The Broken One ✔

Chapter 30

Hi all,

I just discovered the song younger by Ruel which really does remind me of Luke and Ned's relationship.

Please find it in the above media content and tell me what you think :)

Also, just one chapter this week due to being super busy with adding chapters to my book 'Stomach Tied In Knots' and editing 'Poker Face'

Please VOTE

Thank you

Happy reading!

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I arrived in San Francisco early the next morning. Luke and I had spoken on the phone just before my flight where I informed him of my plan.

He agreed to pick up in order to avoid angering our father, whom I hadn't seen since the intervention months prior.

He arrived in jeans and a buttoned up shirt. "What's all this about Ned?" Luke ripped my gym bag from my grasp as we began walking through the airport.

"I want to know more about her that's all" I confessed as we made our way outside the airport. "And I was hoping you could help me"

"I don't know what to tell you little brother" Luke admitted "I don't remember much about her....the car's down here" he nudged me as we began walking towards the kerb.

"Not even what she looked like?" I
raised a brow as I spot the car in the distance.

"Long blond hair and green eyes, like Elise" he shrugged as pulling out his car keys from his back pocket, "she would always answer the phone Isabel Wilson...never Carter"

All I really knew about my mother was that Elise and I looked a lot like her. That's when I wondered if perhaps we had grandparents, aunts, uncle, or cousins that we also looked like.

Is that where my personality comes from or perhaps some of my other traits?

"Do you remember her family?" I asked as we arrived at Luke's car.

"They were estranged from what I remember" Luke admitted as he threw my gym bag into the trunk of the car.

Estranged I could work with. My father was a detective and I was sure he would know something about them.

"Should I ask dad about it?" I raised my brows.

"I don't know" he shrugged as jumping into the driver's seat

Luke sounded exhausted. He didn't seem to care at all, and perhaps was just humouring me. I didn't understand how he couldn't care about this.

I nodded slowly in disappointment as sliding into the passenger seat. "don't you wanna know why?" I forced myself to ask.

"Why she left?" He raised a brow as starting up the engine "I never really thought about it"

"How could you not?" I blurted out as he stepped onto the accelerator.

"It's not something I dwell on" Luke admitted.

One of my biggest fears was that someone would hurt me just as my mother did. In all honesty, what scared me more was the possibility of me leaving my wife and children just like my mother had.

"You have kids, how can you not?" I glared at him.

"It was a long time ago Ned" he sighed as looking at the road ahead.

They say time does a lot of healing. I could never relate to that saying.

"And that makes it alright?" I asked, "...could you do what she did?"

I didn't know how my brother would react to my question. I had to ask, I had to know.

"No of course not" he raised his voice "I rather die than leave my kids"

"...So how could she?" I lowered my voice.

Was she a monster? A complete sociopath? Or was my father making her life a living hell, giving her no other choice but to leave?

"I'm not going sit here and pretend to understand why she did what she did Ned" Luke sighed.

"So why don't you help me find her?" I clenched my jaw.

That way we could finally move on with our lives.

"Why so she can reject us again?" Luke snapped "....the past should stay in the past"

That was one of the only things that my brother and I were able to agree on. Why would we want to be rejected all over again? It didn't make any sense to a lot of people why I wanted to find her.

All I wanted was to understand. I didn't want money or missed birthday wishes, or even an apology for that matter, I just wanted some kind of explanation.

Then we could close that chapter of our lives and start a new one - filled with a lot less pain.

"Maybe...." I looked down.

"What's with the sudden interest anyway, huh?" He looked over to me.

"....I think that maybe...she's the reason why I am the way I am" I started slowly "I've never had a serious relationship with any woman because I don't want anyone else to leave me....or maybe I'm so fucking terrified that I'm going to be like Isabel....and my kids will grow up hating me like we always hated her"

"You think you're going to end up like Isabel?" He asked slowly. "You have nothing to worry about little brother" Luke assured me "you're nothing like Isabel Wilson...she was selfish and reckless and irresponsible and she was the only thing she cared about....we were her secondary family....her boyfriend was her primary which is why she left us for him....don't go looking for a hero Ned, because all you will find is a coward who cared more about her boyfriends then she could ever care about us"

It turned out, that Luke had been searching for answers a lot longer then I had. When our dad found out about it, he told Luke the story of Isabel Wilson - the woman who left her three young children while they were sleeping, to be with her twenty-three-year-old boyfriend.

I wasn't so sure if I believed that story.

"Do you really believe that?" I looked up at him.

"Yeah, I do" Luke nodded, keeping his eyes glued to the road ahead. "C'mon, let's get you home little brother"