When Brotherhood Becomes Betrayal

In the eighth year of our marriage, I was on my way to drop my daughter off at school when I got a call from a hotel. "Is this Ms. Ariel Winters? Your husband, Vince Weaver, left his watch here." My blood went cold. Ariel Winters was my wife. Vince Weaver was my sworn brother. I rushed to my sister, desperate for her to deny it. She didn't even flinch. Instead, she gave me a calm, steady lecture. "Edwin, they already have a child together. Just pretend you don't know. Ariel didn't want you to get hurt. That's the only reason we agreed to keep it from you." Before I could speak, my brother-in-law cut in. "Yeah, Edwin, don't blame Vince for this. You're both fathers. Try to see it from his side." My brother-in-law was another member of our so-called sworn brotherhood. And now, he wanted me to forgive the man who had wrecked my family — and his secret child. Turns out I was the extra piece in every relationship I had: family, friendship, and love. Chapter 1 My sister, Layla Biggs, saw the deadness in my eyes and tried every gentle argument she could think of. "Edwin, we're not young anymore, and you have Casey to think about now," she said. "Take my advice. Turn a blind eye to things and just get through the days." Layla was my blood sister. And she had been helping someone else lie to me. Her husband, Toby Banks, stood beside her, one hand resting on my shoulder, playing peacemaker with just a little too much effort. "Layla's right, Edwin. You've got a kid to raise. Do you really have what it takes to start all over?" he said. "Vince couldn't help it either. Years ago, his family went bankrupt, and they were buried in debt. With nowhere left to turn, his last assets were about to be auctioned off. Ariel was the one who saved him. He had no way to repay her, so he could only..." Something in my chest twisted with pain. Toby and I, along with Vince Weaver, had been inseparable since middle school. We'd sworn to be brothers for life. And now, even though Toby knew perfectly well that Vince was the one in the wrong, he still wanted me to forgive him. People's hearts always tilt toward someone. It hadn't mattered that I once got into a fight defending Toby and ended up with eight stitches in my scalp. None of that counted for anything now. I shook his hand off my shoulder and said coldly, "Toby, from today on, we're done." He froze. At that exact moment, the office door was shoved open. Ariel Winters's face was clouded over. She stared straight at me. The other two took the hint and slipped out, leaving just the two of us in the office. Ariel walked up to me and demanded, "Edwin, what the hell are you trying to do, making a scene in here?" In all the years I'd known her, this was the first time she'd ever been this cold toward me. I choked back the lump in my throat and shot back, "Ariel, tell me exactly what I ever did to wrong you. Why did you have to tangle yourself up with my best friend, to the point of having his child?" Ariel caught the sorrow in my eyes and let out a soft sigh. She leaned her head against my chest and softened her voice. "Edwin, don't worry. He'll never take your place." My eyes stung. I stubbornly pushed her away. I wasn't willing to share a wife with another man. Ariel's brow furrowed slightly, and she spoke again. "Edwin, if this goes to court, I will fight for full custody of our daughter with everything I have. You already know how that would end. Do you really want Casey to suffer through that with you?" I stared at her, a little dazed. We'd fallen in love so young, and now, somehow, it had come down to fighting over our child. Seeing the conflict on my face, Ariel's tone gentled further. "Just settle down and live your life. You and Casey will never want for anything, and out in the world you'll still be part of the Biggs family, still cutting the same fine figure you always have." I buried the decision I'd already made deep inside and gave a small nod. From that day on, I put on the mask of my old self again. I kept taking Casey to and from school like nothing had changed. I stopped questioning Ariel on the nights she didn't come home. I stopped leaving a light on for her. I just quietly hired someone to gather evidence. Then, one day, a familiar figure showed up at our door. It was Vince Weaver, who I hadn't seen in a long time. There was a certain awkwardness written across his face. I used to think Vince had it rough. A few years back, he'd suddenly had a child in his life, one he was raising somewhere outside our circle. I'd sympathized with how hard things must have been for him, and I'd gone out of my way to help. Nearly all of that child's daily necessities, I was the one who'd bought them. I'd even brought up Vince's struggles to Ariel more than once, asking her to help him out. Looking back now, I hadn't needed to say a word. The two of them had already been carrying on behind my back more times