The Boy I Shouldn't Want to Love

14. Need of answers

"I'm your brother"

A stunned silence had followed those words, and Liam and Theo had frozen staring at the kid standing before them, with their mouths open, while he returned their gaze impassive, as if he found absolutely nothing strange about that.

"I know I said we could have a brother, but I didn't think it would be so quick" Liam commented, blinking, trying to break the tension

"Liam, it's not really fucking time for jokes!" Theo rolled his eyes in his direction, before taking a step towards Nathan. "Listen to me, you brat" he said with anger, "I have no idea where you came from or who put something like that in your head , and if it's kind of a joke it's not funny at all-"

"I'm not joking, stupid!" He rolled his eyes too, annoyed, and Liam could not help noticing the similarity between the two. "Mom has been babbling about you for years , but whenever I asked her to take me to you she never wanted to. You know, I have a sister, but she's a girl, she doesn't understand anything, I always wanted to have a brother ... " he spoke with a disarming innocence.

Liam narrowed his eyes in confusion "Your mother... knows Theo?" He was in way over his head.

"And anyway, how the hell did you get here? How old will you be? 6? Are you?"

"I am 9, shithead" he said tapping his foot.

"Oh my God, Theo, he's really your brother!"

"And I came by bus. Yesterday I saw Uncle Paul's wedding invitations so I finally came to know the address" he announced proudly.

"Uncle... Paul?" Theo sputtered, puzzled.

Then suddenly everything turned clear. He stopped, looking at him with wide eyes as the realization finally hit him. He remembered that baby he had seen in his mother's arms almost 9 years ago as if it had happened yesterday. He remembered every detail of that scene, how his mother was dressed, with her blonde hair up, and a smile on her face, to the color of his jumpsuit, the Christmas tree on a beige background. He had repeated that scene in his head almost maniacally, wondering where he had been wrong for being left out, for having been deprived of the same thing.

"You have to get out of here... now" he said dryly.

"Theo" Liam said, baffled. Theo ignored him and kept looking at the child who didn't move of a inch

"You can't stay here" he repeated, feeling the control slipping away as pieces of conversations came back to him. Wedding invitations? Uncle Paul ?!

"Theo" Liam grabbed him by the arm pulling him aside and Theo finally looked at him.

"No Liam, you don't understand- he- he is-" he said in a low voice, an expression so vulnerable and upset on his face that Liam's heart just tightened as looking at him. He had never seen Theo this way before.

"I know, I understand it, but listen to me - he has no fault in this. He came here because he just wanted to meet you. He is your brother"

"He is not! He's just the son of the woman who abandoned me! And ... Oh god!" He groaned frustrated, bringing his hands to his face trying to rearrange his thoughts.

"Theo, you should call your dad, I think you deserve answers, do you? And you've waited too many years for them. Don't you want to know what all this means?" Liam spoke, trying to sound as reasonable as possible.