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Sometimes being needed is all it takes to feel loved.

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-Chapter 10 Part 3--Little Hungry-

Today was an exhausting day. Nothing was going as I had scheduled.

Kevin skipped a few classes and disappeared out of my sight. I don't usually worry about where he is or with whom he is, but sometimes Kevin crosses the line with people.

Let's just say his moral compass is not in place.

He is unpredictable and very problematic when he mixes himself with the wrong crowds.

He wasn't someone you could just easily piss off and walk away harm-free.

My brother is short-tempered and extremely violent when people rub him the wrong way or even look at him the wrong way.

It was never a win-win situation with this guy, and it was much safer if people walked on eggshells when they were around him.

The only time he acted civilized was at home, surprisingly. It was the only place he didn't lose his temper for stupid little things.

And for the past few days, he's tried to keep his distance from Emma.

In all honesty, that was weird in and of itself. He usually tends to bully the person that he has taken an interest in. I was probably wrong about him liking her.

Or perhaps... he's just trying to throw me off completely.

Emma softly shifts next to me as she silently stares at the TV. She was wrapped in a pink blanket. Her head rested against the armchair.

Her body didn't take up much space on the couch. She was dressed in one of my dark sweaters matched with a pair of dark shorts. It's not unusual for me to see her in my clothes.

And frankly, I'm getting pretty used to seeing her in my sweaters and t-shirts. It's pretty cute that everything was way too big for her small frame. All my t-shirts made her look smaller than she is.

It just made me want to protect her more because of how defenseless and fragile she seemed. She could probably break in two if someone tightly hugged her.

Oddly, my mother hasn't brought her any nice clothes yet. She's probably still in denial that she isn't the only female in the house. And that she doesn't have Richard's full attention any more.

If my mother had known that he had a daughter, she would have disappeared Emma from the face of the earth before Richard had a chance to remember that he had one to begin with.

She would have sent someone to do her dirty work like always. As angelic as my mother seemed to others, behind that fake mask, the devil resided in her.

She would have killed Emma in the blink of an eye if she had had the chance to go back in time. Emma was a problem for her and her happy family image that she created for herself.

On the other hand, Emma appears like she hasn't slept well in days. The dark circles under her eyes indicated that whatever is keeping her up at night is succeeding... It worries me that she's appearing more fragile than before.

At first, I thought it was Kevin bothering her every single night. Knowing damn well how my brother is-I wouldn't doubt it for a split second.

When he finds a new victim to torment in his twisted mind games that he likes to play with them, he usually doesn't stop. Until he gets what he wants.

So... I would gradually stand up every hour from my bed to check on her just in case my brother did dare to cross the line with her.

Knowing his bedroom is much nearer to hers wasn't easing my ongoing wild thoughts at night.

I knew sooner or later he would try to get his way with her, so it wasn't surprising to me one bit.

I have seen how my brother likes to torment his toys before he completely devours them whole.

And I knew deep down he would do the same to her.

He always gets what he wants, in a good way or in a bad way. He doesn't mind hurting anyone in his way in the process of getting what he craves.

Not saying that I'm any different from my twin brother, either. I'm probably worse than him. If I desired something, I would just simply take it. I guess... we both had that in common with each other.

But at least I don't torment my victims.

The enormous living room was dark. All you could hear was the movie playing in the background... The only source of illumination was from the TV.

A romantic movie was on. Twenty minutes into the movie, I lost complete interest. Whoever scripted this movie must have been smoking some marijuana. Everything was so predictable and stupid that there was no point in wasting my time watching this movie.

Rather than looking at the dumb movie, I would usually peek at Emma to watch her reaction in certain scenes. She was more pleasing to watch and much more interesting too.

The only problem here was that she didn't give anything away.

Her eyes were fixed on the big screen. But in her dull gaze. I have noticed that she wasn't paying attention to the movie at all. She seems like... She's thinking hard about something.

What is bothering her so much that it is not letting her feel at ease?

If only I could read her mind, it would have made it easier for me to understand her a little more.

She wasn't opening up to me... No matter how hard I try to earn her trust, that thought alone doesn't sit well with me.

Kevin, on the other hand, was completely absorbed by his phone screen, ignoring the whole movie. The only reason he is here and not outside roaming for a quick fix is because of our mother.

Let's just say she wants us to pretend to care about family bonding, so Richard won't suspect a thing that goes on behind closed doors when he's not around.

