Brothers At War [completed; unedited]

Brothers At War: Chapter Eleven [Marcus' POV]

I opened my eyes for the thousandth time that night.

Since Sophie had practically ran away from me, I had found it impossible to do anything other than think.

Think about why she would leave as quickly as she did, or think about everything I did wrong when I admitted my feelings for her, or think about how much it actually hurts knowing she doesn’t want to be with me, or think about just how much of an idiot I was to even consider the option of actually being with Sophie in a romantic way.

I even thought about who I hated more.

Her for not even bothering to stick around and actually listen to what I needed to say.

Myself for being such an idiot and not thinking about what I was saying before it slipped out to her.

Or Matt for, once again, being everything that I couldn’t possibly be. Matt for being the one who women were always going to love, always going to prefer over his inferior self.

Of course it’s Matt you should hate. Even when you admitted that you were falling for her, he still continued to tease you about how amazing she was; about how he knew things that you would never have the privilege of finding out. He is, and always will be, an inconsiderate bastard who couldn’t give a damn about how anyone other than himself feels.

Maybe it’s just the hatred inside me telling me that though. The jealousy of Matt being handed everything on a plate, while I had to work to get where I am today; he even got a perfect wife out of it.

Well, I say perfect, she’s more of a slut in disguise. She’s only with my brother for his money, it’s such a shame that he’s too blinded to actually see that; to see that she’s never actually going to love him. She’s only ever going to love what he has.

“Mr Barnes?” a voice called gently through my room. I sat up in my bed to see Alexander Porter standing at the end of my bed - though he was probably the oldest employee of my brother, he was definitely the most sensible and least stuck-up. He was the only one who treated me the exact same way they treated Matt and, even though he hated the things I did and the way in which I acted out, he was still an ear to listen to me when I had no one else; which was most of the time.

“Alex?” I replied.

“I have a letter here for you from Miss Peterson…” he paused for a moment as he handed me the envelope, my name written carefully on the front of it. The letters joined perfectly from one to the next, not even a break in the middle where she wrote my last name. “...she told me to tell you that she was sorry and that she shall see you at your next meeting which, unfortunately, will be the last time you see her.”

“W-w-what? You mean…” I trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. Not wanting to acknowledge that she was leaving and she was no longer even under the same roof as I was.

“Yes, Mr Barnes, she has left the house. I helped both her and her luggage into a car ten minutes ago.” Porter replied and it almost sounded like he felt sorry for me; like he could sense the pain and hurt I was feeling in that moment.

She was gone. She didn’t even want to see me again after our next meeting in two weeks time.

“Marc--”

“Thank you, Alex. You can leave now.” I stated, not even looking at him as I twisted the letter round and round my fingers; fighting the urge to open it and read it.

“Look. I know it’s hard, bu--”

“I said you can leave.” I interrupted him. Looking up to see him still stood at the foot of my bed, I was close to losing my temper with him and going absolutely mental at him for not doing as I was asking of him. “Now.”