Chapter 15 Vulnerable
1099 Words
Who's this?" Yoseph's mother asked.
Without waiting for an answer, she continued, "Well, when you get better, go and apologize to Felix. He is your brother after all."
Rose was stunned. Felix was Yoseph's brother?
Just then Yoseph said, "Brother? What kind of brother sleeps with his brother's girlfriend?"
"Isn't it just sleeping? Besides, they apologized, and Lilian still loves you. Isn't Felix your brother? Can't you share with your brother? This unforgiving attitude of yours will do you no good.
Rose's mouth was wide enough to fit an egg after hearing everything she had just absorbed. Was this really a mother? How could a mother say this to her own son?
"Forgive, you say?" Yoseph laughed bitterly. "Did you actually say my father and I are unforgiving? If we weren't forgiving, where would you and that bastard son of yours be now? Let's just say I agree with you. What about what he did recently? He tried to sabotage my relationship with her," Yoseph said, pointing at Rose.
His mother scoffed.
"Well, she could have seduced Felix. Who knows?"
Yoseph laughed again.
"What was I expecting from you? It seems that after all these years, you still don't feel any remorse toward me or Dad. I already asked my lawyer to draft a contract. I'm releasing Dad's property allocation to you. Once you sign it, the three houses in Lekki will be yours, but on one condition—we sever our mother-and-son relationship."
Yoseph stared at her, hoping to see even the slightest hesitation on her face.
As always, he was disappointed.
"Wow, it seems your father wasn't so heartless after all," she said. "I'll go check on your brother. Contact me when everything is ready."
Then she turned and left.
Yoseph slumped onto Rose's shoulder as if he had finally found an outlet. He cried openly while Rose patted his back, trying to comfort him even though she was crying herself.
"I'm her son too, you know," he whispered brokenly. "How could she treat us so differently? I'm human too. I deserve to be loved. They took everything from me. What did I ever do to them?"
Rose couldn't hold back her tears.
In the end, both of them were crying. It wasn't clear who was comforting whom.
Rose could understand him.
So what if he owned a huge company and managed hundreds of employees? So what if he could solve complicated tech problems with ease?
He was still human.
Behind the commanding CEO was a fragile man with emotions and wounds.
Who would believe that the powerful CEO of Dekan Tech Ltd. was currently leaning on her shoulder, crying because he longed for a mother's love?
People should cherish the moments they have with those who love them. You never truly know what battles someone is fighting behind their smile.
And here she had thought she was the most unfortunate person after losing her parents.
At least her parents would never have treated her this way if they were alive. Even when they struggled financially, they always tried to give her the best they could.
Meanwhile, here was someone who had everything money could buy and yet lacked the one thing he wanted most.
A mother's love.
Money wasn't everything after all.
Between the two of them, she was probably the happier one despite her humble background.
At least her brother would never betray her like this.
That was the irony of life.
"She never sided with me, you know."
Yoseph's hoarse voice pulled Rose from her thoughts.
She wanted to say something, but Yoseph stopped her.
Pulling away slightly and intertwining their fingers, he said softly,
"Don't say anything. Just listen. Your listening ears are a comfort to me."
Rose almost started crying again, but she managed to hold it in.
"Felix is older than me..."
Rose blinked in surprise.
"Does that mean your mother had him before marrying your father?"
Yoseph shook his head.
"Didn't I ask you to just listen?"
"Oh, okay. I'm listening."
"After my mom had Felix, she didn't want to have another child. I came by accident seven years later."
Rose had countless questions swirling through her mind.
Why would she refuse to have another child?
Was she content with having only one?
"She always felt I interrupted her plans," Yoseph continued.
"What plans?"
"If you interrupt me again, I'm going to have your mouth stitched shut," Yoseph threatened.
Rose giggled.
"Can you really bear to hurt me like that?"
"Try me and see."
Rose laughed, treating his threat as nothing more than empty words.
"My father thought she didn't want two brothers fighting over inheritance. So he tried to persuade her gently, but she refused."
Yoseph paused.
"Until one night, she was drunk. My father slept with her. He regretted it afterward and spent years trying to make it up to her, even after he discovered she cheated on him."
Rose gasped.
"Goodness. Why would a grown woman cheat after having two children?"
Yoseph smiled sadly.
"When she cheated, she didn't have children yet."
Rose was even more confused.
"Actually, my mother had a lover before she married my father. Even after marrying Dad, she never truly let him go."
"I don't know what happened between them, but about a year after my parents got married, the man came back and started pursuing her again. My mother indulged him."
He suddenly laughed bitterly.
"Sometimes I think it would've been better if she had divorced my father. Then maybe I wouldn't have been born, and Dad wouldn't have suffered so much."
"Hey, don't say that," Rose said immediately. "If you weren't born, what would I do?"
Yoseph stared at her.
Slowly, he pulled her closer.
His lips brushed her forehead, her cheek, and the tip of her nose before resting briefly against her temple.
Rose's heart trembled.
"Yo... Yoseph," she whispered.
"Hmm?"
"I'm here."
He rested his forehead against hers for a moment.
Then he continued quietly.
"Felix is my mother's child with that man."
Rose tightened her hold around him, offering silent comfort.
Yoseph smiled weakly.
"It's okay. I'm used to it. It's been years."
"My mother hid it well. She got lucky because Felix resembled her, so nobody suspected anything."
He laughed again.
"Do you know what hurts the most? She was willing to let another man's child inherit my father's hard work. She wanted Felix to have everything."
His voice lowered.
"But she wanted to get rid of me."
He looked directly into Rose's eyes.
"Tell me, Rose. Is that fair to me? Or to my father?"
- Writer
