"Ash...Come here..."
After Rose made up her mind to tell him the bitter truth, she called Asher despite her sore throat.
"Mother...How are you feeling? What should I do? Shall I call a doctor?"
Asher didn't let her talk, instead asked her pitifully.
He didn't want his mother and uncle to die. If so, he would be left alone.
"Asher...It's useless. Don't try in vain. Instead, let me tell you something important."
She held Asher's hand and said weakly.
Asher paid all his attention to her because he was afraid that her energy might go down if she forced herself more.
"Asher...I...I am not your mother."
Rose said and waited to catch Asher's reaction. He looked a bit stunned and he really thought his mother was testing him.
"Mother...What are you saying?"
Asher asked helplessly because his mother looked very serious.
"Asher...All these years, I have been lying to you about a lot of things. Now I feel like it's my time to leave this world. So I want you to know the truth. Will you listen to me?"
Asher actually didn't want to believe anything. However, when he saw the look on his mother's face, he couldn't say anything.
He knew she was telling the truth. Something he never expected to hear from her.
"You actually don't have a mother. The one who gave birth to you was actually a man. And things are a little complicated and you must not think unnecessary things...I and your father..."
Rose folded all the memories she had built with Blake as she felt like she was still living in that dream.
She went back to that past to recall every single memory and let Asher know everything...Everything...
...
30 years ago,
"Hey! I told you I want it! Why did you eat that?"
The 13 years old Rose asked pitifully from the boy next to her. The boy laughed and shoved the last piece of bun into his mouth in a teasing manner.
"Blake! You donkey!"
She hit him as she blamed him, but her anger didn't seem like something that serious.
Blake and Rose were best friends. Mostly like they were siblings.
Blake had no parents and Rose's mother found him on the street starving and begging for food. She just couldn't ignore him, so she decided to raise him even though she as a single mother was already raising her daughter and son with great difficulty.
Blake had always been grateful for her kindness.
Rose and Nick also treated him well as they got along pretty quickly.
While Rose and Blake were arguing over a bun, Nick came there to their sound.
"Ya! Are you serious? Again?"
Nick had got used to their bickering and he was pissed when he heard them again.
Their lives continued peacefully and happily until suddenly their mother died. After her death, the three couldn't feel any energy. They were like they had lost their souls. So far, it was their mother who took care of them despite her troubles. But then they had to take care of themselves without any more comfort or that warm affection.
The house without her, felt very empty.
They had lost their most important person.
"Here...eat it. You look skinny."
Unlike before, Blake would always save his bun for Rose. She felt he was doing it for good. But she couldn't let Blake give everything to her.
"No...no...You eat it."
Both of them bickered before to decide who would eat the bun. And after all those troubles, they would bicker to refuse the bun.
Nick was tired of it too. Rose and Blake, they always cared for each other. So he always shut his mouth and ate his part.
After their mother died, it was Nick who decided to do work and earn money to feed them. He went to collect wood and later he learned to hunt too.
However, as a boy, Blake couldn't sit at home waiting for Nick to do all the hard work. So he also joined Nick and both of them worked hard to grow the family.
Things were going on as always. As Nick's and Blake's skills in doing work got bigger, the amount of money they earned also increased.
So life also became a little better.
As all of them reached 20, there was another problem.
Save their Rose from men proposing to her!
Rose grew into a pretty young lady. Even though her clothes looked poor, she had that natural beauty any man would love.
Rose had got more than five marriage proposals. However, all of those men didn't have a good family background or enough salary to feed her.
How would those two brothers let them marry their precious sister they raised doting that much?
"Rose, do you have a person you like? We can talk to him for you..."
One day, Blake asked Rose while she was reading a letter from another man.
"Yeah! I will talk to him. If he doesn't like, we will kidnap him and marry him to you!"
As always, Nick said dumbly but proudly.
"What are you saying!"
Rose hit Nick and said.
"I don't want to marry yet. If I have an idea, I will tell you. So don't ask me for now..."
Rose threw the letter away as she said to the two handsome boys, looking at their sister with hopes piled up to the sky.
"Oh..."
After that, neither Blake nor Nick asked about it.
Another few months passed like that.
And finally Rose said she has someone she likes.
Both Nick and Blake were over the moon. They were excited to know that man who stole her heart.
"He was the one who proposed to me first. He is handsome and very kind. I was a little moved by his gentleness."
Seeing her explaining about him, blushing like she had never done before, Nick and Blake looked at each other in confusion.
Of course they don't know how it felt to fall in love. All that ran through their minds was about giving a good life to their precious sister.
"His name is Eiden. And he said he is the secretary of the count. Actually, it has already been a month. We spent a few times together in the streets. I think I really like him. He is the person I want to marry!"
She finished her speech stunning her brothers. They thought they would have to approach that guy and convince him. But hearing Rose had already dealt with everything, they were speechless.
"Then ask him to meet us. We also want to see him..."
Nick and Blake were very interested to meet that person. And hearing he was the secretary of the count, they were even more amazed. Their sister had caught the eyes of a big fish.
They were happy about her.
But little did they know.
Their lives were fated to be that way...painful...
They expected the cheers to enter their lives and make their lives better. But instead, they fell into more and more darkness falling to the darkest abyss...