than I could count. Vince stepped closer and said quietly, "Edwin, can we talk?" I stopped walking and looked at him, my face blank. "Whatever you have to say, just say it." He glanced around at the people passing by, then lowered his voice. "Things didn't have to come to this. It was never my intention. Ariel and I... we've been together for years now, and our child is growing up fast. I just want everyone to be able to move on in peace. "I never meant to wreck your life. It's just that when it comes to feelings, you can't always help yourself." Listening to his hollow excuses, I sneered. "You don't have to pretend you couldn't help it." I fixed my eyes on him, and something suddenly occurred to me. "Did you sleep with Ariel the night of my birthday?" Chapter 2 Vince's face went pale, and that alone told me the answer. That night, Ariel had promised she'd come home early to spend my birthday with me. Instead, I waited up the whole night. It wasn't until early morning that she finally showed up, her face streaked with tears. I thought she'd been hurt and tried to rush her to the hospital, but she ignored her injuries and pulled me straight into her arms instead. "Edwin, don't move. Just let me hold you. I missed you so much," she said softly. So that sudden burst of affection had only been guilt over cheating on me. Every overlooked detail I'd brushed aside came flooding back all at once. No wonder Vince had moved apartments right after that night. He'd claimed his old place was too dark, that it wasn't safe for his girlfriend to visit him there. Turns out his girlfriend was Ariel. "Edwin, we're still friends," Vince said, stepping forward to put an arm around my shoulder. I sidestepped him. I let out a bitter laugh. "The kind of friend who sleeps with whoever's wife he wants?" A cup of water hit me square in the face out of nowhere. Cold water dripped from my lashes, and when I looked up, Toby was glaring at me, furious. "Edwin, you think Vince doesn't suffer too?" he snapped. "A rich boy like you will never understand what it's like at the bottom. No wonder you've never had a single friend in your whole life." Something in my chest ached, over and over. I swallowed back everything I wanted to say. Forget it. Ariel appeared and handed me a tissue, her tone gentle, the kind used to soothe a child throwing a tantrum over candy. "Edwin, that's enough. Casey's waiting for you in the car." All my anger snapped right back into place. Right. I still had my daughter. Now wasn't the time to tear everything apart. Just as I turned to leave, a dog suddenly came charging straight at us. In a split second, without a moment's hesitation, Ariel grabbed a wooden stick and threw herself in front of Vince to shield him. Startled, the dog veered and knocked me down instead. I hit the ground hard, scraping my hands and knees. It took a security guard rushing over to finally get the dog under control. Ariel gently helped Vince to his feet, then glanced back at me, indifferent. "You're okay, right?" I didn't answer. She spoke again. "I'm taking Trinity to the amusement park tonight, so I won't be coming home." A cold evening breeze drifted past. I should have known better than to expect anything, shouldn't I? I walked over to the car. The moment I opened the door, Casey threw herself into my arms and asked, crestfallen, "Daddy, why didn't Mommy protect you? Why did she protect Vince instead, when you were the one in real danger?" Even a five-year-old could see it. Ariel couldn't, or wouldn't. I choked down the bitterness and stroked my daughter's hair. "Because Mommy's farsighted. She can only see things that are far away." Casey nodded, only half understanding. For days after that, Ariel didn't come home at all. Then, one day, she called me out of nowhere. "Edwin, Vince hasn't been feeling well lately. We've been to every hospital, run every test there is, and nobody can find anything wrong with him." Before I could get a word in, she went on, her voice cold. "I brought in a geomancer to look into it. He says the root of the problem is in the cemetery. Your mother's grave and Vince's mother's grave sit too close together, and the clashing energy between them is smothering his luck and keeping him sick." My fingers tightened around the phone. