His Heart's Love (Book 3 in His Heart's Series)

Chapter 13

Ethan

By the time I finished telling my brother's the truth about what really happened the night of our parent's accident, Luke and Ethan were simply staring back at me, with a blank look on their faces.

My tears were continuously rolling down my face, as the guilt and pain nagged at me.

Finally, Luke got up on his feet and walked towards me.

He pulled me up on my feet, then embraced me in a bone crushing hug.

"It wasn't your fault," he whispered. "It wasn't your fault," he kept saying, over and over again, until his own son wracked him.

I finally released the huge breath I was holding and broke off again in fresh new sob, as I clung to my brother. And before I knew it, Jason was hugging us both.

I don't know how long we stayed like that. But we just hugged each other for the longest time. I felt all my pain and guilt released from inside of me. For the first time, I was able to breathe easily. Telling my brothers was a huge weight off of my shoulders.

When we were finally able to pull ourselves together, we all took a step back.

A few moments later, my brother spoke first.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Luke asked.

"I felt so guilty, and I was so scared that you were all going to hate me. If it wasn't for me mom and dad..."

"Don't you dare finish that sentence. What happened was an accident. It wasn't your fault. You didn't expect that to happen, and you definitely didn't want it to happen. We don't blame you, Ethan."

"Luke's right. Besides, mom and dad wouldn't want you to blame yourself."

"I can't imagine how big of a burden this must have been for you," Luke said. "I'm sorry if we made you feel like you couldn't come to us..."

I shook my head at his words. "You guys were the best. You looked out for me. Took care of me. This was all on me."

"We should have known something was bothering you," Luke insisted. "After mom and dad died, you've made a one eighty degree change. You become a completely different person. You wanted to grow up so fast, doing what adults do. You were only fourteen years old, Ethan, and you were already acting like a thirty year old," Luke said.

"You wanted to learn everything about the business. You buried yourself in books, and in your studies. We were so proud and worried about you at the same time," Jason added. "But then we figured, you just really wanted to learn and follow Dad's footsteps. You idolized dad so much. Out of all of us, you were the one who was always beside him. You were his shadow. You followed him everywhere he went. You wanted to do things he did."

I snickered at the memory of my younger self, following and copying our dads every move.

"That's why we worried about you so much when mom and dad died,"  Luke said. "When you changed, I just thought it was your way of coping and dealing with our loss. I had no idea that you were harbouring this guilt inside of you."

I had no idea they noticed the changes I made. "I didn't want to fail you guys. I didn't to fail my family."

"But you didn't. We are so proud of you, Ethan. Mom and dad, and gramps and gran would have been so proud of you," Luke said, as he clapped me on my back.