“Your brother's injuries include seven cracked ribs, three broken, a broken wrist and fractured skull, numerous abraisio.....”

Henry slumped in his chair berating himself. He had thought himself as a good man who knew how to be a good human. This last chapter in his life left him second guessing this opinion.

*********

“Nokia has gone up..3..in the last quarter....downturn inevitable....new apple product....”

*Ring Ring........Ring Ring

“Hello, Henry Markson, may I ask who's calling”

“'Enry.....that you...” a trembling voice said over the phone. Henry was tempted to hang up that very moment, he knew the person calling and he didn't want to be involved any more. His self-destructive mother-in-law had driven his father to madness and eventual suicide, Henry didn't want to go down that same path.

“Jeraldine, just go to the hospital, call the police or some thing one of these days it's going to be a broken arm or worse.”

“No, no,no can't do that.....you haven't told anyone right, right?”

“there's nothing to tell is there?”

“Nope, not at all....” A groan is heard in the background.

“Jeraldine.....what was that” Henry waited in silence for a couple moments.

“Well...That's what I'm calling about.. you see you...you have a..”

“I have a what??” More silence followed this question. “Jeraldine, spit it out now, I have a what?!”

In the next moment the words came spilling forth over the phone, barely discernible as they were often emphasized by the hiccoughs and sobs slipping between words. “You have a brother!....oh god I said it...” Henry stumbled back to his chair and fell into it, speechless. “He's your brother from my last husband, the one before your father” *hic “he, he came to my apartment saying his father died and he had no where else to go” *sob sob “Frank didn't believe him and chased him out, but he kept coming back......Then today he came back when Frank turned onto our street, we were lucky, it was the middle of the day and the neighbors were all out....”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

At this point Henry couldn't wait for the answer. “Jeraldine, what did he do? What did Frank do?”

“Well you see, he didn't mean to, I swear he didn't mean it. He just mixed up the gas and break, I swear he didn't mean it....he was going too fast and couldn't avoid him.” Henry was in complete disbelief, his step mother had stood by and let this happen. And she wasn't done yet. “Well, Frank didn't mean to, and ...and Derek shouldn't have walked into the road, he should have looked where he was going, now Frank's in a cell and I can't see him!” Henry would have hung up that very second had it not been for the fact that he now had a step-brother who is potentially dead before he could ever meet him.

“Jeraldine, Where is he?”

“He's in jail, where I can't see him.” She broke into a fresh waves of sobs and snivelling.

“NOT THAT WASTE OF SPACE TRASH YOU CALL A HUMAN!!! WHERE IS MY BROTHER?!!” In complete shock Jeraldine was quiet, Henry had never yelled at her before even when he blamed her for his father's death. At this point Jeraldine was afraid, to get Henry so angry, it took a lot. It was just enough to make a person such as Jeraldine believe that she may have done something wrong.

“.......He's on my kitchen floor....You won't tell anyone will you Henry, 'cause Frank--” At this point Jeraldine was interrupted by a loud noise followed by a dial tone. She turned to look at the limp boy on her floor, bleeding from multiple cuts on his arms and legs. His hand was at an unnatural angle from his forearm and his chest was strangely concave. A moan come from between his lips followed by violent coughs spilling blood from the corner of his mouth to put more of it on the already covered tile.

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