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "What are you saying?" "Move your mother's grave." Chapter 3 Ariel's tone was perfectly calm, without a trace of guilt or hesitation. "Get it arranged as soon as possible. Stop dragging things out and making Vince's condition worse." That single sentence hit me so hard I couldn't breathe. Back in middle school, Vince used to come over to my house all the time with Toby. My mother remembered that Vince loved steak, and every time he visited, she'd make it especially for him. Later, when his own mother fell gravely ill and passed away, the Weaver family was already bankrupt and drowning in debt, with nothing left in the house and not even enough to afford a coffin. It was my savings that gave his mother a proper burial. My mother and I had never once wronged him. And now he wasn't willing to let me be, not even while I was still alive, and he wouldn't leave the dead alone either. I bit down hard on my lip and said, my voice shaking, "Absolutely not. My mother has rested in peace for years. I won't move her grave." My refusal only enraged Ariel further on the other end of the line. Her tone turned sharp and accusing. "Edwin, can't you be reasonable for once? Moving a grave is such a small thing. Vince's health is what matters, and you'd rather fight him over this?" Getting nowhere, she hung up on me. That same afternoon, Ariel took people out to the cemetery. By the time I got there, everyone close to me was already gathered around. Layla spotted me and tried to talk me down. "Edwin, don't be so stubborn. It's just moving a grave; how big a deal can that be? The dead are already at peace. It's the living we need to worry about." Looking at my own sister taking a stranger's side against me, something in me went ice cold. Every ounce of patience I had left shattered in that moment. I stepped forward and slapped Vince hard across the face. His head snapped to the side from the blow, and his eyes welled up instantly. He choked out, "Ariel... I never pushed him into this... I'm just in so much pain..." Fury blazed up in Ariel's eyes. She grabbed my hand in an iron grip, her voice ice cold. "Edwin, have you lost your mind? Who gave you permission to hit him?" Layla rushed over too and grabbed my shoulder, her voice sharp. "Edwin, you've gone too far. Apologize to Vince right now and stop causing a scene." I wrenched myself free, my composure cracking. "I've gone too far? Who's the one who's really gone too far here? "I was the one who paid to bury his mother. I gave him everything I had to give. And what does he do? He destroys my family, and now he won't even leave my mother alone. "Layla, that's your mother too. How could you?" Rain began pouring down from the sky. The rain and my own tears mixed together until I couldn't tell which was which. Layla's expression stayed rigid, and she wouldn't budge. "The dead don't feel anything anymore. It's just moving a grave. Don't be so hopelessly stubborn about it." Those words severed the last thread of family feeling between us for good. Ariel looked at me, and for a moment there was something like reluctance in her eyes. But the next second, Vince said, "Edwin's right. This is all my fault. I shouldn't even be alive." Ariel panicked. To calm him down, she said, "You hit Vince, so as your punishment, you're going to stand right here and watch your mother's grave get dug up." The moment she said it, the black-suited bodyguards standing by moved in. Without a word, they forced me down onto the wet mud. In front of me, workers picked up their shovels and started digging. The headstone carved with my mother's name tilted, little by little, out of the ground. I shook uncontrollably. Tears poured down my face, mixing with the pouring rain, and I begged, my voice hoarse, "Ariel, I'm begging you... please don't do this. That's my mother. She's already gone, and she never did anything wrong. "Vince's illness has nothing to do with my mother, and you know that. Please, I'm begging you, stop. Don't dig up my mother's grave... please." I threw away every last scrap of my pride, and Ariel never so much as flinched. Vince stood beside her with nothing but a satisfied little smile on his face. He'd wanted this all along. Finally, there was a low, heavy thud. The edge of the coffin came into view, exposed in the mud and rain. Rain fell over the whole city as I knelt in front of my mother's ruined grave and swore that I would never forgive them, not for the rest of my life. I fell seriously ill after that day. Then, one day, an emergency call came through. Casey's homeroom teacher's voice on the other end was frantic. "You need to get to the school right away! Casey just got into a serious confrontation with another student. Both kids ran up to the roof of the school building, and it's extremely dangerous up there!" My heart shot straight into my throat, and my whole body went weak. Casey was gentle by nature and never picked fights with anyone. How could she have ended up in a confrontation with a classmate, let alone on the roof, of all places? I didn't have time to think it through. I got in the car and sped straight to the school roof, praying the whole way that nothing had happened to my daughter. The iron door to the roof was left ajar. I pushed it open gently, and what I saw made my pupils shrink in horror. Chapter 4 There was no guardrail up here worth mentioning, and the wind this high up was fierce. Two small figures stood right at the edge of the roof. One wrong step and either of them could fall. One was my daughter, Casey, her