Imagining Us

Ch. 61-Brother Dearest

PORTE

"She doesn't belong to you, you know," Luka countered. Porte leaned against the wall, neutralizing his expression. His brother had an unnatural habit of getting under his skin. He could see the vein pressing against Luka's neck as he clenched his jaw.

Porte had been working on a project in the study before dinner when Luka had all but blazed inside with unhinged accusations.

He raised a brow as he wondered where this energy came from. There was only one person that would rile his brother–rile any of them–up to this extent.

Talia had been texting and calling him constantly. Since the night of the gala, which by some miracle –thank God–she hadn't attended.

Porte was in a good place–with his life and hopefully with Esi, and he hoped that it wouldn't be ruined. He didn't doubt that Talia tried to get into his brother's head. One of his biggest regrets was that he couldn't save Luke from her machinations.

He coolly assessed his brother who leaned against the back of the closed door. Porte was on the opposite side of the room, and the distance made it seem like they were having a showdown.

Which in fact, they were.

"She looked beautiful at the gala, didn't she? Did you think that she wore that dress for you?" Porte asked , disregarding Luke's words.

His brother's eyes widened, and a smirk pulled at the corner of Porte's mouth. Luke didn't school his expression fast enough, and he knew that Porte had seen it.

He felt sick as soon as he said the words...wielded her in that way, but he didn't let it show.

"Then again..." he started. " She always looks that way. She is always that way with me. I've experienced quite a bit of her over the past year, lillebror."

Luka gritted his teeth and ran a hand across his jaw, Porte hated it. Hated the games they had to play to even talk to each other.

Hated that he had made them broken.

"I won't let you treat her like the others, Porte."

Others?

"What are you–

"I–we know about them," Luke started. "Just because you've never brought them to the house doesn't mean that we don't know what happens at your apartment...I won't let Esi become one of them."

They held each other's stare for a few seconds. Porte sighed.

"You speak with such conviction, Luka," Porte spat slowly. "Such surety."

He took a step towards his brother whose stance had stiffened. "It makes me wonder who you got this information from, and whether or not they're a reliable source."

A flash of guilt ran across his brother's face.

A chord of confirmation.

Betrayal.

Luke's actions bothered him more than Talia's did. Still, if Porte was a better brother, he would have found any way possible to get her out of his brother's life, but even now, it was still so hard to get her out of his.

The fact that Luka would use Talia to try to push Esi away from him, pushed the guilt away, and made him angrier than he wanted to admit.

"I–

Luke started to make an excuse.

"Save it," he seethed. "I know that we haven't always seen eye to eye, but you want to know my problem with you, Luka? You have built up all of these ideas in your mind." Porte flicked a hand towards Luke's head. "You let them run out of control...and you won't talk. You won't find out the truth yourself."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Luke retorted.

His brother looked young at that moment, and it reminded Porte of when they were younger. Before he had to push him away to protect him.

The tension was thick between them, and Porte knew that he had to leave the room before they went too far. Before they said something that they both regretted.

Porte's ire deflated immediately.

"She is not like anyone else, Luke. I remember the first time I saw her," Porte started. "At that mixer. How she stood out, and not because of what that idiot had her do but because of the look on her face. The emotions that she displayed."

Luke folded his arms and leaned against the desk.

"This world that we live in...that we grew up in is so pretentious. And there she was..this light–literally too–in all of this darkness," He looked at his brother. "Wouldn't you want a piece of that...of that brightness in your life?"

Luke tilted his head as he mused on Porte's words. It was the most open that they had spoken in a long while.

"I'll be the first to admit that it sounds selfish...craving her light in this way, but as I got to know her," He went to lift his glass from where he had set it.

He needed to have something in his hands for this conversation.

"I didn't just want to take...I wanted to give her something too. But what could I possibly give her?" Porte let out a harsh laugh. "I see things...the things that slip out. Things that bother her. That worry her, and I'm determined to be something steady and unwavering for her."

His brother hummed at his words. Not quite in belief.

"So contrary to what you might think...I know that she doesn't belong to me," Porte said. He paused, readying himself for the vulnerable that would come next. "I would, however, would like to belong to her sometime."

He watched his brother's eyebrows furrow then when the realization hit him.

"Are you–

Porte stalked towards the door, cutting off his brother's question. He wouldn't be admitting that to anyone but Esi. When she was ready to hear it.

"And when I do belong to her...I will do anything to protect her against vile rumors," he said. "Even if they're from you."

He hadn't meant it to sound like a threat, or maybe he did.

He loved his brother, truly.

It was a pity that he had to direct those words to him.

They would weigh on his mind tonight–he could already sense the sleeplessness and the guilt.

On top of that, he had a strange suspicion that Elizabeth was avoiding him.

Had she changed her mind after that night? Had she thought about it and realized that he wasn't worthy of her? That everything good and beautiful around him would eventually wither away. That he made everyone broken.

He would never want that to happen to her, but selfishness at the thought of having her prevailed over sense.

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A/N

Not my favorite chapter to write, but I felt like it was necessary to unearth some see and to plant more for future chapters.

Tell me what you think!