Love, Lies and Billionaires

“I bet you think you’re better than me,” Kendrick echoed with a menacing grin on his face. “Did you ever think about why he treated us that way?” He asked rhetorically.

“Because he knew the little boys who mom gave birth to. Mom was smart, too smart and yes, it did rub on us both and that was what dad was scared off,” Kendrick explained and Alexander just watched him in anger.

Kendrick folded his arms and moved away from the table, but kept his eyes on his little brother. “How about a little story time, hmm?”

He walked over to the fridge and took out a bottle of beer. “By the way, this is the best where I come from.” He uncocked it and took a few gulps.

“We used to be so close, Alexander. I mean, we only had each other. Mom was busy, dad was busy, we were alone. It wasn’t any better when they both began having issues.”

“I’m sure you can remember that part vividly because you were a victim of their violence once,” he said and took another gulp.

“One thing you never noticed, dear gullible brother of mine, is that dad envied mom. He saw so much potential and ambition in her that it scared him off, so he wanted to suppress that ambition, but she refused.

“She wanted to expand, go all out with her business. She was steadfast and strong-willed that she never listened to dad and was what resulted in their issues and eventually, your father filed for a divorce with the claim that she was disrespectful.”

“You’re just saying all this because you were her favourite,” Alexander spat.

“And I guess the reason has become clear now, right? While you were busy hiding behind dad’s legs, mom pumped me with her zeal.”

“She make me see things in a way neither you nor dad saw or reasoned even till the dad she left us with dad and walked out the door”

“You, Alexander, were too foolish to read between the lines. Too blind to see what dad was actually doing and what he succeeded in doing.”

“What? He chose and limited our friends, while our age mates fucked and drenched themselves in PS. He bent out necks in his bloody documents”

“You should be grateful, sonic,” Alexander said and folded his arms.

Kendrick scoffed and turned to the fridge, then pulled out another bottle of bear and passed it to his brother.

“I think you need this right now,” he offered. Alexander looked at the bottle, then army Kendrick, before collecting it and taking a gulp.

Kendrick walked away from him and was not strolling around the room, beer in hand and looking around. “He wasn’t doing us a favour, Einstein. He was making us who he wanted us to be, how he wanted us to be. ”

“He knew that definitely if he’d let us we would have been better than him because, of course, mom’s smartness rubbed off on us both. Dad never wanted anyone to do better than him.”

“Always wanting to have the upper hand in everything, so it decided to groom us and stop us when we showed signs of bigger ideas.”

“He made any idea we had look bad and worthless and you would have noticed that if you hadn’t stuck your hand a thousand inches up your own ass”

“I saw that. “I observed that, and not just because he was hard on me, but because of the numerous times I received scolding for deciding to make apple pies from apples,” he added.

“So when I decided to finally have some balls, I confronted him, but of course he brushed it aside and called me ungrateful.”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

He took a sip from his bottle and smiled at Alexander’s angry and astonished look on his face.

“That, baby brother, was the only trigger I needed to tell myself that I needed to leave and be my own man” he paused and chuckled. “god, I can remember that night like it was yesterday”

“He threatened to disown me, but still, I left because I was done being a pussy. I made you an offer to come with me, but as usual, you chickened out and hid away in your room as he ordered you to, Alexander.”

Kendrick paused and smiled, then turned to his brother. “I remember looking up and seeing you watching me leave through the window and all I could think of is what he would do to you”

“Evidently, I was not wrong,” he concluded and walked away from his brother, who now had his fists clenched.

“I was sixteen-”

“And dad had you at the balls?” Kendrick interrupted, playing with a globe, which he had picked from a shelf. “You had a chance to make a choice, but you chose to keep being in his shadows. All for what? Little credit and a part from his will?”

“All he made you do was see everyone as a competition just like he did”

“He made me into a man. And you’re just saying all this because you know I was always better than you.”

Kendrick chuckled, making Alexander’s tight grip on the bottle burst it apart.

“I’m sure he told you that the minute I left the house. Come to think of it, why do you think he began calling you Tim?” He asked, ignoring the mess all over his office floor but Alexander kept silent.

He walked over to his chair and sat with complete amusement.

“I was once worthy of that name but when I refused to be his puppet, he threw it at the next available person who was just gullible enough to swallow whatever was fed to him” his face became serious. “He never even had the balls to legally disown me. ”

“Look around you,, Alex. My company is the third most successful in the state. You think a daddy’s boy would have done that? I’m going to rise above that soon, man. I’m sure of it,” he said with a satisfied and victorious smile.

At this point, it was obvious that there was nothing else Alexander could say of this eye opening revelation. He had completely been in the dark about so many things for so long.

He finally stood up from where he sat.

“You can say whatever crap you choose, but what I know is I only, had the right to pull that plug”

“Oh, come on, I had to. He was in pain, you are torturing him-”

“You think I don’t know that?!” He bellowed

Kendrick paused, taken aback. He raised a brow. “Oh wow, someone’s got some dark shit going on”