SUMMER LOVE (✅)

Chapter 19

The sun was almost about to set. Gabe, Chloe and Jeremy were deep in talk. Steph and Cole had escaped to the downstairs deck. Sebastian was there but he also excused himself to the edge of the yacht, watching the sun set into the ocean.

I saw him alone there. My heart twisted uncomfortably in my chest.

Fuck the space.

I excused myself and walked up to where Sebastian was sitting.

He heard my footsteps and glanced upwards to see me standing there.

He moved sideways to make space for me. I sat down beside him.

We sat in silence, looking over at the sunset.

"I had a best friend named Lionel." Sebastian started speaking suddenly. I looked at him. He was still looking straight at the ocean but his hands were in tight fists on his lap. I realised he was opening up to me,sharing something with me.

"He is also my cousin. So it was like a bonus. Bestfriend in my cousin. We were brothers for life." He sighed audibly. "We grew up together, shared our first set of crush problems, solved each other's first high school problem, got to see each other's first girlfriend. It was awesome. He lived next door. But we were always at each other's place. Never parted."

He turned his face to me, checking my reaction.

I was silent and watching him, listening to everything he was saying.

"Then we grew up. We were both 16 when our dads started to share with us the buisness things. You know how parents introduce their child to the family buisness and all." I nodded. "We always knew that we wanted to continue with the family buisness. We grew up seeing our dads, going to the factories and office with them so we had an idea and liked the whole thing."

His expression twisted in pain. I wanted to hug him, squeeze his hand but I didn't. I knew he wanted his time and space.

"I trusted him with everything. Literally everything. Obviously I would. We were brothers for life. I thought he trusted me too with everything. He knew how much I wanted my dad to think of me about how serious I was about this business. My dad is the CEO of the company. He found the whole thing and set it up by himself. Lionel's family joined it later. So seeing it, I was the successor of the company. And I really wanted to be, I wanted to be the damn CEO."

He rubbed his face and pushed his hair back. "Fucking Lionel didn't let that happen. The company was facing some problems related to funds and losses. In order to gain more attention on himself, Lionel tried to up the company's funds to recieve praise and a good position. It turned out he had done some illegal shit to do it. He didn't want anybody knowing but people found out. The media made a whole news about it. It was very bad. Because of that we lost a lot of clients. The company's name was put into question. My father was furious. Obviously."

Sebastian slowly moved his hand on top of mine and grabbed hold of it.

"Lionel, still trying to be in the good graces of my dad ratted out the whole thing. But the only change was that instead of his name he changed it to mine." I squeezed his hand. What an awful idiotic man.

"My dad believed it. He believed a different person over his own son. And that was because Lionel used a company computer to do it. And it was easy to track down the whole thing as it was a company computer and Lionel used mine to do his shit. So finally the name that came to everybody was mine."

"Sebastian..." I whispered, taking his hand in both hands of mine tightly.

"What stung the most was that my dad believed it. He didn't even let me explain. I don't and wouldn't do some illegal shit just for attention. He knew that but he decided to believe Lionel and not me, his own damn son. Because according to him the computer was mine so the whole thing was my shit. And Lionel, that bastard who I loved and trusted the most turned against me. For what? A measly job position of a CEO. He knew I yearned for that position. I wanted it from my whole heart. But he betrayed me. Broke my trust and my respect."

Sebastian turned his face towards me.

"He's next in line for the job of CEO." He shrugged.

"Always the freaking good people pay. I hated it there. My mom saw it. So she sent me here. She had a very good friend who lived here. Cole's mom. I had never met her but I took the distraction. My mom sent me money. So I decided to take and spend it however I liked. Why not waste the money of the company that betrayed me. I rented or more like bought a place, a new motorcycle and a complete new wardrobe. But that didn't make me feel better. Actually worse. It proved that I was still dependent on the company's money. So I decided to work on my own, to earn some money on my own. Mom still sends me money but I only use it when I seriously don't have any other way. I have been here almost a year. I will work an extra year then go off to a buisness school, tho I am still taking online courses." Sebastian looked determined at the end.

"I know the bills would be high and I wouldn't have the money but I am determined to work. I'll take loans, work shit loads of shifts and attend school."

"I believe in you." I smiled at him. His grey eyes lit up.

He leaned in towards me. He pushed back a tendril of hair and gently caressed my cheek. "Thank you. For everything."

__________

So...this was his story.

Poor Sebastian.

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