If he ever realizes how she is in reality, he will likely shoot himself in the head for not realizing it sooner.

We have been pretending for years. Now it's a little more bearable because Emma is here.

No matter how much my mother wants to keep hurting us, she won't do it in front of Emma.

She's not brave enough to take that risk of losing Richard to Emma.

She knows that more than anyone here, Richard would leave her in a heartbeat if he had to choose between his only child and her.

And let's keep it real here. A wife is always replaceable, but a daughter is never, and more when he was happy to finally have her by his side.

Also, the luxury that comes from being married to a top professional surgeon who wins banks makes it even a bigger loss. No way in hell will she be that crazy to lose it all in a blink of an eye.

Richard is silent, his eyes never swaying away from the flat screen TV. His left arm is wrapped around my mother's shoulder.

I will never understand how Richard fell in love with this woman.

Oddly, Richard came home from work early today, just to take Emma to the hospital.

Something happened a few days ago that made him take her today. They prescribed her with heavy sleeping pills and more medications.

I tried to find out why she was freaking out a couple of days ago? But Richard wouldn't say a word. He was like a freaking tomb.

From the corner of my eyes, I see Emma flinch when a loud sound rings throughout the quiet room.

We all snap our heads to Richard, who is right now fishing for his phone from his left pocket in a hurry as he stands up from the couch. A frown gradually appears on his strong features.

When he fishes it out of his pocket, his brown eyes instantly narrow as his hard-puzzled gaze lands on the lit-up phone screen.

Curiosity spikes in his eyes as he makes his way to the hallway.

Emma gradually sits up as she sees her father strolling out of the living room with the phone pressed against his left ear.

These past few days, she has been like that whenever her father walks out of a room, leaving her out of his sight.

For some weird reason, Emma becomes awfully alarmed when she's not with her father. It seems like she has become more attached to him.

What is she so terrified of that she gets alerted whenever her father leaves out of her presence?

My gaze landed on my mother. She had her bright eyes locked on the space that Richard left from a few moments ago, just waiting for him to come back.

Kevin, on the flip side, gets up from the sofa.

He probably got tired of pretending again.

In his eyes, you could see the disinterest. He was good at hiding everything else but boredom.

If he had the option of being here or watching a painted wall dry up, I'm certain he'd take the second option.

He was ready to stroll off to, who knows where.

When my mother's head snapped his way, her hard pointed stare landed on him, and as fast as that glare appeared on her face, it slowly disappeared when she noticed Emma gazing at her with a puzzled expression.

My mother clears her throat as her hard gaze evaporates into thin air. She almost slipped out of character. It's quite amusing to see her not lashing out at one of us.

The corner of Kevin's lips slightly lifts as he notices how our mother wasn't saying anything to him at all. He's probably amused by the situation too.

Shit, even I was surprised to see my mother not cursing my twin out for daring to stand up from his seat to leave without finishing watching this stupid movie with the family.

Emma carefully studies Kevin, then she slowly eyes my mother as curiosity gleams in her big brown eyes. The look that she had on her face let me know that she was trying to figure out what had just occurred.

She perhaps got startled by my mother's rapid change of character. It was normal to have that reaction. Anybody in her place would have started asking questions, but all Emma did was stare.

And I like that about her.

My mother gazed back at the TV, avoiding everyone's stares, especially little Emma's.

Her big brown eyes landed on me, waiting to see if I found it odd that my mother acted that way.

But all she got was more confused when she saw the small smile on my face, stretching out a little more.

"Do you need to go to the bathroom, Emma?" I ask her, trying to sway her attention to something else.

It was better for her to stay oblivious like her father. She doesn't look like she could handle any more trouble.

Kevin strolls his way to the kitchen with a triumphant smile on his face, enjoying it way too much that his mother couldn't do anything about it.

This bastard is just making her more furious... but as long as he doesn't use Emma, I don't mind the aftermath that comes after.

This dude liked pissing his mother off, in any way, shape, or form.

Sometimes, I do the same... Could anyone honestly blame me?

Who wouldn't want to piss her off?

And certainly, Kevin is right about now... was possibly plotting an evil scheme inside his head to piss her off even further.

He likes to test his limits to see how far my mother will keep up that fake facade of a nurturing mother in front of people.

She is definitely going to his bedroom tonight.

She always does when one of us pisses her off, if it's not in his, it's going to be in mine.

Knowing Kevin, he'll probably be in Emma's room tonight to completely avoid any of our mother's attics. I knew my mother was boiling inside. She loathes it when Kevin does not listen to her.

