𝐅𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 [𝟏𝟖+]

27

Long short story: life is treating me like I had sold my organs for weed lmao. anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. starting from now all the chapters will be about the past for a considerable amount of time.

Don't forget to vote and comment. that's what keeps me going to write more and more.

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|4 year ago --- July 20, 2019|

It was my nineteenth birthday.

Unlike my last birthday, I was celebrating it in our mansion back in London. My brother, Hayden Evans, had sent a signed blank cheque to celebrate my birthday. After hunting on Pinterest for an hour, I managed to find a red and gold-themed party. However, I might had gone overboard with my party. The live entertainment featuring singing, ballroom dancing, and stage shows made this more like a gala. That was what it always felt like. Cold. Impersonal. Something that was meant only for appearances.

I knew I was extremely privileged in more than one way, but the guilt weighing down on my chest—that my freedom made my brother into what he was today—would always haunt me. More than ever on my birthdays. How could it not be when he would never wish me on my birthday? When he would never talk to me unless he had to give me some safety instructions? He had never taunted me like a sibling. It wasn't him purposefully being an arsehole to me. It was just the way he was with everyone. Cold. Unemotional. Ascetic.

Maybe he was a sociopath. Nobody had dared to do that test on him or even suggest as such. Even if he was a sociopath, strangely, he was ten times more of a parent than my loving mother and a thousand times more than my good-for-nothing father. And now, after his marriage, he had become a family man.

"Happy birthday! May you live to be old and toothless," said Kate, handing me the gift.

Before I could respond to Kate's words, Mummy's eyes glittered with tears. "Oh, Hayden! I'm so happy you came." She rushed forward, probably to hug Hayden just like she had hugged Kate earlier.

He moved aside, eyes scanning the place calmly. "I've got a business dinner."

So he hadn't come to attend the birthday party this year either. Was it really my mistake? Was it his way of punishing me?

"It is Saoirse's birthday," reprimanded Mummy.

"I'm aware."

"People will expect you to be present in your baby sister—"

I strangled the urge to tell her I was five foot nine inches — not a baby anymore. Perhaps it was natural to call me that in relation to my brother since we had an age gap of ten years.

"And?" he asked, not rasing his voice, not even arching his eyebrow, and mummy's shoulders fell in defeat. He did that a lot, intimidating and controlling people with that cold, controlled tone of his.

Fortunately for all of us, someone called for mummy and she left with a disappointed groan. Giving Kate a smile, I moved forward to greet the other guests. Despite the guilt trip my brother takes me on my birthdays, I intend to have fun tonight.

"We need to talk." Hearing Kate's very demanding voice, I turned around, surprised to find my brother complying with his wife's demand and walking after her towards a corner.

What they conferred was none of my business, but I was extremely nosy and it was rather entertaining to see someone command the Hayden Evans.

"Bloody hell! Hayden, seriously?" She mumbled, "You agreed to come to the party."