Fallen Too Deep

Bonus Chapter - Nathan

Cooper never failed to remind me why he suddenly had to play the 'doting father role' he bestowed on himself. 

Simple. 

Before my mom took her own life, she gave Cooper one last fuck you. She leaked the story to his investors that he had an illegitimate child who was 'too smart for his own good' and that Cooper hadn't taken care of me but I would be an amazing asset to the company.

It was her way of securing my future, I guess. She thought she was doing something good for me. 

If only she knew it only brought me harm. She had taken her life two days after from a heroin overdose, and I could only assume the stress from outing Cooper's son and everything else taking it's final toll on her.

She had lasted a lot longer than I had expected her too, that was for sure. The only reason I even listened to Cooper and allowed him to try and fulfill my mother's, apparent, dying wish, was because of Isaac. 

If anyone understood my life, it was him. He had seen it first hand. We met at an underground bridge on the bad side of Philly. I had run away after hitting one of mom's boyfriend's back for the first time. He couldn't catch me, they never could. I was always too fast for them. It just meant I would have to hide out for a few days until they left or got over it.

The underground bridge was my safe space. It was where I met the scrawny curly head. He had been running too. From a dad with a drinking and temper problem. A dad that wanted nothing less than perfection from his children, and was willing to beat it out of them.

Part of me was happy that I didn't have Cooper in my life because the only other father-son relationship I knew about was Isaac's. And that sucked dick.

My mom's boyfriends never lasted, so I never had to worry about getting hit from the same hand multiple times. Isaac was used to his dad's hand though, that made me want to protect the son of a bitch more. For some fucked up reason, he wanted to protect me too.

He was my brother. So when Cooper offered to pay for his school if I made his investors happy, then I would. My mother did something good after all. She brought the investors attention to me, and when an investor wants something, you make them happy. She was counting on that.

So Cooper started training me to take over his company one day, and I allowed him to. Because Isaac was going to be left homeless when his dad found out he hadn't gotten any scholarships and would have to decline his acceptance to UPENN because he couldn't pay it.

Cooper found out. Cooper always found out. All I had to do was play his little game, and my best friend would have a future. One where he wouldn't have to worry about loans and could focus on his dreams. 

Once his dad found he wasn't planning on going to law school, he had already been kicked out anyway. I had a lot of anger I wanted to take out on Cooper, but he was helping Isaac. That was the only reason I tried not to take it out on Cooper, I didn't want him to suddenly wake up one day and take Isaac's happiness away.

Fighting was my outlet. I could picture Cooper's face every time I fought. I never lost because I always had something to fight against. Cooper. No matter who I fought, I fought like it was personal. 

To me, it was. I wasn't fighting some random fighter, I was fighting Cooper. I was bashing his face in for feeding my mom lies so she would sleep with him. For leaving her. For leaving me, although I doubted I'd be the same if he was even in my life. For having me on a leash. He had money coming out of his ears, and had so many connections, I was sure he would call up the President for a coffee.

He would never do anything out of the kindness of his heart, if I wanted him to pay for Isaac's school, I would have to pay for it for the rest of my life. So I fought. Because I couldn't do anything else. It was the one thing Cooper wasn't in charge of.