Chapter 23

In one breath, she reached out to pull me, but it seemed like she didn't have a good grip, so I quickly reached out and proactively helped her. She smiled and led me to the bedroom.
In the bedroom, there was a photo, and Brian was in the photo. Standing next to him was another boy.
"This is my son, Daniel," she skillfully pointed to the position in the photo and told me.
Daniel? I started pondering.
"The two of them grew up together since childhood, they were as close as brothers, always going to the same school and even studying abroad in England together."
"Oh." After hearing her say that, I suddenly felt deeply emotional.
"So, your son and Brian get along well, right? Why haven't they been in contact after they started working?"
The Brian I usually see doesn't have any close relationships, he keeps to himself, the only person he seems to have a good relationship with is the doctor I saw last time.
"He passed away four years ago." Her tone was calm. But I saw tears sliding through her hollow eyes.
I was shocked in an instant. Reacting a second later, I quickly apologized.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"It's okay, it's all in the past." She sighed, wiped away her tears, and smiled to comfort me.
I felt even more self-reproach.
"In England, they went out to play and got into a car accident. Before falling off a cliff, Brian jumped out, but he didn't have time to... " She started choking up again.
"I'm sorry." I didn't know how to comfort this old lady, so I could only reach out and embrace her shoulder.
"It's really okay, don't worry about it. I must have scared you." She calmed down for a moment and continued, "Brian has always blamed himself, thinking that he caused my son's death. To make it up to us, he insisted on coming back from England to work here. The girlfriend my son had at the time was pregnant, and she ended up not wanting the child. It was Brian who convinced her to give birth, and he would take care of the child."
"He was afraid that the child would grow up without parents and be talked about by others, so he let the child have his last name and told everyone that it was his child. He named him Daniel, Daniel is my son's name."
"Whenever he had free time, he would drive back with Daniel to visit us, treating us as his own parents completely."
"He has suffered a lot. Being alone..."She sighed as she spoke.
"He always says he doesn't want to find someone, that he has no thoughts about marriage in this lifetime. We all worry about him, afraid that he won't be able to move on."
"Fortunately, he met you." She held my hand again. "You're a good girl, don't miss out on him. Over the years, although my eyesight has faltered, my heart hasn't. He is a good boy."
Listening to her say so much, I remained in a state of shock, unable to come back to my senses for a long time. The child is not his, but his brother's, and his brother's girlfriend is my sister.
I suddenly understood why Brian didn't talk to me for several days. He wasn't avoiding me, he was terrified by the past.
He couldn't move on from the pain of the past, so he couldn't give me an explanation.
Thinking about all the fuss I caused, I felt incredibly ashamed. He is not that kind of person; I was being overly petty.
"Okay." I finally responded.