A voice finally broke, shattered as if his heart was speaking:
"I... I am the cause..."
His voice dropped further, a tragic echo through the night's silence:
"Damn that day... If only I hadn't wanted that box of chocolates... If I hadn't slipped... If I hadn't lost consciousness... If I hadn't fallen into that coma... My brother wouldn't have suffered all this."
He raised his head, tears still streaming, but his eyes were no longer broken... Instead, they burned with a fiery look, dripping with blame and anger.
He turned his gaze towards his father, and in a low voice, sharp as a poisoned sword, he said:
"You are not my parents... You are monsters."
His eyes widened in pain as he screamed from the depths of his heart:
"How could you abandon him like that? How could you burden him with a crime he didn't commit? A child...! A child who didn't yet understand the meaning of guilt, and you...! If my mother hadn't met him at that cursed conference... If she hadn't seen his face on the television screen... We would never have known him..."
Then he stepped back, as if the ground had become suffocating, as if everything around him was collapsing.
He whispered in a broken voice, barely escaping his trembling lips:
"How... How do I fix this mistake? How... do I get my brother back?"
That night passed between fleeting glances and unspoken whispers, as if the air was filled with secrets waiting to be deciphered. In the darkness, everything whispered, every movement was watched, and every feeling was stored in memory.
With the dawn, the soft sunlight blended with the scent of fresh coffee rising from the cup Reena held in her hands. She sat in the kitchen next to her mother, watching the steam rise as if trying to read the thoughts of the past night within it.
She said in a neutral tone that hid much:
"Mom, I think I heard the door open late last night..."
Her mother couldn't suppress a smile, but she hid it behind a small sip from her cup, then gently placed the cup on the table. She gave Seira a quick, almost casual glance and said, as if throwing a stone into still water:
"Seira, my daughter... When did you get home? And... did you find the cat?"
Eileen's sharp gaze met Seira's face, and she said with a slight reprimand in her tone:
"Don't do that again, are you looking for cats in the middle of the night?"
Reena intervened with a warm tone, her eyes sparkling with empathy:
"Did you find her? The poor cat..."
Seira stammered for a moment, as if words were stuck in her throat. She gently put down her cup, as if needing to test the ground before stepping into the conversation, then mumbled:
"About... Black."
Her mother raised her eyebrows and asked:
"You named her Black?"
Both Eileen and Reena looked at their mother in astonishment, as if they hadn't expected her to know the name, then spoke at the same moment, in a single tone full of questions:
"Who named her?"
Her mother chuckled softly and raised her hands as if apologizing, saying:
"It was a slip of the tongue... I mean, did you name her Black?"
Seira nodded lightly, trying to compose herself:
"Oh... yes. I... alone decided to name her Black."
Reena said enthusiastically:
"So, let's get her some water and food today. She must still be in the garden, waiting for us."
But as soon as she looked at Seira's face, she felt something unsettling in her sister's tone.
Seira whispered, her eyes avoiding others' gazes:
"Black... is gone."
Eileen said with slight sharpness:
"Gone? By himself?"
Seira replied hesitantly, trying to make her voice sound normal:
"You know... our neighbor, I don't know, but he... decided to raise Black."
Eileen raised her eyebrows in feigned surprise, tapped the table lightly, and said with childish cunning:
"Oh, our neighbor? Our neighbor... what was his name, Reena?"
Before Reena could answer, Seira's phone rang, cutting the moment like an arrow. She looked at it quickly, then grabbed her bag as if fleeing an interrogation.
Her mother asked casually, but her eyes were observing every detail on her daughter's face:
"Are you going to look for a job?"
Seira replied, holding her bag and turning her body towards the door, without thinking about what she was saying:
"Aiden..."
Her feet stopped for a moment, as if the ground had frozen beneath her. Her mother and Reena turned at the same time, repeating the word in extreme astonishment:
"What?"
Seira tried to save the situation, stammering and saying quickly:
"I mean... I... I... I mean yes, I'm going to look for a job. See you later!"
