50 Billion Reasons to Leave You Chapter 03

50 Billion Reasons to Leave You Chapter 03 My Brother, My Replacement
We ended up back at the hospital.
Stella took one look at me, and her expression got even colder.
A nurse had just finished changing the dressing on my surgical wound when Kian rushed into the room.
The second he saw Cherine covered in blood, his eyes filled with tears.
He ran straight into her arms.
“Cherine, oh my God, what happened? The baby is okay, right? You didn’t hurt the baby?”
They looked so right together.
Standing next to them, I felt like the outsider in my own marriage.
I quietly straightened my clothes and stood up to leave.
Kian noticed me.
For half a second, pure contempt flashed in his eyes.
Then his face changed.
“Ryan,” he gasped, “did you do this to Cherine?”
He looked furious, wounded, and heartbreakingly patient all at once. He was good at that.
“So you can’t have kids anymore. That doesn’t mean you get to make Cherine suffer for it!
“Fine, blame me for everything. Just leave her out of it!”
I had finally had enough. I punched him in the face.
“Save the performance.”
I barely used any strength, but Kian cried out and collapsed like I had hit him with a baseball bat.
Cherine rushed to help him up.
Stella’s eyes blazed. She kicked me away from him.
“Enough! The surgery was supposed to teach you a lesson so you’d stop bullying Kian.
“And now you’re hitting him right in front of us? We spoiled you. That’s the problem. You think you can do whatever you want and everyone has to take it.”
My sister had once loved me more than anyone.
Now she looked at me like I disgusted her.
I laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“So that’s your excuse for destroying your own brother’s life?”
She hesitated, then turned her eyes away and stayed quiet.
My chest tightened until every breath hurt.
Ten years earlier, my parents had nearly disowned her for wanting to study medicine abroad.
I stood by her.
I gave up an offer from one of the best universities in the world.
I sold a research patent I had spent years developing for only three million dollars so I could pay her tuition.
I introduced her to the right people and made sure she landed a position at one of Maplewick’s top hospitals the moment she came home.
Within two years, she went from an unknown junior doctor to the most sought-after surgeon in the city.
I still remembered her crying and promising she would never forget what I had done for her.
Then my father brought Kian home.
After that, everything I did became proof that I hated him.
If I smiled, they said I was mocking him.
If I tried to help, they called me passive-aggressive.
Even when I kept my mouth shut, they decided I was insulting him somehow.
I had spent years trying to explain myself.
Now I was standing there broken, starved, and covered in wounds.
I was done.
I walked toward the door.
Cherine hurried over and blocked my path.
“Seriously, Ryan? Wasn’t one runaway stunt enough?”
She grabbed me and forced me back onto the hospital bed.
“Oh, please. You don’t actually want to leave. You pulled all that last night because you wanted me to care, right?
“Just promise me you’ll leave Kian alone. You’ll always be my husband, my only husband. I’ll protect you, no matter what.”
Before I could answer, Stella pulled out a resignation letter.
She grabbed my hand and forced my fingerprint onto the page.
“You hurt Kian, so you’re giving him your job as general manager. Consider it compensation.”
Her gaze was cold and disappointed.
“You’re emotionally unstable anyway. You’re in no condition to run a company.”
Then she said the one thing that finally killed whatever was left between us.
“If I’d known what kind of person you really were, I would’ve left you to die during that kidnapping seven years ago.”
She glanced at Kian.
“At least then he wouldn’t have had to put up with you.”
Her words felt like a knife to the heart, twisting deeper with every breath.
I swallowed my tears, and the last piece of my heart finally shut down.
Cherine kept me locked in the hospital room.
She stationed two guards outside the door 24 hours a day so I couldn’t escape.
Kian showed up with a container of soup and acted like the world’s sweetest little brother.
He sat beside my bed, fussing over me and asking whether I was comfortable.
Then Cherine stepped out to take a call.
The second the door closed, his smile disappeared.