I Am Your Brother-in-law
SARAH
He said it so simply. So casually. Like it was just a fact....
"And yes," he continued, "as you had observed, it wasn’t that we didn’t want to be close with you. After what happened, Dad was scared of me and Ryan.... mostly me, because of course, we had told him the truth about what had happened. To be fair I hadn't mastered my lying skills then"
He paused, watching me.
" Father could not recover from the fact that I tried to drown you. Or from the fact that Ryan never tried to help you."
I couldn’t speak. My chest tightened. I felt like I couldn't breathe.
I saw myself at the edge of the Cincinnati's poool that night.....
"But I didn’t understand," Ronan said, voice dipping almost into amusement. "What’s the big deal? You survived. You didn’t die. You’re here, right?"
I couldn’t believe him. I couldn’t believe that he had just narrated such an ugly story about me and my past when I was a child. Because that’s what I had been.... and what he had tried to do, tried to kill me. Drown me.
He was just eight years old too. A child himself.... I didn't know how to feel about it.
All of a sudden, he started laughing and made me flinch. And as I flinched, he saw my reaction and laughed harder as he said,
“So you see, it’s not that Dad doesn’t love you. It’s not the reason he kept his distance from you.”
He smiled,
"So, in the end, my plan worked. I also managed to get his attention. Because every time he would see me close to you, I could see his heart about to burst. His sole purpose then had been to keep you away from me and to keep a distance between us so I wouldn’t get the urge to try and hurt you again.
"I did pay for what I did though....I could remove my shirt right now and show you the welts on my back.
The way that he nearly wanted to kill me for what I had nearly done to you.... But thank God for his consigliere—was there to remind him I was still his heir. And that I was still his son too. And that’s how I got to be alive.
"Since 'daddy' knew it was because of his attention and affection on you, that I attacked, he also kept his distance.... just in case.
Just in case I got jealous again. Just in case I got that urge again because he was showing you too much attention.
He knew, however much he wanted to keep us apart, he couldn’t always be there to protect you."
I felt my throat go dry.
"So just in case, I also planted the idea that we didn’t love you in your head since you were a little child. And of course, Ryan looked up to me, so I put it in his head too, that you were the enemy and that you had killed Mom.
So in the end, I would say I got everything I wanted.
That was, of course, until you went and tried to drown yourself.... got us back into square one, where Dad is obsessed with you and he’s not doing his duties, and now I have to pick up after him..."
I shook my head. I didn't want to hear this...
"I don’t understand. Why are you telling me this? Why now?"
I didn't get him, I wasn’t there then. I didn’t know if this was him apologising or if this was him feeling sorry about what he had done.
So I asked, “Is this your way of apologising? Are you apologising to me right now?”
And that’s when he did it. Full-blown started laughing. And in that moment, he looked happy—almost like a little boy.
I had never seen him like that before. Not ever. He looked normal. Human.
“Of course not,” he said, still laughing. “Are you delusional?” And then he laughed harder.
I didn’t know how to react to this. I didn’t even know how to act around him. Especially not now. So I just stayed there, watching him laugh, getting this strange glimpse of him.
“I was just telling you because I thought that would pass the time faster, you know? I don’t know how to do this, how to sit in a ward and play nurse. I mean, what are we supposed to talk about?”
He paused, then added, “But I think I also said it because you kind of let me down.... When you got married to the son of Cincinnati, I really didn’t know how to feel about that. But I think Dad was just trying to get you away from me, and that’s why he took that proposal.”
He shook his head, “But then, after what we heard happened... if you got to a place you decided to off yourself', that must have been hard.”
He looked at me with a smirk, “And what’s harder than me? I thought if you were able to survive me, then you can survive anything that life throws at you.....But you just give up like that because of that lover boy.”
He laughed again, “I mean, Sarah, come on. You gotta give me something here.”
It was so embarrassing to realise my own brother thought it was funny that I tried to kill myself after he had tried to kill me and failed.
He looked at me again and said, “Come on, it’s funny, laugh.”
But it wasn’t funny. So I didn’t laugh.
He sighed and walked closer—too close for my liking. Suddenly, his voice, rough and cold, whispered,
“Scream.”
“What?” I looked up at him, still lying on the bed, as he stood over me.
“Scream hard. Make it convincing,” he ordered.
“What the hell do you mean?” I asked, confused.
That’s when he produced his knife. He flipped it open and then slowly, so slowly, he caressed the blade along my face.
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I screamed for my life. I don’t think I’ve ever screamed that hard in my entire life.
Before I could fully understand what was happening, someone barreled into him and punched Ronan right in the eye, the same eye he had once shown me, the one our father had hit.
And when I saw who had hit him, I realised it was Cullen.
I glanced at the knife and felt a surge of fear about what Ronan might do next. I knew Ronan wasn’t right in the head. But he flicked the knife shut, slid it into his back pocket, and said,
“You’re Cullen Cincinnati, right? I think we’ve met.”
“I’m your brother-in-law, you fucking asshole.” Cullen attacked again.
This time, Ronan didn’t hold back. A fight erupted, chaos filling the room, and all I could do was scream for help as I saw blood.
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