I was in the kitchen when I heard him call me “little bro” again. It was the same thing every morning, that condescending nickname that made me feel like a kid. I snapped. “Stop calling me that!
” I shouted. “I’m not a little kid anymore. ”
He just laughed. “You’re literally my little brother.
”
“But if it bothers you… ” he started, but I was already grabbing my bag. “I’m going to school. ”
I could feel his eyes on me as I left, but I didn’t care.
I was tired of being treated like a child. Later, I found out that my sister and her friend were planning something. They had found a burner phone in Will’s jacket, a phone he didn’t want anyone to see. They were going to use it to contact Megan, the woman who had been grooming Will.
They were going to confront her. “We’re going to get her to admit what she’s done and then hand it over to the police,” my sister said. I couldn’t believe it. They were actually going to do it.
They were going to succeed where everyone else had failed. Meanwhile, there was chaos at the wedding venue. Carl had flooded the function suite, and the wedding that was supposed to happen tomorrow was in jeopardy. My sister was furious.
“I’m going to kill him,” she said. But there was no time to deal with that. We had to find Megan. We tracked her to a flat.
When we confronted her, she denied everything. “I haven’t groomed anyone,” she said. “Don’t lie,” I said. “That message Will sent you about meeting here, I sent it.
”
She tried to play innocent, but we knew the truth. We demanded to see her phone, and when she refused, things got physical. She screamed for help, and we had to run. It was a mess, but at least we knew where she was now.
Later, I ran into my dad. He was living in his van, trying to make amends. He wanted us to be a family again. “How do you feel about going back to how it was?
” he asked. I didn’t know what to say. He had walked out on us, and now he wanted to come back. I wasn’t sure I could trust him.
But then he started talking to my mom, and things got tense. They started arguing, and I could see the old wounds opening up again. I couldn’t take it. I walked away.
My sister was dealing with her own problems. The wedding was off, and she was heartbroken. “I just canceled the wedding cake that was meant to be cutting tomorrow with the love of my life,” she said. I tried to comfort her, but I didn’t know what to say.
Everything was falling apart. And then there was the issue with Megan. She had reported us for assault, and my sister got a caution. “I’ll do more than grab her top next time I see her,” she said.
“You can’t,” I warned. “She’ll have you banged up if you touch her again. ”
I knew she was right, but it was hard to let it go. In the middle of all this, I found out something about my mom.
She had been hiding something from us, something about my dad. I confronted her. “I know what you did to my dad,” I said. “You stole something from him.
Something important. ”
She denied it, but I could see the guilt in her eyes. “You tell your dad I’ve got nothing of his,” she said. “And if you breathe a word to him or anyone else of where I am, then I swear…
”
I didn’t know what to believe anymore. My family was falling apart, and I was caught in the middle. But then something shifted. My sister and I started talking, and we realized we had to stick together.
We had to protect each other, no matter what. And maybe, just maybe, we could find a way to make things right.
