The Stolen Heart

Chapter 9: Justin’s POV

“Dude, calm the f**k down”, a dejected Nick yelled out in between, taking the grunt of my punches.

But I couldn’t calm down. I was seeing red. I had to let it all out so I continued ramming into his stomach until strong, muscular hands pulled me away from behind. I immediately twisted my left leg around his leg and knocked him off his feet.

“What the hell is wrong with him today?”, my best friend Chis yelled out taping my shoulders, motioning me to let go.

“Only one person can make the great Justin Malcerk loose his cool, and that is none other than my one and only darling sister.”, Nick said snidely, then shook his head in disbelief.

Chris let out a groan and I immediately let go of him. I ran my hands through my hair and jumped off the ring and after removing my boxing gloves, I gulped down an entire bottle of water.

Why? Why did I have to go back to the meeting room? Just the scene of him tenderly caressing her wrist made me see red…I had left immediately not being able to bear to see anything else. His shirt had her lip print on it and they looked like they were having a moment when I had caught them in the elevator this morning.

I swore out loud and clenched my fists and smashed the water bottle to the ground.

“You do know that my sister is completely clueless about your feelings for her, right?”, a concerned Nick chided me.

The kid had always looked up to me since his school days when I had taken him under my wing. He was fiercely loyal to me and was by my side almost always, much to the distaste of his sister.

I had spent the last few hours ramming onto him, unleashing my anger and here he was being concerned about me. I peered closely and saw that his nose was bleeding. I winced, then quickly muttered an apology, which he shook off nonchalantly.

“Why don’t you let her know? It’s about time you ended this one-sided love of yours, don’t you think?”, Chris asked sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

“I can’t …..You know I can’t…because of..”, I stopped, my throat getting heavy with emotion.

“Because of Richard”, Nick finished for me, then sighed.

Chris groaned again, clearly frustrated with this topic. Though Nick was supportive whenever I whined to him about Merina, I could tell that Chris was getting tired of my moping. He always advised me to either go for it with her or to let it go, but I could do neither.

“Just tell her the truth. Frankly speaking, I know that Richard is your younger brother and you love him but he is a d**k. He claimed all the credit for the things you have done for her…the things which made her fall in love with him in the first place was never actually done by him…but you…All this misunderstandings wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Jen….Just let her know that.”, Nick persisted, his eyes wide open, pleading with me.

“I can’t “, I muttered wearily.

“Why not?’, Chris shot at me, clearly getting more and more agitated by the second.

“Because she is carrying his baby”, I shouted at Chris, losing control. The woman I have loved since high school not only was she betrothed to my now dead little brother; she was also pregnant with his baby. It made me want to tear my head apart. Even though a part of me was happy for her, a part of me was still sour over the matter.

“And because he literally died saving her. I can’t tarnish him in her memory…not after what he has done for her…”, I finished and let out a deep sigh.

I should just come to terms with the fact that I will never have a future with her and that she will never be mine…

 Nick looked he wanted to say something but one look from Chris made him think about it again.

I went home all sweaty and tired and frustrated. After I finished my shower, my mom immediately started stalking me asking me details about Merina’s life. She was overly concerned about the baby and wanted to make sure that nothing would go wrong, so she always starts bombarding me with questions after I finished my shower and had freshened up.

“She is doing fine, mom…. you are overreacting….she is doing too well, nowadays….she can laugh now, mom. Can you believe it, she can laugh!”, I started repeating my daily routine sourly.

She narrowed her eyes at my reluctance to small talks this evening. I just wanted to be left alone today before I snap at someone and end up doing something that I might regret later.

She looked at me with understanding in her eyes and hugged me tightly. This is what I hate about my mother. She is sometimes too perceptive.

I tried wiggling out of her bear hug, but her grip tightened around me. After a few very long seconds, I was growing more and more uneasy and finally my mom let go of me.

She looked at me with teary eyes and said, “I think you have suffered enough, my poor boy.”

I blinked in surprise at her tone. I was about to ask her if she was okay when she held up her hand and motioned me to follow her. Confused and taken aback, I nodded and followed her out of my room and went inside her closet.

I followed her wondering out loud why the hell she was taking me inside her closet.

Without giving a reply, she opened a shoe box and took out a crumbled envelope. It had smudged blood on it.  She then gave it to me and then smiled at me tenderly.

“It’s the last letter Richard wrote before you know….he committed suicide”, she said , her voice laced with withheld emotion.

My hands shook and I peered curiously at the letter, it was apparently addressed to me.

