My Stepbrother, My Enemy {BL}

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She stepped closer, her voice dropping into that familiar, pleading tone she used when she wanted me to see things her way. "Do you think I wanted this?" she started, the words spilling out like a sudden gust of wind filling the quiet room.

"That someone had to die for you to have a good life? Did you really want to stay poor?! Living with your abusive father and struggling to afford rent, barely managing to put food on the table?! Everything I’ve done was for you, Noah. All of it. And all you’ve done is make me feel like a terrible person for it...crying about how I forced you to live with your bully instead of recognizing my sacrifice and stopping being ungrateful!"

Her voice cracked at the end, but there was no softness; only a sharp edge honed by years of resentment hidden behind perfect smiles and fancy dinners.

I stared at her, the sting of the slap from moments earlier still throbbing on my cheek, disbelief washing over me like a wave. This was the woman who had once spoiled me, who had comforted me through nightmares and promised that life would get better. Wealth had changed her...I could see it now in the way she squared her shoulders with entitlement, the cold certainty in her gaze, and how she looked at me as if I were the one ruining the life she had meticulously crafted.

She had transformed into someone I hardly recognized, and that realization settled over me like a suffocating blanket of snow.

Anger began to bubble up in my chest, slow at first but then exploding into something fierce.

"Stop lying to me, Mom," I said, my voice low and steady, even though my hands shook at my sides. "You didn’t do a damn thing for me! You did it for yourself! I noticed it a long time ago but didn’t want to accept it. You barely cared about me anymore. You were never really there when it mattered, when my father was abusive, you weren’t there for me! When I was bullied at school, you married my bully’s father and basically told me to suck it up. When I was falling apart living here, all you cared about was how perfect our family looked on the outside!"

Her eyes widened, and a sharp gasp escaped her as my accusations settled between us. She tried to refute it, her hands waving as if she could physically push the truth away, her voice rising defensively.

"I care, Noah...I’ve always cared! You’re the one who shut me out, who stopped talking to me, who—"