Forbidden Love with My Stepbrother

Chapter 12

As the saying goes, no one understands their children better than their parents, and in this case, it was true.

Damuen had judged correctly. Lucian had always been decisive, a man of action; once he set his sights on a goal, he wouldn’t hesitate to use whatever means necessary to achieve it.

If it hadn’t been for Damuen’s intervention back then, things between him and Adrian would likely have gone much further long ago, instead of dragging on until now.

But five years wasn’t necessarily too late. As long as Adrian didn’t reject same-s*x feelings, Lucian had both the confidence and the patience to make him fall for him, little by little.

After all, they had always been so in sync since childhood. If they didn’t end up together, wouldn’t that be a waste of fate?

After hearing Lucian’s explanation, Adrian’s mind was almost completely blank.

He couldn’t believe that Lucian’s departure back then had been entangled with so many hidden reasons.

But what shocked him the most was the confession of love he had never once expected.

For a long while, Adrian said nothing. His gaze was unfocused, as if he hadn’t yet managed to process everything he’d just heard.

Seeing that, Lucian let out a soft chuckle, his voice dropping slightly,

“Is there anything else you want to ask?”

Adrian blinked, as if snapping back to reality. He fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly asked,

“Then that time when I was sick and called you, but you didn’t come back, weren’t you at some farewell party with your friends?”

Five years ago, Adrian had accidentally discovered a large, beautiful butterfly in the garden - a rare species he had never seen before.

At the time, Lucian’s birthday was approaching, and he couldn’t think of what to give him. In the end, he decided to catch it and turn it into a specimen.

He had once been quite proud of his cleverness, until the symptoms of a butterfly allergy hit him all at once, leaving him completely unprepared.

It started with a dry cough and an itchy, burning throat, then his chest tightened as if being squeezed, his breathing growing more and more difficult.

In his panic, the first person he thought of wasn’t his parents, but Lucian. With trembling hands, he dialed his number, but no one answered.

After several failed attempts to reach him, Adrian gave up and tried to call someone else for help, but it was already too late. He lost consciousness in the midst of his breathing difficulties.

It was his mother who found him lying motionless in his room and rushed him to the hospital for emergency treatment.

The allergic reaction was severe, and the late discovery only made things worse. What began as an acute asthma attack eventually developed into pneumonia, leaving him hospitalized for an entire month.

Throughout that time, he didn’t receive a single word from Lucian, aside from being told by his parents that Lucian had already gone to Europe to study.

After being discharged from the hospital, he still tried to contact his brother. But his calls went unanswered, and his messages were met with brief, distant replies.

Gradually, he grew hurt and resentful, and eventually took the initiative to cut off contact himself.

This had also been the biggest knot in his heart over the past five years.

Hearing Adrian bring it up again, Lucian’s gaze darkened at once. “Who told you I was at a party that day?”

“Dad did,” Adrian replied.

Lucian couldn’t help but think that over the past five years, the old man must have said quite a few bad things about him in front of Adrian, otherwise, how could Adrian have come to resent him so much?

But now that he was back, he certainly wasn’t going to keep bearing the blame in silence.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there when you needed me.” Lucian’s voice was thick with regret and remorse. “Back then, Dad locked me in the apartment for a whole week. My phone, my computer, everything was taken away. By the time I gave in and agreed to study abroad, he packed my things and sent me overseas immediately. I didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye to you.”

“Then your phone…” Adrian asked, though he already seemed to have an answer in mind.

“Dad had it,” Lucian replied at once, then continued more slowly, “Not just my phone. He locked my SIM and even my social media accounts. He also made me promise that if I dared to contact you in secret, it wouldn’t just be five years apart, it would be… a lifetime.”

Adrian bit his lip, his eyes already brimming with tears. He hadn’t known his brother had gone through so much all this time. He stammered,

“I-is that… really true?”

Lucian took his hand and said,

“If you don’t believe me, we can go see Dad and confront him, face to face.”

Adrian awkwardly pulled his hand back.

Thinking of how, in the early days after Lucian left, it had actually been his father texting back and forth with him, he felt mortified, there was no way he could face him and bring up what happened back then.

“Not going?” Lucian asked.

Adrian shook his head repeatedly.

“Then do you believe me?”

Adrian fell silent for a few seconds, then pouted slightly.

“I’ll believe you for now.”

Lucian spoke again, “Then is there anything else you want to ask me?”

Adrian shook his head. The amount of information he’d received today was overwhelming, he hadn’t even finished processing it yet.

“If you don’t have anything else to ask, then it’s my turn.”

“What do you want to ask?”

“About yesterday, what did you think?”

Adrian looked up at Lucian, his round eyes blinking slightly, confusion filling his gaze.

A faint smile flickered across Lucian’s lips. He spoke slowly, “I mean… after I kissed you, how did it feel?”