Awakening (Book 2 in the Original BOC Series) ✔

Chapter Thirty-One

Steven stared at his enraging father with his mouth dropped open.

It was strange to feel his body go cold the way it was. He'd lost all feeling in his body and his insides were churning. But Steven knew that inside it was more dread from the story he was told; what this would all mean once this whole shit was done and over with. Steven could see the hate trembling out of his enraged father and filling the room while the man he'd painted a pretty picture of his whole twenty-three years had now become a complete stranger.

Speaking of strangers...

Steven turned around, his eyes looking through the group behind him until he got to the back where Nathan's brother was standing next to...

Well... who he was just told was his brother.

From the expression on the teenager's face, Steven knew that Sam was most definitely confused just with that frown he was wearing like he was unsure of why everyone was just staring at him. And Steven had a feeling that soon Sam's expression would turn angry once everything sunk in.

And why wouldn't he?

Everyone was just told that Sam was the product of an affair and used to condemn their mother in a loveless marriage for the sake of the public eye.

In the back of the group, Sam had heard the mayor shouting at his son until he started pointing at them by the entrance of the living room. Only then did he yell again, only this time, the mayor was indirectly talking to Steven and... himself?

He felt Chambers turn his head to look at him but Sam couldn't move. He was simply staring back with a deep frown at the mayor and Steven. Feeling everyone's eyes on him wasn't helping the chills that ran down his spine a few seconds ago.

Why were they staring at him?

Why was the mayor pointing at him?

Sam scowled and turned his head from side-to-side growling, "What the fuck are you all looking at?! Why the fuck are you staring at me for?! I don't know who he's talking about!" He clenched his fists tightly and glared at them all. He glowered at the mayor who was returning the look back to Sam. As he was staring at the man, Sam voiced to everyone else, "He's got it all wrong! I'm not—I'm not related to them! I can't be—that's... that's impossible!"

Sam narrowed his eyes, shaking his head slowly. "I was left on the doorstep of an old couple. I never went to an orphanage until I was five years old. And even then... even then I still didn't know who I was—nor did I care! I don't know what game you're playing, mayor, but this is pretty fuckin' twisted! I am not his brother!"

He shifted his gray eyes over to Steven and already Sam could see the pity in the brown eyes staring back at him. Sam's jaw clenched tightly and pointed at Steven, gritting through his teeth, "Don't do that! Don't! Do that!" Sam scrunched his nose, shaking his head. He swallowed hard, his chest was starting to heave heavily. "Don't you start pitying me because your father's senile!"

Steven didn't stop; he knew what his father said was true. It had to be true because his father said it with so much conviction; Steven would have been able to tell if it was a lie. He was going to have to get Sam to trust him that he wasn't like his father. He was going to have to reason with Sam that Steven was there for him... even if Sam didn't want him to be.

"Sam, my father doesn't lie... he might do a lot of things that are horrible..." he took a breather, frowning at the carpet under his feet before looking up again at the teenager still scowling. Steven leaned his head, pouting slightly, "But my mother—" Steven corrected himself and had gotten Sam's scowl to fade a bit when he said, "Our mother is the most wonderful woman you could imagine."