She is a pro at hiding her emotions if she has any... because at this point, I believe she doesn't have any to begin with.

She didn't like it when my twin or I disobeyed. It probably ticked her off inside, but she didn't have to show it-we both knew it did when her bright eyes sharpened into a glare.

Emma slightly tags my shirt as she softly says, "No... But, umm... could you please get me something cold to drink? " She gazed down as her cheeks flushed. She lightly bit her lower lips in nervousness.

Every time she asks for my help with anything, she would always hesitate before she asks. She seemed like she didn't want to bother me or anyone.

For example, yesterday. She tried limping her way down the stairs by herself. Halfway through, she gave up and asked for my help. It seems like she didn't want to be a burden to anyone.

And I try to make her open up to me more.

But she was pretty difficult to crack open.

"What do you want to drink?" I get off the couch as my eyes linger on her small, curled up form. She gazes up momentarily and softly says, "Water with ice... please."

I didn't waste time getting her what she craved. When I entered the kitchen, the first thing my eyes landed on was Kevin, who was right now leaning on the counter as he drank his coke with his eyes still sealed on his lit-up phone screen.

What the hell is he seeing that has him so entertained and calm and quiet for once?

Kevin momentarily looks up from his phone to see me.

My head shakes when a small mischievous smile overtakes his face. This guy was something else.

He gestured for me to come closer and check out what's on his phone screen.

So I did just to ease down the curiosity that was building up in me.

All that was on his phone screen was a lot of nude pictures.

He kept scrolling down, showing me all of them.

I made him stop in one specific picture of this person's bare chest, my head tilted a little to the right-when I caught a glimpse of a familiar birthmark on this chick's left breast.

All these nude pics were taken by one pacific female student from our school. No freaking way.

This chick had a boyfriend, and she's doing this shit. I'm not even surprised at this point, and here I thought she was different. Females could never be satisfied with only having one guy.

"Dude... Isn't that Mike's girlfriend? " Kevin's eyes lit up with amusement when I noticed who was in these provocative pictures. That birthmark was hard to miss.

"It doesn't look like it if she's sending me these kinds of pics.

Plus, I'm saving him the trouble. " He had a point. Kevin always liked to take other things just to throw them away afterward. It was like a game to him. For him, toys are always replaceable.

"Do you want her when I finish with her?"

"No, thanks. I think I'll pass this time. " A soft frown appeared on his face when he heard my response. I usually like having my fun... But right now, I just don't have the energy for the consequences that follow after the fun ends.

"Suit yourself." He lightly shrugs as he places the coke on the counter and starts typing away on his phone.

This bastard was actually doing that throughout the whole movie. No wonder why this guy was so quiet.

I headed directly to the steel fridge and took the gallon of fresh water out and also brought out the ice cubes from the top fridge.

Kevin opens the top cabinet and passes me a glass cup. I rinse it out and begin pouring fresh, cold water into it. Then I popped some ice cubes inside.

She's probably a little hungry, too. She barely touched her dinner today... However, she is perhaps too embarrassed to ask me to bring her anything else.

What should I get her? My eyes scanned the whole kitchen until they landed on what I was searching for.

Making myself quickly back to Emma. I saw Emma's eyes lit up a little when I brought her what she wanted. Every time I see her eyes light up, it makes me feel at ease.

I sat next to her, passing her the cold drink as I opened the bag of chips and placed it right next to her, while she took a small sip of her drink. A little soft smile makes its way onto her face as she takes some of the chips and plops them inside her mouth. At least she didn't look so gloomy anymore.

"Thank you, Leo." It feels nice feeling needed by someone, I could feel the corner of my lips slightly twitching up a little, as this weird feeling ignites in my chest making me drop my gaze.

""

What the hell was that?

My heart misses a beat again. A small frown makes its way onto my face.

"Are you okay, Leo?" Her big brown eyes were filled with worry and curiosity, as she tilted her head slightly to the right. Her whole body was now facing me, completely.

My heart does it again. It misses a beat, freaking me a bit out in the process.

What the hell is going on with me? When I was about to get up and leave for my bedroom, Richard decided to finally come back, with a conflicted expression on his face.

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Please check out my other books, if you are bored or want to have something new to read. Thanks 😅😊.

What do you guys think about this chapter?

If you had an opportunity would you kill Kevin?

It's almost Halloween guys 🍭 👻 🎃...