Brothers at War [#Wattys2017]

eleven (ii)

MARKUS' POV

Even in my drunk state, I knew that I had made a mistake. I also knew that Sophie would never forgive me for telling Matthew that he was Callie's father, and that broke my heart more than the knowledge that she had walked away from me.

There was a reason she didn't want my brother to know the truth. I had broken her trust and she wasn't even here to know that I had done it. I was a fucking idiot and I knew it.

"Callie ain't my daughter." There was a bitterness which I hadn't expected from Matthew when he said Callie's name and that only fuelled the anger I felt towards the man I had long since despised. "Sophie must have been fucking someone else while she was with me."

"She loved you, you fucking asshole." My hands clenched into fists at my sides and I fought the urge to punch the shit out of my brother's face. Sophie might not have made the best decision by sleeping with my brother, but I knew that she loved him and that she had every belief that Matt was going to leave Amena for her.

Unaware of my feelings for her, she had confided in me once about her feelings for my brother, and she had even cried on my shoulder when she realised that Matthew was never going to leave his wife for her. It took her another five month to walk away from her, but now I know just how difficult it is to leave the person you love behind.

"At least she's keeping it in the family I guess," Matt shrugged.

"What—"

"Who's next on her list? Perhaps if our father wasn't dead, she would be begging to take him to bed." And that was all it took for me to, finally, fly across the bedroom at my brother and to put my fist in his face.

It wasn't satisfying enough to just do it the once. No. It wasn't even enough for me to do it four times.

I just wanted him to feel some semblance of the pain I was feeling. I wanted him to know what he had done to me. I wanted him to apologise for being a shitty brother and I wanted him to acknowledge that he was the reason my heart was breaking.