Then she rushed out the door, as if escaping a confession, or a name that had slipped out without her realizing.
After the door closed behind Seira, silence fell for a moment, then it was broken by a soft chuckle from her mother, as she raised her coffee cup to her lips and muttered with faint cunning:
"So... his name is Aiden."
Eileen and Reena spoke simultaneously, with wide eyes and clear surprise:
"What do you mean?"
Her mother gently placed her cup on the table, and smiled that smile that knew more than it showed, then said in a calm tone laden with implications:
"I saw them yesterday... They were walking slowly, as if the whole world had disappeared around them. Aiden is the one who took the cat."
Eileen exclaimed and clapped her hands enthusiastically:
"I was sure it was Aiden! I knew it!"
Reena added in surprise, pointing towards her mother:
"Mom! Didn't you recognize him? The police officer from that day... on the bus?"
Her mother blinked with genuine surprise this time, stared at them, and said slowly:
"You two... are hiding a lot from me. But I hear you, even when you think I'm not paying attention."
At that moment, Aiden was waiting beside his shiny black Lamborghini Huracán Evo, fiddling with the key between his fingers and staring at the reflection of the sky on the hood as if trying to read his future in it.
From a distance, he saw Seira approaching. Her steps were quick, enthusiastic, but her features retained that gentleness that distinguished her. She waved to him, and as she got closer, she said playfully:
"Good morning! Did you wait long?"
Aiden smiled warmly, his eyes fixed on every detail of her: from the strands of her hair that swayed in the wind, to her slight nervousness.
"No, I just arrived."
Then he held out his hand and gave her the car key.
Seira laughed as she took it, and said:
"Not again! Last time, you were injured..."
He interrupted her with a look, and a low but deep voice:
"And I still am. Did you forget? I only left the hospital yesterday morning."
Her eyes widened in slight surprise, then she sighed as if something heavier than air was pressing on her chest:
"Ah... sorry. It's just... a lot has happened."
Aiden lowered his head, and the shadow of his face fell with a passing cloud that blocked the sunlight. His black eyes, which blended with a faint blue as if they had caught the color of the sky, carried a deep sadness at that moment, as if he was a man torn into a thousand pieces from within.
"True... a lot."
Seira gently reached out her hand towards him, hesitated for a moment, then returned it to her side in fragile silence, as if afraid to touch him lest he break. Then she said, trying to revive the conversation:
"Good things, right? Like Black! Shall we go get him some things?"
Aiden nodded lightly, smiling as if holding onto something beautiful amidst the chaos:
"Also... I want to show you my coffee shop. I won't be able to show you the whole chain of coffee shops in one day, but... we will, someday."
She laughed and playfully threw the key back to him, which he skillfully caught. Then his laughter slowly faded, and he said in a low voice, as if the words were heavy on his lips:
"You changed your mind... you didn't..."
But he didn't finish.
Then she looked at him and took half a step forward, then said in a warm tone:
"So you have to drive, right? You're the one who knows the way..."
Seira got into the car quietly, and closed the door behind her. A brief moment of silence separated her and Aiden, then she took a deep breath, as if inhaling something deeper than air, something that awakened her memory and filled her heart.
"The scent..." she murmured, closing her eyes for a moment.
Aiden was flustered, and signs of tension appeared on his face. He turned to her quickly, his voice low and hesitant:
"I... I mean... should I open the window?"
But she didn't answer him immediately; instead, she tilted her head slightly towards him, and a warm smile spread across her lips. Her gaze towards him was different... a look where words weren't spoken, but felt. And in those seconds, their eyes intertwined in silence, as if time had stopped to play a special melody that only they could hear.
She said in a soft tone, carrying all that she hadn't been able to express before:
"I meant... your scent."
She blinked lightly, then continued, her whisper dissolving into the car's air:
"The place... is filled with your scent. That scent that... captivated me."
Aiden's gaze froze, then the corners of his lips curved into a small smile, but his eyes remained wide with wonder. He said nothing, simply content to look at her, as if he was storing her features in his heart, one by one.