Chapter 288: Thank you for Accepting me as your brother

Chapter 288: Thank you for Accepting me as your brother

Kayden

When I opened Rhys’s front door and saw Raymond standing on the threshold with a stack of luggage, I completely froze, simply staring at him in utter disbelief.

My eyes widened in shock, my mind struggling to process why he was standing outside this penthouse instead of being locked away behind the gates of the Calder estate. But before I could even utter a single word, Raymond suddenly moved forward, throwing his arms around me and hugging me tightly.

For a fraction of a second, every protective instinct inside me flared.

A dark wave of memory crashed over me, reminding me of every cruel, malicious thing Linda had done to me—how terribly she had treated me, how she had tossed me aside like garbage. I wanted nothing more than to aggressively push him away from my body. But as his desperate grip tightened, reality pulled me back. Raymond wasn’t her. He was a completely separate person, and there was absolutely no reason for him to suffer or be punished for the sins of his mother.

Slowly, the tension drained from my posture. I raised my hands and gently wrapped my arms around him, hugging him back.

Rhys had raced off to the Calder estate under the assumption that Raymond was there, completely unaware that the boy had taken matters into his own hands to find us. The absolute first thing I did after leading Raymond inside and helping him settle his bags was call Rhys, quickly informing him that his runaway brother was sitting safely in our living room.

A few minutes later, Raymond and I were sitting directly across from each other on Rhys’s large brown couch. The silence stretched between us, thick and agonizingly awkward.

I stared at him, my mind spinning because I genuinely had no idea what to say to him.

The only other time we had ever interacted was that chaotic morning he first showed up here. I desperately wanted to break the ice, to say something comforting, but the words caught like sandpaper in my throat, refusing to form.

I mean, who could have ever predicted this? Who would have thought that I would be casually seated across from a biological brother I didn’t even know existed just a few short months ago?

"So..." we both blurted out at the exact same time.

The sudden overlap cut through the tension, and we both let out a small, breathless laugh, the awkwardness reducing just a little.

"You go first," I said, pointing a finger toward him.

Raymond quickly shook his head, scratching the back of his neck nervously before pointing right back at me. "No, you."

I nodded slowly, letting my gaze linger on his face for a moment. Up close, the striking, undeniable resemblance he had to our mother was overwhelming. It was almost jarring, like staring directly at a mirror image of Linda—he possessed the exact same deep brown eyes and the same rich, brunette hair.

I didn’t realize exactly how long I had been spacing out, completely lost in the haunting familiarity of his features, until Raymond reached out and sharply snapped his fingers right in front of my face.

"Uh, hello?" he muttered, waving his hand in front of my eyes.

I blinked rapidly, tearing myself out of the memory. I forced a reassuring smile onto my face, though it took an immense amount of effort to suppress the instinctive wave of disgust that arose from thinking about Linda while looking at him.

"I know you must absolutely hate me for everything that’s happened," Raymond began, shifting uncomfortably on the cushions, his shoulders hunched inward. "But please, believe me when I say I had absolutely no idea that I had another brother out there somewhere." He rubbed his face roughly with his hands, his voice beginning to crack. "For years, my mother..." He cut himself off, a sharp, choked hiccup breaking through his chest as the tears caught up to him.

I stood up from the couch immediately, needing to give him a moment to breathe. "Let me get you some water. I should have offered you something the moment you walked in. My bad."

Before Raymond could even attempt to protest, I was already retreating into the kitchen. I poured a cold glass of water, using those few seconds to collect my own racing thoughts.

When I returned to the living room, I handed the glass over to him. He grabbed it desperately, tilting it back and drinking from it rapidly. As he held the glass to his lips, I couldn’t help but notice how violently his hands were shaking against the crystal.

"Hey, calm down. I’m not going to bite you," I said gently, offering him a soft, grounding smile as I took the empty glass from his trembling fingers and walked it back to the kitchen counter.

When I stepped back into the living room, he was leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees. As our eyes met again, I gave him a small nod, beckoning for him to continue. "Just take your time, Raymond. Talk calmly to me."

He nodded, heaving a deep, ragged sigh to steady his breathing. "My mother... she never told me she had another child. I was completely left in the dark for so many years. And when the truth finally came out—when I realized I had a brother and it was you, I couldn’t even believe it. Because... god, I treated you so terribly the first time we met." He sniffled loudly, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand.

"I was so incredibly spoiled by the family, Kayden. I was always treated so much better than Rhys. My mother spent my entire life making me believe that Rhys absolutely hated me, that he was going to inherit everything and leave me with nothing if I didn’t constantly fight for my position in the family. That’s how she bred the hatred in me. She made me despise my own brother." He let out a shaky breath, placing a hand over his chest as another heavy sob threatened to break through.

Raymond buried his face in his hands, his shoulders violently trembling as the weight of the realization crushed him. For a split second, I felt the strong urge to reach out and pull his hands away, to comfort him right then and there. But I had learned over the years that when someone is finally voicing their deep-seated hurt and unpacking their trauma, you have to let them get it all out before you try to fix it. So, I stayed still, letting him cry.

"I can’t believe I spent my whole life hating my brothers just because of the poison my mother fed me," he whispered, finally lifting his tear-stained face to look at me. "Do you want to know what the absolute worst part about all of this is?"

"What is it?" I asked, keeping my voice incredibly soft.

"I found out... I found out that one of the main reasons she abandoned you was because you were born an omega." Raymond’s voice broke completely, a fresh wave of agony washing over his face. "And the moment I heard that, I remembered the awful, elitist things I said to you the first time we met. What the hell makes me any different from her, Kayden? I judged you so harshly, without ever realizing how brutally hard you had to work just to survive and get to where you are today. I..."

He clenched his fist and fiercely punched his own chest, the guilt completely consuming him as the tears poured down his cheeks. "I deserve to be slapped by you. You should kick me out, do whatever you want to me... because I spent my entire life enjoying the luxury that you were supposed to live. I became the wanted, cherished son, while you were forced to suffer in the dark."

He burst into a violent fit of tears, his legs giving out as he slid off the couch and fell directly to his knees on the floor. "I am so incredibly sorry for everything that happened to you. I am so sorry, Kayden."

I couldn’t sit there and watch him degrade himself like that for another second. The sight of my younger brother brought to his knees by the guilt of a life he hadn’t chosen shattered the last of my reservations.

I lunged forward, firmly grabbing his arms to pull him up from the floor, and hauled him directly into my chest, wrapping him in a fierce, protective hug. Since he was about two inches taller than me, he instantly collapsed into my frame, burying his face heavily into my shoulder.

"I’m so sorry," he whispered over and over, his voice muffled and cracking against my shirt as his body shook with heavy sniffling. "I’m so, so sorry."

"It’s alright, Raymond. Let it go," I told him softly, running a hand up his back to soothe him. "You were a victim in all of this, just like I was. She manipulated both of us. But you chose to walk away from that estate. You decided to come here on your own terms to get to know me, and that’s all that matters. I truly hope that from here on out, we can become the best brothers possible, no matter what lies behind us."

"Me too," he whispered into my shoulder, his grip tightening around me as a small sense of relief finally settled into his chest. "Thank you... thank you for accepting me as your brother, Kayden."

I didn’t say anything else. I just closed my eyes and held onto him tighter, letting the silent embrace speak for itself.