The Other Side of Greed by Lily Zante

Chapter Fifty-One

KYRA

“Philip Hawks saved me from one nightmare only to plunge me into another. I never looked for Kane after that.” Brandon recounts what his adoptive father said to him when he had dared to ask when they could go and get Kane.

My heart has broken into pieces listening to Brandon’s story. He tells me slowly, in little snippets, as if he can only deal with small fragments of it at a time. I don’t push him, but listen.

“I let my brother down.”

“You didn’t. None of it was your fault. Your father is a billionaire, but a cruel one.” I don’t want to judge, but I don’t understand why a rich man couldn’t adopt Brandon and his brother.

“He only wanted to replace the son he’d lost.”

Philip Hawks isn’t just cruel, he sounds almost psychotic. No wonder Brandon grew up the way he did, thinking that money was the answer to everything. I can’t find the right words to say.

“I was the older brother,” he says, “I’d always protected him, but then I was shown a better life, and I forgot all about him.”

Every time Brandon tells me something about his past, it’s like he’s taken a six inch needle and pierced it through my heart. My suffering is after the fact; he’s the one who lived it for real. “You didn’t choose to forget him, you did it because you had to survive. It wasn't your fault,” I remind him gently.

“But I never even looked for him once.” He scrubs his hands across his face in anguish. I take one of his hands and move it away, so that I can look into his eyes.

“Don’t do that. Don’t beat yourself up about this.”.

“I told myself Kane was doing just fine without me, and I convinced myself not to look for him because it would mess things up for him.”

“Maybe you were right.”

He lowers his head. “Looking him up would mean having to face who I was and what I had done.”

“Your father gave you an ultimatum when you were a scared little boy, he prevented you from doing anything about Kane, but there's nothing stopping you looking for him now, Brandon.” The name is new to my lips, but I’m getting used to it.

He looks pensive. “I guess there isn’t.”

We’re sitting at the large dining table at his place, with him looking through the newspapers while I check my work emails on my laptop.

The newspapers have blown up and we both find ourselves in unfamiliar situations. Brandon doesn't court publicity and I'm caught up in it for the wrong reasons. He’s in the papers for rescuing children from a fire, and because of who he is—the heir to the Hawks empire—there is so much interest in him. I’m his love interest, according to the press. But I don’t care about the press. I care about what Brandon tells me and every day he tells me that he loves me.

He’d been told to take it easy for a few weeks, and when he came out of the hospital having stayed there almost a week, I took him home to his apartment in The Water Tower Building.

And that’s when I discovered that he had someone to take care of his laundry, chores, cleaning and his cooking.

Of course he does.

Because this is not Brad.

This is Brandon.

He begged me to stay with him, but there was nothing for me to do when he already had someone to take care of his housekeeping. He had a cook, too. But I stayed with him because I had made up my mind to give him a second chance. Someone who puts their life above others, someone selfless like that, deserves it.

For the first few weeks after the fire, we shut ourselves off in his apartment. I left Fredrich and Simona in charge of Redhill, while I stayed by Brandon's side trying to be here for him as he healed from his burn injuries.

It’s only now, weeks later, that we are slowly getting back to some sort of normality. Brandon focusses on Hawks Enterprises, and I do my best to take care of Redhill.

Despite all of this, we managed to keep the food nights going without missing a single one. News of the fire spread, and we were quickly inundated with food supplies which was just as well because we had no store room. Local businesses banded together and helped. I knew they would, because people come together and help others in their time of need.

Fredrich suffered from severe smoke inhalation and Brandon had a burning shelf fall against his side. It will likely scar his arm forever, but they saved those children, and that was the most important thing.

While the damage to the factory has been bad, it could have been worse. I try to remember this knowing that our production has taken a big hit. The food storeroom and a couple of rooms on either side have been badly damaged by the fire and will need to be rebuilt again. Fire and safety experts have cordoned off that part of the building, and we are able to get limited production going, but I am worried about how this will impact us going forward.

Brandon has mentioned a warehouse that is slightly further out of the city. He says it has only recently become empty and there is land around it and no other buildings. He's looking into it while I focus on getting Redhill back to full capacity as best as I can.

I had a lucky break happen yesterday when Brandon told me that Emma, his personal assistant, wants to come and work for me. I hired her five minutes into our telephone interview last night. At least that’s something positive to have come out of this.

I’ve stayed with him here the entire time. I was supposed to go back to my place but I don’t want to, and he doesn’t want me to, either. My sister, Penny came back as soon as she heard about the fire. It’s been wonderful to have her back, even though I don’t see her as much as if I were living at my place. It’s been strange for her to see me with a man like Brandon, but she doesn’t know of the complexities which surround him.

It’s something I am slowly getting used to, like his name, and his background, and his life—his real life—not the fabricated one he chose to show me.

Being with him is like going on one of those loop de loop rollercoaster rides. One moment I’m on a high with my breath catching in my throat, the next, my heart jumps out as I find myself plummeting down at breakneck speed. It’s new and exciting and different for me, learning to love and trust again, but what I’m feeling is nothing compared to the demons that Brandon has to confront.

I want to believe that this man has changed, because when he told me who he really was and why he had come to Redhill, he destroyed all the trust I had in him.

I've been hurt before. A heart that's broken badly once doesn't heal without any lasting scars. And Brandon doing what he did— tricking me, lying and pretending to be someone else, purely for financial gain—cratered another line in my heart.

But then he walked into the fire, put his life at risk, and saved Stefan and Holly, that's when I knew.

This man might have started off doing everything for the wrong reasons, but he's now come out the other side. It gives me hope. And hearing about Kane made me realize just how much this man has been through. He told me his worst fear was people finding out about the real him, that he was so broken. Being so unloved that even your parents don't want you is the worst rejection, but digging deeper, I can see how much he beats himself up about leaving behind the brother he loved so much.

The damage it must do to a child to be ripped apart from the only family he has can be irreparable. Brandon’s past cuts him deep. I feel so much for him; sadness, and hurt, and I am driven by the need to make things better for him as much as I can. Listening to him and letting him talk about the trauma he has kept hidden, seems to help him. It’s not going to be easy, helping this man to heal, but I will.

“Penny’s going back tomorrow,” I tell him, thinking that it might be nice for us to meet up before she leaves.

“Already?”

“She can’t miss too much of her studies. Shall we all go out for dinner?”

“That’s a great idea.”

I’m tempted to ask him if he’s considered looking for his brother. It’s something I try not to touch upon too much just yet, but I will as time goes on. I want Brandon to have his real blood family back.

Him not knowing what’s happened to Kane is the thing that’s weighing heavily on his mind and his wound won’t heal until he makes contact.

He looks at me, as if he knows what I’m thinking. We seem to connect like this more, as if we know one another’s thoughts. “I’m not ready,” he says, turning the page of the newspaper.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“But you thought it.”

I place my hand over his, stopping him from turning the page again, pretending to look busy. He’s not really reading the paper. “You should stop thinking about it, and just do it. Reach out to your brother.”

He breathes out loudly. Talking about his brother helps, but it also leaves him feeling melancholy.

I know how to put a smile on his face. I move my chair out so that I am sitting facing him full on and then I start to undo my blouse.

He glances up, his body sinking as he sees what I’m doing. My clothes slide to the floor and I continue to undress provocatively. He watches in silence. It’s a sure way of taking his mind off the things which plague him. I get down on my knees, place myself between his legs and slide my hands into his sweatpants, then into his boxers. Then I take a hold of him, licking my lips and staring up at him before I bend over and take him in my mouth.