The realization slammed into Max like a punch to the gut.
He felt like a complete fool, how had he not seen it earlier? Now, piece by piece, everything was starting to fit together.
Someone the old Max had trusted enough to leave a video for... yet hadn't shared any details with?
It could have only been another family member.
And considering that Max had already lost his parents, there wasn't much family he had left in the world, of course he would have cherished someone like Aron.
Cherished him so much that he hadn't wanted Aron tangled up in all of this mess.
At the end of the day, there wasn't just one target that the Stern family could strike at, there were two.
"My brother?" Max finally said, voice low with disbelief. "But… wait, a Stern wouldn't just work as a security guard. Does that mean…?"
"I was adopted," Aron explained, his tone calm but heavy.
"Which means I am not truly a member of the Stern family.
"I was adopted by your parents, Max. By your family, not by the Stern family itself."
An adopted family member. It had to have been for a long time, Max figured, long enough for them to feel this close, for Aron to speak about it with such weight.
"I want to make that distinction clear, Max," Aron said, his voice steady. "I know this might be a shock to you, but everything I'm about to tell you is the truth. And I hope that by telling you all of this, you'll see you can trust me, because I want nothing more than to help you."
Max stayed quiet, letting him continue.
"Your parents weren't like the other members of the Stern family," Aron said. "They didn't use their wealth to try and grow it even more. But at the same time, it was almost impossible to completely separate themselves from it. Instead, they chose to focus on more charitable goals.
"One of those was helping war-torn countries. And they weren't the type to just set up a foundation and slap their names on it, they traveled to those countries themselves. They wanted to see the suffering firsthand, to know exactly how they could make a difference."
Aron took a breath, his hand resting over his heart.
"And me... I was a war orphan," he said. "From the age of six, I was trained to fight. By eight, I was considered useful. We had no parents, no family... just survival. That was the only thing we were taught."
"When the war stopped, though," Aron continued, his voice growing heavier, "we were no longer useful.
We were just another mouth to feed. And so, they threw us away."
He clenched his fists slightly, a tremble running through his fingers.
"There are people in the world who say they have problems, who say they live every day hungry… But real hunger, real pain, it's something I wouldn't wish on anyone."
Aron's eyes darkened with the memory.
"It was a hell I never want to return to. And it was your parents who pulled me out of that nightmare.
When they came, they fed us. They saw us as human beings. And I did my best to return the favor.
I helped them whenever I could, however I could."
Max sat quietly, absorbing every word, his heart feeling heavier with each one.
"Unfortunately," Aron said, his voice lowering, "good things don't always happen to good people. The village I lived in... it wasn't full of saints. There were some bad people there too. When they found out who your parents really were, they hatched a plan. They wanted to kidnap them, hold them ransom for money."
Aron's jaw tightened, his shame palpable.
"I couldn't turn my back on the ones who freed me from my suffering.So I told your parents what was happening. I warned them to get out before it was too late. And that was when they decided to take me with them."
It was certainly a hard story for Max to fully grasp. He believed he had grown up with a bad life, but he was reminded in that moment.
There were people all over the world that had grown up in these situations, that were even far worse than his own.
"When they brought me back, that is when I met you Max, you were only four years younger than me, but you were excited and accepted me as your brother.
"Your whole family accepted me, they cared for me and they treated me well. It is a debt that I could never pay back even over several lifetimes, and then that dreaded day had come.
"It was now a little over a year ago, when your parents had died in a car crash. Both of them taken out. With no one to look after you, I had gone to Dennis Stern himself, and asked him, I requested, to allow him to make me your head guard.
"I promised from that day onwards I would not let the last family member in my family perish as long as they were under my watch, and Dennis had granted my wish."
If Max was being honest with himself, he kind of felt bad for not believing in Aron after hearing him pour his heart out like this.
Wait, why am I feeling bad? Max thought to himself. How was I supposed to know all of this? He was the one that kept it hidden, that he was my brother, and no one said anything to me... but still, this certainly does make him more trustable now.
"The reason why things are so hard for me is because of the position I'm in," Aron explained. "My loyalty is with you, Max, to my family.
"I will do anything you ask me. And when you made those requests, you didn't ask me as the head of the Stern Security team for you. You asked me as your brother. At the same time though, being a part of the Stern family means there's only so much I can do.
"This position gives me the ability to look out for you better than if I wasn't connected at all. It gives me more power... but in a lot of ways, it also takes power away. I can't step out of line when it comes to matters involving members of the Stern family, and that leaves me stuck in a very difficult position."
After learning all of that, Max decided there was only one thing he could do. He got off the bed and reached out his hand toward Aron.
"I understand the tough position you're in. Not just you, but me as well," Max said. "And to get out of it, we're going to need to work together."
Max's voice was steady, his eyes sharp with resolve.
"So I'm going to ask you now, no matter what I ask you to do, no matter what kind of help I need, I need you to promise you'll do it. No questions asked.
"And I'm not asking this as a member of the Stern Security team," Max added. "I'm asking this as your brother.
"Will you help me?"
There was no hesitation. Aron stood up instantly, a light shining in his eyes as he firmly took Max's hand in his.
"What do you need me to do?" Aron asked, his face turning dead serious in an instant. "Who do you need me to kill?"
"What?!" Max replied, completely taken aback.