small face flushed red. The girl standing across from her was Trinity Weaver, Vince and Ariel's daughter. I forced down the panic rising in my chest and stepped onto the roof slowly, keeping my voice as gentle as I could as I tried to calm the two of them down. "Casey, Trinity, come over here first, all right? It's too dangerous up here. Whatever the problem is, we can talk it through." The moment Casey saw me, tears spilled from her eyes and she cried out, choking, "Daddy!" But Trinity stayed right where she was, at the edge of the roof, not backing down an inch. She turned to face me, dropping the polite mask completely, and shouted in front of everyone, "Don't act like you're so kind! You're the homewrecker! You're the one who stole my mommy!" The words landed like a clap of thunder across the roof. My whole body went rigid, my mind blank. A child, only six years old, had just said something like that. It didn't take much imagination to guess who'd been feeding her those words. I kept my voice gentle and tried to reason with her. "Trinity, you shouldn't say things like that. It's not what you think. Let's get away from there first, okay?" "I'm not saying things that aren't true!" Trinity straightened her neck stubbornly and pulled Ariel and Vince's marriage certificate. "Look, this is my mommy and daddy's marriage certificate! My mommy said my daddy isn't the homewrecker, and neither am I! "You're the one who's wrong. You're the one holding on to my mommy and refusing to let go!" The sight of that marriage certificate stabbed at my eyes. Ariel and I had registered our marriage. How could there possibly be two certificates? I stood frozen, shaking all over, momentarily unable to say a word. The sky darkened all at once. Rain came pouring down, cold and biting. A few of Casey's classmates who'd gathered to watch started chiming in, backing up Trinity's words. "It's true. I went to Trinity's birthday party last month, and it was at the fanciest hotel in town, all decorated so beautifully!" "Trinity wore a princess dress that day, with a little crystal tiara on her head. So many people gave her presents; it was such a huge production. She didn't look anything like some homewrecker's kid!" "Trinity's mom is so good to Trinity. She was there the whole time, and you could tell how much she adores her." "Not like Casey. Have any of you ever even met her mom?" Every single word slammed into me like a hammer. I had no idea this birthday party had even happened. Casey listened to her classmates' words, and her small body began to shake violently. She kept backing away, closer and closer to the edge of the roof. She looked at me and asked, her voice breaking apart between sobs, "Daddy... everyone says you're the homewrecker... I asked Mommy about it before, and she said... she said they weren't wrong. Is that true? "Am I really a homewrecker's daughter?" My chest exploded with pain. I threw caution to the wind and rushed forward to hold her, trying to explain. "Casey, no, listen to me, it's not like that! Daddy is Mommy's real, legal husband. Don't believe what anyone else says! Don't overthink this. Just come here, please?" My words got lost in the wind and rain and the voices of the crowd, sounding thin and powerless. She shook her head, tears streaming down, murmuring the same words over and over. "Mommy wouldn't lie to me... what Mommy said is true... I'm a bad girl... Daddy's a bad person too... "Don't come any closer!" She stopped moving abruptly. Behind her was nothing but the open edge of the roof. My pupils shrank in horror. Frozen with fear, I lunged toward her, trying to grab her. The next second, her small body leaped off the edge of the roof. "Casey!" I let out a scream that tore my throat apart and ran to the edge of the roof like a madman, throwing myself forward to look down. Rain poured down in sheets, blurring my vision. I couldn't see anything clearly. I stumbled and crawled down the stairs, shoving through the chaos of people, and ran to the base of the building. Casey's small body lay curled on the cold ground, her pink school uniform soaked through with rain and blood. It was a sight that would haunt me forever. I threw myself down beside her and pulled her trembling into my arms. I kept touching her small face with shaking hands. "Casey, wake up. Don't scare Daddy like this... Daddy's here. Daddy's right here with you..." But the girl in my arms never responded again. My daughter was gone. The one thing I still had left to live for in this world had gone out for good. Just then, the screech of tires cut through the air. Ariel had arrived. My eyes swept over her, then Vince, then Layla. Since all of you hate me this much, since you all wanted my daughter dead, then fine. I'll die too. Are you satisfied now? I stood up slowly, holding my daughter's cold body tight against me, and walked straight into the path of the oncoming car. There was a crash. "Edwin!"