Dear Big brother,

I don’t have much time left so I am going to keep this short and to the point. I love you so much but I have done you great injustice. To be honest, I had known about your feelings about Merina way before I found her picture in your wallet at the café that day. But I couldn’t let you have her. Something about her was strangely addicting that I just couldn’t just let her go. At first, her presence was welcome since I had no friends and I was going to come clean to her and tell her that it was you who really wrote those letters, but I got so addicted to her that I couldn't bear to part with her. I want to let you know that I was terminally ill since childhood, a fact that I had hid from everyone else except our parents. I first learned that I had cystic fibrosis at the age of fourteen and from there on I decided to live life to the fullest rather selfishly. I took something that was never mine in the first place but I didn’t have much time left anyway so please forgive your brother’s lack of moral judgement and his selfishness. I have lied to her, deceived her but I truly loved her, every goddamn second. Though it was eating me alive that the things she fell for me weren’t the things that I have done but what you have done that I stole credit for. Maybe it was god’s way of punishing me for taking stealing someone else’s woman. The person she fell in love with was never me. Right now, the doctors are pressuring me to enter the operation. They reckon that I have more chance of survival than Merina whose chance of survival was less than 12% apparently but they don’t know about my condition. Why bother saving my life instead when I only have few more years left while she has entire lifetime left in front of her? So, I have decided to commit suicide so that the doctors won’t have much of a choice to decide who to save first and stop wasting precious time. Can you believe their audacity? They have already given up on her. But I am content that even after I die, my heart will still be beating in her. I had done a quick test and as fate would have it, my heart was a perfect match for Merina. She can be saved now. I have already had mom get me the donor form secretly and signed it. I am returning what was yours in the first place. I know without a single doubt that you will love, protect and cherish her as you have always done. Please continue to look over her, because tonight's car crash wasn't an accident. It was intentional. The black box of the car is in this envelope itself. Watch through it and see if you can get any clues. Someone is after her but I don't know who. Handing over my most prized possession to you, I am finally going to rest. I only have one request to make of you. Please don’t disclose the lies. I want to forever stay in her heart as her savior, not as a man who manipulated the truth. Again, sorry brother for wanting to have something that was never truly mine to begin with.

With love,

Richard M

I was in utter shock after reading the letter and a little bit dazed. He had always known and judging by the way mom was staring at me right now, I am guessing she did too. I shook the envelope again and a pen drive fell in my hands.

I looked at mom confused while she nodded at me as she said, "Watch the black box. Richard was right. This wasn't a simple accident, it was an intentional murder."

my fist closed on the pen drive, my mind going blank. Who would want to hurt Merina? Having Richard the object made sense since he was from a powerful family who had lots of enemies, but Merina was their aim from the beginning? That doesn't make any sense. I would have to get to the bottom of this. I let out a sigh as I stared at mom intently.

“You knew about my feelings for Merina?”, I asked her, tearing up.

She looked down ashamed and barely nodded her head. I couldn’t make sense of what was happening right now.

“Every Sunday you used to take Richard out. I used to always get envious of that. Was that for his doctor visits?”, I questioned her again to which she nodded her head again without looking up.

I crashed into the couch nearby and she immediately came towards me and took my hands onto hers. She wept quietly into my hands and I gently patted her head. I couldn’t think of anything else to do than let her cry it out. Now all the preferential treatment given by my parents to Richard was starting to make sense.

She finally stopped crying and looked at me with tear streaked cheeks and muttered, “You still love her, don’t you?”

I mumbled an unintelligible “yes”.

She didn’t look at all surprised by my answer. She then replied softly, “Then what are you going to about it?”

I looked at her confused to which she replied, “Are you going to let her go to another man while you sit here mopping or are you going to do something about it? “

She laughed at my astounded expression which I don’t blame her for. I was quite taken aback by her support. I had expected my conventional parents to be against the idea of me and Merina.

“You let her go the first time because it was your own little brother who you were competing with. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Don’t let her go now. But don’t just suddenly move in on her either. That will just freak her out. Gently ease her into your feelings. Don’t be rash, or you would have the opposite effect than wat you desired.”, she finished her lecture and sighed softly. She squeezed my hands tightly, then let it fall.

While I sat there taking in what she had just said. She was right about one thing. This time I don’t intend to just sit aside and watch, this time I intend to play. I let her go once because it was my little brother and now that my guilty heart had been assured by my mother and Richard himself, I don’t intend to let the same thing happen again.