My Brother Never Gave Me a Home Chapter 07
Third-Person POV
Leo was still in the island resort with Chloe when he found out.
That Joyce Harper had completed her school enrollment.
The night before, he’d had a dream.
His parents. Joyce. Him.
The four of them sitting around the dinner table in their old house. The one before the mansion.
His parents raising their glasses. Celebrating Joyce getting into a top university. Saying she’d brought honor to the family.
“You two. One takes over the business. One goes into research. Take care of each other. Live well.”
“Seeing you both so accomplished now. We can rest easy.”
His mother, smiling, serving Joyce food.
His father, clapping him on the shoulder.
Leo had raised his glass, grinning. About to speak.
Then the ringtone tore through it.
He woke up.
His shoulder still tingled with the phantom warmth of his father’s hand.
He closed his eyes, trying to sink back in.
The ringtone came again.
The sleep vanished. The smile that had curved his lips died when he saw the caller ID.
[Chloe]
A hollow ache settled in his chest. The gap between the dream and reality was too sharp.
He answered.
“Leo, I had a nightmare. I’m so scared.”
Out of habit, he knocked on her hotel room door.
When he saw her red-rimmed eyes and tear-streaked face, something in him softened.
She threw herself into his arms.
“Leo, I dreamed you brought Joyce back and got rid of me. You kicked me out.”
Before, those words would’ve gutted him with pity. He’d have told her, again and again, that she’d always be
his sister.
But now, that dream without Chloe kept flashing through his head.
Like a reminder.
The person standing here on this trip shouldn’t be Chloe.
Or at least, shouldn’t be just her.
He’d found his biological sister. Brought her back.
So why was nothing as good as that dream?
He gently pushed Chloe away and coaxed her back to bed.
But he didn’t sleep.
He scrolled through his phone deep into the night. Joyce hadn’t sent a single message since two months
ago. Since he’d told her the proof had to wait.
An unease crept in.
He had his assistant check on her.
When the assistant stammered out that Joyce had already moved to Crestwood and completed her
enrollment, Leo was furious.
He fired off the message without thinking:
[Who helped you get that proof?]
[Why can’t you just wait?]
[Why did you do it?]
[Why would you be this reckless?]
But minutes after sending it, regret hit him like a wave.
He’d failed to give her what she needed for three years.
In her most critical moment, he’d still chosen to soothe Chloe over securing Joyce’s future.
He had no right to question any choice she made.
He remembered the moment she’d handed back the key.
The words she’d spoken.
“I want to go home.”
A hollowed-out feeling carved through him.
He’d brought her back. How could he let her return to a family with no blood ties?
Leo thought for a long time.
Then he came up with a solution.
Throw money at the institute. Get the school to admit her directly. To hell with the Crestwood residency
proof.
Once she got what she wanted, once that acceptance was in her hands-she’d come back. Wouldn’t she?
A surge of urgency hit him.
He told his assistant to handle it immediately and booked flights home.
When it was all set, he messaged Joyce. An apology. An explanation. The solution.
He was sure this would fix everything.
Then he looked at the screen.
[Failed to send.]
