Chapter 135: Talking with my brother

Casey’s POV

I looked toward the doorway. Victoria was still standing there, watching us with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. I looked back at him. “Your parents?”

He nodded and then something clicked and my stomach tighten. I looked at him more carefully. “You're...”

He nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

My heart began pounding. “You're my brother.”

His smile was nervous but genuine. “Apparently, I'm your younger brother.”

I stared at him. I'd spent twenty-two years believing I was an only child except for Rebecca and now I was sitting across from a stranger who shared my parents, my blood, and a family history I knew almost nothing about.

“I didn't know I had a brother.”

“I know.” He looked down at his hands for a moment before meeting my eyes again. “I grew up knowing I had a sister. I just spent my whole life believing she had died.”

My chest tightened. “And then Mom and Dad told you they found me?”

He nodded. “A few days ago.”

I looked at him, still struggling to understand how strange our situation was. He had known about me his entire life, while I had never even known he existed. “So you've always known about me,” I said quietly.

“About the sister I thought I'd lost, yes.” His expression softened. “I just never imagined I'd actually get the chance to meet you.”

Something about the way he said it made the situation feel less frightening. He wasn't pretending this was normal because he knew it wasn't. “I've never done this before,” I admitted.

“Neither have I.”

I smiled. “So we're both terrible at being siblings.”

He laughed. “Looks like it.”

The tension between us eased a little. He studied me for a moment before saying, “I really have wanted to meet you since Mom and Dad told me.”

That caught me off guard. “You have?”

“Of course.”

I looked down at my hands. “What did they tell you?”

“The truth. Or at least everything they know.” He hesitated. “I know they lost you when you were a baby. I know they spent years believing you were dead. And I know you're here now.”

I swallowed.

Nathan's expression softened. “I don't want you to think I'm uncomfortable with you being here.”

“I don't.”

“I mean it,” he said, his voice becoming more serious. “You're my sister. I might not know you yet, but that doesn't make that part any less true.”

I looked at him for a moment. “Thank you.”

He smiled faintly. “I've never had a sister.”

“And I've never had a brother.”

He considered that. “So we're both going to have to figure this out.”

I laughed. “Apparently.”

He grinned. “I think I can work with that.”

Something about him was immediately easy. Maybe it was the humor. Maybe it was because he didn't look at me like I was fragile or broken. He wasn't treating me like some tragedy that had walked through the front door.

He was simply trying to get to know me and somehow, that made me feel more comfortable than I expected.

“What do you study?” I asked.

“Business.”

“At university?”

“Yeah.”

He told me where he studied, and I recognized the name immediately. “That's a good university.”

Nathan laughed. “That's what Dad says every time he introduces me to someone.”

I smiled. “Are you doing well?”

“Depends who you ask.”

“Your father?”

“Then apparently I'm doing exceptionally well.”

I laughed. He smiled before his expression became thoughtful. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

He hesitated. “Do you hate me?”

The question caught me completely off guard. “What?”

“I know none of this is my fault,” he said quickly. “I know that. But I grew up here. I had the life you should have had. I had Mom and Dad, birthdays, Christmases, school events everything.”

I understood what he was trying to say. He wasn't asking because he thought I'd blame him. He was asking because he'd probably wondered about it himself.

I looked at him carefully. “I don't hate you, Nathan.” His shoulders relaxed. “I couldn't hate you for something you didn't do.”

He gave me a small smile. “Good. Because I don't hate you either.”

I laughed softly. “That would have made this much more awkward.”

“It really would have.”

We both laughed, and for the first time, the strangeness of the situation felt a little less overwhelming and then Nathan leaned forward. “Can I ask you about your life?”

“Sure.”

“Not the horrible stuff,” he added quickly. “I mean, I want to know about that eventually if you want to tell me, but I don't want the first thing I learn about you to be everything that went wrong.”

I appreciated that more than he probably realized. “Okay.”

He smiled. “So what are you like?”

I laughed softly. “That's a difficult question.”

“Why?”

“Because I don't know what you're actually asking.”

He thought about it for a moment. “What makes you happy?”

That answer came easily. “Books.”

His face lit up. “Mom told me.”

I blinked. “She did?”

“Yeah. She said you love reading.”

I laughed softly. “Of course she did.”

“Do you have a favorite kind?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I don't know if I have one favorite. I read a little of everything.”

He smiled. “That sounds like something I could actually ask you about without Mom already knowing the answer.”

I laughed. “Probably.”

He leaned back against the sofa, looking more relaxed now. “What about you? What do you like doing when you're not reading?”

I smiled. “Singing.”

His eyebrows lifted. “You sing?”

“Apparently.”

“Apparently?”

I laughed. “I mean, I know I do. I just never really thought about it as something interesting.”

“I think it's interesting.”

I smiled at him. “What about you?”

“Hockey.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I've played for years.”

I smiled. “I know someone who plays.”

“Chris?”

I looked at him. “How do you know Chris?”

“Mom.”

I laughed. “She really tells you everything.”

Nathan grinned. “She has been waiting twenty-two years to have someone to talk about you with.”

The words hit me harder than I expected and I looked down.

Nathan's expression immediately softened. “Sorry.”

“No.” I swallowed. “It's okay.”

He leaned forward slightly. “I want to know you.”

I looked back at him. “What?”

“I mean it.” His expression was completely sincere. “You're my sister. I don't care that we didn't grow up together. None of that was our choice.”

My eyes began to burn and Nathan smiled. “We've got a lot of catching up to do.”

A tear slipped down my cheek before I could stop it. Nathan looked alarmed. “Oh, no.”

I laughed through my tears. “I'm okay.”

“You're crying.”

“I noticed.”

He looked completely helpless for a second before asking, “Do I hug you?”

I laughed. “Do you want to?”

“Yes.”

“Then I suppose you should.”

He stood immediately, and I rose too and for a second, we simply looked at each other then he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me. The hug wasn't awkward and it wasn't hesitant. It was warm and firm, and something inside me loosened as I closed my eyes.

My little brother, well, he wasn't little he was nineteen but somehow, the words still felt right. I had a brother and he had accepted me without asking me to prove that I belonged. When we finally pulled apart, Nathan wiped beneath one eye and gave me an embarrassed smile. “I'm blaming you if anyone sees me crying.”

I laughed softly. “I won't tell.”

“Good.” Then he glanced toward the doorway. Victoria was still standing there, tears running down her cheeks. Nathan smiled. “Mom.”

She laughed through her tears. “I'm sorry.”

He shook his head and opened one arm toward her. “Come here.”

Victoria walked over, and Nathan wrapped an arm around her while I stood beside them, smiling through my own tears and for the first time, the three of us stood together. Mother, daughter and son. A family that had been separated before any of us had even understood what had happened and standing there, looking at the two people who had spent twenty-two years grieving me and the brother I had only just discovered, I realized that I hadn't simply found my parents.

I'd gained a brother too and Nathan wasn't looking at me like I was the daughter who had returned and changed everything. He was looking at me like I was his sister as though that was the simplest thing in the world.