His voice was wrecked. Grief-stricken.
But the look on his face stirred nothing in me.
It was just a desperate, disgusting expression. A man who knew exactly what he’d done wrong but refused to admit it. So he pulled the blood card.
He was still just that little boy trying to prove himself to his parents. He couldn’t let that go.
If I left him, he’d never get the chance to prove it.
He wasn’t a good brother.
I let out a cold laugh.
“We were never family. We were never reunited.”
“You say your actions were just wrong. But all these years, you never once asked what I liked. Everything you brought me was either something Chloe wanted or something I hated.”
“Afterward, you’d always say, ‘If you don’t like it, I’ll swap it out. Ask yourself. Would you ever do that to Chloe? You etch everything she loves into your brain.”
“But you never did that for me. And that’s not all. You stuck me in a studio apartment. Never introduced me to our parents’ friends or relatives. Dumped the people Chloe rejected at my graduation party like scraps.”
“Then you said you’d stay with me. And snuck out the second she called.”
“You said it yourself. You only brought me home to fulfill our parents’ dying wish. You said you’d ship me off to a branch office. Or marry me off. You said in your heart, Chloe would always be your only sister.”
