After Our Entire Family Was Reborn Adopted Brother Went Insane Chapter 10
“Lily!”
Leo screamed and threw himself forward.
He took the blade with his own back.
His white shirt turned red in an instant.
The police came crashing through the door.
In the chaos that followed, Zachary was pinned to the floor.
Lily held Leo in her arms – drenched in his blood, her cries tearing out of her.
“Leo!
Leo, say something!
Don’t scare me like this!”
Leo was rushed into the operating room.
The knife had hit something vital.
He was bleeding heavily.
The situation was critical.
Lily sat curled on a bench in the hallway, a blanket pulled around her, her expression vacant.
She looked like something inside her had simply stopped.
“Why…”
“Why did it turn out like this again…”
She lifted her head slowly.
The face that had once been so vibrant and pretty was now streaked with tears and crusted blood.
“Sis…”
“Leo… he’s not going to die, is he?”
I didn’t answer.
Ethan’s hand closed around mine, a quiet, steady pressure.
He didn’t say anything.
He just stayed.
But my silence seemed to terrify Lily more than words ever could.
She threw off the blanket and crawled to my feet.
“Sis, say something!
Tell him he’s going to be fine!”
“Leo did this to save me – because of me, he -“
She choked and couldn’t finish.
She raised her own hand and struck herself hard across the face.
“It’s because I’m too selfish!”
“I thought… I thought this time could be different.”
I had to admit – it was almost funny.
“So for the sake of your artist’s love, for your idea of everyone getting to be happy – you needed Leo to lie and steal fifty million?”
“Lily, did it ever occur to you that if the Wentworths had actually paid that money, what the consequences would be?”
“The Wentworths lose fifty million for no reason.
I carry a debt I can never repay.”
“And you take that money and run off into the sunset with a man full of lies?”
“That’s your version of everyone living happily ever after?”
Lily stared at me, shaking her head desperately.
“Zach was talented – he just needed one chance…”
“I never imagined he could become someone like this.”
My adoptive father, who had been silent throughout, finally broke.
He crossed the room and kicked Lily hard in the shoulder.
“Are you out of your mind?”
“For a con man!
A gambler!
You ran both of you in circles and dragged the whole family down with you!”
“And then you got your brother involved in lying and stealing – and now he’s in there fighting for his life!
Are you satisfied?”
My adoptive mother screamed and threw herself between them, shielding Lily.
“Stop it!
Hitting her doesn’t fix anything!
What we need now is Leo!”
Then the red light above the operating room door went dark.
The door opened.
The doctor walked out, pulling down his mask.
“Doctor!”
“My son – how is he?”
The doctor looked at each of us in turn before speaking.
“He’s stable.”
“But the knife nicked the spinal cord.
Whether he’ll regain function in his lower body…” He paused.
“That depends on his recovery and on luck.”
Luck.
What a fragile, weightless word.
My adoptive mother fainted.
My adoptive father caught her, shouting for the doctor.
Lily sank to the floor, limp and boneless.
After that, I never went back to the Harrington house.
Whatever news came to me about them came through Ethan.
When Leo woke up, he didn’t speak.
Lily devoted herself to caring for him in the hospital.
They said she became a different person – no more tantrums, no more talk of artists or love.
Every day, quietly and without complaint, she bathed him, fed him, and handled everything he needed.
Leo ignored her.
She didn’t mind.
She just came back the next day and did it all again.
My adoptive father sold off most of his shares in the company.
My adoptive mother’s health went up and down like a tide – some days she held Lily and wept, telling her she had ruined her brother.
Other days she held her and said she was all they had left.
And Zachary – the so-called artist – was convicted of premeditated extortion and aggravated assault.
He was sentenced to fifteen years.
Ethan pulled me close.
“Let’s get married next month.”
I smiled.
“Okay.”
Our wedding was everything I never let myself dream of.
Ethan went down on one knee, holding up the ring that had always been meant for me.
“Summer.
Will you marry me?”
I looked into his eyes – and all that light living in them.
I smiled and held out my hand.
“I will.”
The moment the ring slid on, I looked out into the crowd below.
Old Mr. Wentworth was beaming so wide his eyes had gone glassy with tears.
I felt it then, like something clicking into place – the sense that I finally had a reason to be here.
As the ceremony wound to its close, my phone rang.
“Summer.
Congratulations.”
“…Thank you.”
The line was quiet for a long time.
“Would you… come see your brother?
He wants to see you.”
I held the phone and looked over at Ethan, who was chatting with a guest but seemed to sense something – he walked toward me, a question in his eyes.
I shook my head.
Then I brought the phone back to my ear.
“No.”
“Dad.
What’s passed is past.”
“Take care of yourselves.”
I ended the call and blocked the number.
Ethan wrapped his arm around my waist.
“Not going?”
“Not going.”
“My past is a closed chapter.”
He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of my head.
“Yes.
And ours is only just beginning.”
Later, I heard that Leo had started physical rehabilitation.
It was painful.
He pushed through every day.
And eventually, Lily took him abroad for treatment.
Before she left, she had someone deliver something to me.
It was the limited-edition Barbie set I had longed for as a girl – the one my adoptive mother had always ended up buying for Lily instead.
On the card, there was only one line.
“Sis – I’m sorry.
I hope you find every happiness you deserve.”
I put the doll in the back of a storage room.
And never took it out again.
