𝐕𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐃 ❷

𝟐. ✭ 𝐀𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀 ✭

Six years. I haven't seen my brother in six, nearly seven, fucking years and this is how he comes home? Stabbed? Thirty-seven times?

If he's not dead I'm going to kill him myself.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!" I storm past another nurse who is looking at me in shock and terror.

"Adri! Stop!" My mother calls out from behind me but I don't. Her and my father can try to stop me from killing Torey but I am going to fu— When I whip into the room I'm met with my other dad and a man I have never seen in my life. A very attractive man.

"Who the fuck are you?" His eyes shoot up in slight surprise but he doesn't respond automatically. "I asked you a question. Sooo can you answer?"

"The name is Brooks, ma'am." He says with the faintest southern drawl and a rather obnoxiously handsome smile.

"Ma'am? Do I look like a fucking ma'am to you?"

"No, you look more like a hellcat, is what you look like." A snort of a laugh comes from behind him which has me glaring from him to my dad.

"What? He's not wrong there, Adri. You're fuming."

"That doesn't change the fact that he's here before me. You know— Torey's actual sister. So who is he?" I shot at him.

"He's Torey's..." His eyes flick to Brooks which causes the man to look down at the ground. "He's Torey's friend."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Do you not know what the word 'friend' means?" My mother comes up alongside me, "And if you could keep your voice down that would be preferable. Your brother is recovering." She goes up alongside the friend and places a hand on his shoulder in a familiar manner, like she knows this dude. "How are you?" He gives her a brief look and shrugs.

How the hell do they know this guy?

"Am I missing something? Have you guys gone out and adopted another random individual into the family on a whim again?" I watch them all wince at my statement. "What? Speaking of the little demon," I turn to look at the father who'd grown an overly-fond attachment to him, "where is he?" He blinks a few times and I can tell he's trying to stop himself from crying but fails to do so miserably. He abruptly turns and leaves the room without another word. My mother lets out an irritated sigh before walking directly past me, going after the crying man. "What the hell is going on? Did something happen to Wolfie?" The blond man, Brooks, just looks back at my brother. "Wait... He wasn't with Torey when this happened, right? Like he is okay, right?" My voice raising to a level of panic when I think of something happening to my little brother. Well, littlest brother.

"Adri... Wolfie is..." My dad spears a hand through his salt and pepper locks before shoving both of them in the pockets of his pants. "He's Torey's son." Shock smacks me in the face, making me rock back on my heels like I had genuinely received a physical blow. But his words make sense. I always joked about how he reminded me of pictures of when Torey was younger. I used to tease that they'd tried to replace a son that was MIA for over half a decade by adopting him.

"What... how..." I don't even know where to begin. Where to even start. "Who's the mother?"

"I think I'm going to give the two of you some space." The friend stated looking even more melancholy now than he had when I came in.

"You do that." He says nothing to that just gives me a half-assed semblance of a smile before leaving, shutting the door as he does so. "What the fuck is going on, Dad? Torey is a father? Wolfie is his son? And he's been—" Now that the man had left I have an unobstructed view of my brother. My breath catches and I find my feet moving toward him on their own volition. "Torey..." The word was a whispered gasp. I haven't seen my brother in years and he looks the same and entirely different all at the same time. He's much larger than the last time I had seen him and much more battered. His eyes are sunken in and his thick black hair is matted to his forehead. I shake my head in disbelief as I look over everything hooked up to him, everything keeping him alive and then down at the gauze covering his abdomen. "How is he..." Alive.