Le Desespoir: The Cursed Paradise

Brothers

In an office on the thirty-first floor of a building in the heart of New York, sat two half-brothers who met each other for the first time. The busy streets below were hardly audible but the ticking of the clock inside the room was. The silence had been stretching for quite some time now, and the anticipation was high enough to make a normal person go mad.

For the past several minutes, none of the brothers had said anything, which was beginning to worry the lawyer sitting behind the oak desk in front of them.

"So?" the lawyer prompted, hoping that they would speak up.

Jerome Dassonneville, the older of the two, sighed audibly as he crossed his leg over the other. Even though he was only wearing a simple knitted grey sweater and black slacks, it was still obvious that he came from money— and lots of it. Judging from the quality of the cloth, the lawyer could swear the guy's sweater cost more than his car did.

On the other hand, Austin Jamieson, the younger of the two, wore clothes obviously bought from the department store. His aristocratic genes though were more prominent than that of his older brother. His face was like that of a Greek sculpture, with his nose and high cheekbones, and you had to see him move to be able to tell that he's real.  His skin was so white he looked as fragile as spun glass, while his brother was very manly-looking with his very tanned skin.

It was a very awkward day for the two of them, not much because it was the first time that they met, but more because Jerome hadn't even known about his brother's existence until today. Jerome and Austin shared the same father, the father who had recently died, leaving everything to his legal heir while leaving nothing to his other son that his mistress had borne him.

What a shame, the lawyer had thought. Based on what he had learned about Austin from the investigator he had hired to find him, the boy was smart and a good son. If his father had been alive, the lawyer would want to hit his face for being such an uncaring ass.

"So, are you saying that he and I are brothers?" Jerome finally spoke. Judging from his voice, he was not yet convinced.

The lawyer nodded. "Yes. The DNA tests matched. There's no mistake."

Jerome continued to study the younger boy before him. Although he wasn't showing it, he was still shocked about this revelation.

Honestly, though, he didn't need any proof of his blood relation to the younger man. Upon seeing him earlier, he had known without a doubt that he was a relative. The boy, what's-his-name, looked amazingly like his grandfather did when he was young.  But being an only child for the past twenty-six years, finding out that he had a twenty-one-year-old brother came as a real surprise.

"Can I go now?" the younger boy spoke for the first time.

His expression did not change at all since he came in the doorway. He didn't even look surprised that he had an older brother, so he must have been aware of Jerome’s existence.

"No, not yet," the lawyer said softly, knowing how uncomfortable the younger boy must be.

Jerome, just like his father, had such a commanding presence that it made people nervous to be around him, more so when he was scrutinizing them, like what he was doing to Austin now.

Austin frowned. He didn't like to be where he was. All he wanted was to go back home to his sick mother. In fact, he never wanted to come here in the first place. He had given up on his father long ago, and didn't give a damn about anything concerning him.

But his mother had urged him to come. He did not want to worry her since it might worsen her already deteriorating condition. What now?

"Why wasn't he called when father's will was read?" Jerome asked again.

It had been bugging him since the moment he learned about his brother. Even if Austin was born out of wedlock, Jerome was sure that his father would still have provided for him— given him something even if not half.

"Because he was not included in your father's will. I called you here today for another reason," the lawyer said which shocked Jerome further.

"What?"

"This might be unbelievable for you since your father had been such a good parent to you," the lawyer continued. "But for Austin, he had never given anything except money for abortion when your father learned that Rachel, Austin’s mother, was pregnant."

"What?" Jerome couldn't believe his ears.

The father that he knew had been kind— a far cry from the monster the lawyer had painted. But judging from his younger brother's hardened expression, everything that had been said must be true.

"God," he uttered disbelievingly as he raked his hair with his fingers. "Then what are we doing here? If it's not about father, then what did you call us here for?"

The lawyer cleared his throat. Finally, they could get down to business, the real reason why he summoned the brothers. 

"Monsieur de Lancret, my friend's client, had passed away recently, leaving his estate to two of his immediate relatives."

Jerome frowned. "What does that guy have to do with us?" he asked as he turned to his brother. "Do you know this guy?" he asked him and the younger boy shook his head.

"Please let me finish," the lawyer requested. "This must be so bizarre since the two of you haven't even heard of him, but the immediate relatives I was talking about are the two of you."

"Ha?" Jerome’s frown deepened. "How can that be? We're Americans, not French." Although the name Dassonneville was French, as far as he knew, he had no relatives living in France. However, seeing as the fact that he had a brother in the same country, living in the same city, escaped him until today, he couldn’t totally deny that he might really have a relative in a far away country.