Aidan
I sway my chair from side to side, closing my eyes as its soft creaking sound soothes my mind. The smoky aroma of my tobacco stick fills my nostrils, enveloping me in an unexplainable wave of pleasure. Hmm… sensational.
The only thing that could rival this feeling is the pleasure my wife gives me. I would sell my soul for more of her.
Ding!
The sound of my phone pulls me out of my trance. I grab it quickly to check the message.
He's awake…
He's awake? My God, he's awake. A chill runs through my body as I read the message over and over again. My brother is awake. Damn! This is news.
I bolt out of my office—or rather, my hideout. It's my private sanctuary, a place to calm my nerves when I have a really strong urge to kill, and today, that urge is suffocating.
Grabbing a nose mask, a baseball cap, and pulling my hoodie over my head, I hide my face. I need to stay unrecognizable before heading out. I get into my car and speed off.
I stop my car in front of a secluded bungalow deep in the woods, a place no one in their right mind would choose to live.
The property is secured with state-of-the-art gadgets—motion sensors, cameras, and alarms. Even a fly wouldn't make it past undetected.
As I step into his room, my eyes meet his for the first time in fifteen years.
"Jayden?" I choke out, my voice trembling as tears blur my vision.
He doesn't respond, but his gaze locks onto mine. My brother. My mentor. The person I idolized as a child.
Jayden and our mother were my role models when I was growing up. My brother was the genius of our family, second only to my mother. If not for the accident that left him in this vegetative state, he would have expanded Armani's empire far beyond its current reach.
I remember how my mother would proudly boast about Jayden being the youngest CEO in the engineering industry. He was a total prodigy. Everything I am today is because of him—his teachings, his guidance. To see him lying here, helpless and half-deformed, is too much to bear.
"Jayden," I call again, but he remains silent, staring at me as though seeing me for the first time.
"He only just woke up," Drew says from behind me. "He can't speak yet. It'll take time."
"How long?" I ask, my throat tight.
"Well, it depends on him. Just be patient."
"Is he going to be okay?"
Drew sighs, his expression grim. "To be honest, he doesn't have long. A year at most, given his condition."
His words hit me like a punch to the gut. Drew is Jayden's best friend and has been by his side all these years. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have even known Jayden was alive. I found out few years after the accident, and even then, Drew was the one who told me. He believes Jayden has evidence about some of the things that led to the accident—things I was too young to understand at the time.
"You should go home," Drew says gently. "I'll let you know when he's ready to talk."
Reluctantly, I nod. He's right. There's nothing I can do now.
Later that evening, I walk into Jayden's old room with a heavy heart. I haven't been in here for years, and stepping inside now floods my mind with memories of the vibrant, unstoppable twenty-five-year-old Jayden.
I remember how I would wait eagerly for him to come home from work, just so I could tell him and my other brothers about my school.
I am the youngest of my mother's children. Jayden, the eldest, is ten years older than me. Adam comes next, eight years older, followed by Caleb, who is six years my senior. Because of this age gap, my brothers treated me more like a son than a sibling. They pampered me, protected me, and made sure I never lacked anything—not even knowledge.
All three of them studied engineering, just like my mother, and they passed their passion on to me. I wanted to follow in their footsteps, but I couldn't openly pursue it. When I enrolled in university, I applied for a medical course. It was Drew's idea. He warned me that if my stepmother found out I wanted to study engineering, she wouldn't hesitate to eliminate me.
I barely escaped her first attempt on my life. I might not be so lucky the second time.
After the accident that nearly took my life, I was deaf and mute for two years. But when I began to recover, I kept it a secret. It was safer to let my stepmother think I was still useless.
My eyes land on the shelf in Jayden's room, where a picture of our mother in her younger days catches my attention. I have a copy of this same photograph tucked away in my closet, hidden because I'm too afraid to look at her.
Beside it is a group photo of all of us—Jayden, Adam, Caleb, our mother, and me. Our father is absent, though I can't remember why.
I pick up the photo and chuckle softly, running my thumb over the glass. We were so happy then.
I remember how my mother used to call me her miracle child. She said she never planned to have me. She discovered she was pregnant with me at the same time she found out my father was cheating on her. She wanted nothing to do with him, and she was devastated by the thought of bringing another child into the world.
She almost terminated the pregnancy, but something stopped her. She believed I was a blessing sent by God. I was their blessing from God and they were mine but they're no longer here
Why am I still alive when they're all gone?
My body trembles as the weight of everything crashes down on me. My knees buckle, and I fall to the floor, clutching the photo tightly. Hot tears stream down my face, and my muffled sobs fill the silent room.
I don't know how long I stay there, shaking with grief, but the pain doesn't fade. It grips me like a vice, unrelenting.
Why couldn't I save them?
Why did I survive when they didn't?
What was my father doing? Why couldn't he save his wife and children?