Chapter 108: Chapter 108

TOBY.

The path I walked down looked like something from the afterlife if you believed in such. White walls flanked both sides of the long hallway and the fluorescent lights above were bright and harsh. The tiles on the floor were also white and the whole place was spotless, with not a speck of dust in sight. The sterile nature of the passageway gave an eerie feel that had me feeling more nervous than I already was.

The nurse in front of me made a turn and entered another room, I followed him. Inside the room was less sterile, it had cream walls and a cosy feel to it. Aiden was seated on a bed, looking like he usually would except for his clothes.

He was wearing something that looked like a cross between pyjamas and scrubs. He ignored the both of us, behaving almost like nobody entered the room. The nurse asked if I was comfortable being alone with him and I said I was, even though I wasn't so sure. I wanted to have one last discussion with him in relative privacy. I spotted a security camera at the corner of the room and I knew they would be watching us. That gave me a level of security. I never thought the day would come when I would feel unsafe around Aiden.

I waited for the nurse to leave before I spoke, "is it true what the media's saying?"

He doesn't look up from the book he is reading, "look around you, I have no link to the outside world so you might want to tell me what the media is saying."

"That we are brothers."

He finally looked up, his face breaking out in a wide smile. He put down his book, and I had all his attention, "I thought you would figure it out yourself but I gave you too much credit. You are so slow."

"So you knew all this while, then why treat me like this? Why would you betray me like this?" I questioned, walking closer to the bed not knowing how to feel. I had a brother, I'd always seen Aiden as a brother but this was different.

"You were the favoured child," he said.

'I never quite felt favoured,' I wanted to say but then he kept going.

"The legitimate son, the heir and I was supposed to just stand by and watch." The resentment in his voice cut deep.

"I get it, dad could have done better with us. The least he could have done was recognize you as his son but still, how could you let the situation turn you bitter?"

He laughed, "you're here to preach peace and reconciliation aren't you? Well, I'm not interested."

"I'm sorry for any way I might have wronged you," I said. He stood up from his bed and laughed in my face.

"You think sorry can fix this, sorry won't get me out of a mental institution, sorry won't make me the favoured son, sorry won't make me you."

"Why would you ever want to be me? You're a great guy."

"Yet, I'm here and you're out there living the life I want with the woman I want."

"You know that whatever you had with her wasn't real, if it was real then how can you explain Yasmin, or hurting her? You were just blinded by your obsession with being me."

"Don't tell me how I feel," he yelled. "I wish you were dead then maybe someone would finally pick me over you." My limbs went limp at his statement. I leaned on a nearby wall not knowing what to say, his issues ran deep and I was not equipped to handle them.

'What could I have done? Could I have helped him?'

That was the last thought on my mind before his hands wrapped around my throat and began an attempt to squeeze the life out of me, even with cuffs on his hands. Everything happened so fast, one minute I was just standing there, trying to take his words and he was a few steps in front of me fuming with rage.

Help came before any further damage could be done, as fast as it took him to cross the room and wrap his hands around my throat but those moments between life and death always seem like the longest. When they pried him off me, my legs failed me, I crouched down and watched as they wrestled him down to the bed, strapped him in and injected him with something that had his crazed movements slowing down and finally coming to a halt and falling asleep.

With dazed movement, I made my way out of the establishment and to the waiting car. My family had always been a mess, but in private, behind closed doors. Not out in the open like this. Everything was a mess.

Later that night while I brushed my teeth, the man in the mirror looked like a shadow of the old me. My eyes looked blank and I was thinner than before. It had been almost one week without hearing from the people I loved. I crawled into bed, hoping tomorrow would be better, hoping the nightmares would stay at bay.

My wish that my tomorrow would be better came true when my mother contacted me with an address of where to meet her. We sat on the balcony of the guest house to talk when she gave me the shock of my life.

"Mom, don't you think you should wait till things cool down a bit?" I was seeing my mother for the first time since the scandal broke and we were talking about some really heavy stuff for a reunion. It had been almost a week since she had just up and left right in the middle of the storm. I was so scared, all I had to anchor me was a text that said she was fine, just clearing her head and the fact she went with Jeremy. She wouldn't do anything stupid while she was with my son.

"There's never going to be a right time."

"But why now, why not all those years ago when he demeaned and mistreated you?"

"He put you in danger, he put all of us in danger."

I sighed, "you deserve a divorce but the timing is off, you can just be separated for now."

"I've told you this, the timing will be right, if I keep waiting for the right time then I will never leave. All I'm asking for is your support but if you can't give me that then I'll understand."

"You have my full support."

"Thank you."

"How is Ruby, she's not ready to come back to us yet. I know trauma can be hard to get over but the family might be just what she needs to heal and not isolation."

"She's fine," I said, not giving any more information away. Ruby was another topic that kept me up at night. To think her father wanted to kill her? The thought of never seeing her alive again, finding her in a pool of her blood haunted my sleep. Almost every night, I would have nightmares, waking up in cold sweat.

Luckily for me, Jeremy woke up from his nap distracting us, if not she would have asked a lot more questions. He was excited to see me, giggling and giving off a gummy smile. I felt like he had grown in the last week when I didn't see him. I wondered how his brain worked, whether it was really out of mind and out of sight like it seemed or he missed me, even thought of me while I was away. Jeremy deserved better than this instability, it was almost like his life was a revolving door.

This person was here today and then gone the next, what a crazy family to be born in.