Daniel's Brother

Sarah came out of the dressing room, all dressed up for the program, and saw Ava at the door. She asked surprised, "Sis, what are you doing here?"

"I just came to see you and say hello before the program. How is your preparation going?" Ava replied softly.

At that moment Ben came to Sarah and asked, "Sarah, are you ready? We need to do the final rehearsal." Ben said in a rush tone.

"Yes, I am coming."

"Sis, sorry but I will have to go for the rehearsal, I'll see you later," Sarah said with a smile.

"Sure no problem," Ava said glancing at Ben.

When Ben and Sarah were out of sight, Ava turned and saw Sam was there. She asked, "Sam, who was that boy with Sarah?"

"His name is Ben Sherman, he is Sarah's classmate and one of the top students of the school." Sam smiled and looked in the direction Ben and Sarah went. He has very high hopes for Ben, although he was very childish right now but in a few years, he would be a strong person.

Ava frowned, 'Sherman'!!! Ben and Daniel's surname is also the same, but how? As far as she remembered Miss Grey never had any other child. She will have to ask Daniel when she met him again.

"OK Sam, I'll go around the campus," Ava said a little distracted.

"OK, I'll see you later." Sam smiled and watched Ava disappear from the door.

Ava walked through the old familiar classrooms and corridors, she got a little nostalgic thinking about her time at school. She came out and walking along reached the Osmanthus garden. This year the flowers bloomed a little late so the garden was full of Osmanthus flowers spreading the refreshing fragrance in the air. Ava stood there enjoying the intoxicating fragrance in the air when a deep voice called out.

"Ava, is that you?"

Ava turned and saw Daniel was standing not far away from her, looking more handsome than usual in his blue suit and a wine red tie. He looked more mature and steady.

"Brother Daniel," Ava said with a bright smile.

"Why are you here alone?" Daniel came closer to her and ask with a smile.

"I was bored so decided to walk around."

"The osmanthus trees here are all fifty years old." Daniel looked up at a tall osmanthus tree and sighed. They were back at school ground once again but they both have changed so much. Ava has become more mature and beautiful than before. The more Daniel looked at her the more fascinated he became.

"Yes. Did you come here alone?" Ava asked with a smile.

"Yes."

"Brother Daniel, I wanted to ask you something." Ava hesitated before she finally said.

"Sure, what's up?" Daniel saw through Ava's hesitation, he was confused. Why would she hesitate to ask him anything?

"Just now I went backstage to see my cousin and I met a boy there who looked exactly like you and his last name was Sherman too. Do you know him? Is he your relative?" Ava asked biting her lips. She intentionally said relative instead of brother, she didn't know if she was interfering too much by asking this question. After all, it's Daniel's private matter.

Daniel lowered his eyes and his handsome face became a little heavy with a trace of incomprehensible emotion. He slowly said in a low voice, "Yes, he is my brother, my half-brother."

Ava got confused she carefully asked: "Brother Daniel, I thought your father has passed away?" Ava knew Daniel's father and mother never married each other but they never mentioned him and she never saw him around so she assumed that he has passed away now hearing Daniel had a brother, she was a bit shocked.

Daniel said with a sarcastic smile: "For some people staying dead is better than staying alive."

Ava felt really bad for him, she shouldn't have brought it up. How pathetic one's life could be? He has a father but to him, he was already dead and his lively mother committed suicide out of the blue. His life was a real tragedy. Ava stopped asking anything else. She could see the sadness in Daniel's eyes.

"Brother Daniel, do you remember that one autumn, we came here to pick up osmanthus and we made osmanthus cakes together?" Ava changed the topic quickly.

"Yes, I remember, at that time, I was in the senior year and you were in the first year." Daniel looked at Ava's dimple and his tense mood recovered a little.

A gust of wind blew past them and many osmanthus flowers fell on the ground around them. Some fell on Ava's dress and hair. Daniel saw that he smiled and raised his big hand to take the flower off her head.

The action was a bit intimate so Ava stiffened instantly. She felt uncomfortable, she was Oliver's girlfriend so it was not nice to be intimate like this with Daniel. She took a half step back, however, Daniel wrapped his hand around her waist to hold her in place.

"Brother Daniel this....I... " Ava was frozen in place clenching her fist tightly.

"Don't move. You have flowers in your hair." Daniel interrupted Ava.

Ava subconsciously reached out to check and touched his warm hand. She quickly pulled back her hand and stood there frozen.

However, this intimate scene was caught by a pair of cold eyes. Oliver just ran from his classmates to look for Ava and when he came down the stairs he was greeted by the scene where his beloved was in his enemy's arm. How wonderful! Oliver's sinister eyes stared at Daniel as if he will kill him any moment. How dare this illegitimate son touched Ava with his dirty hands? Although Oliver was very jealous but he didn't rush there to confront them, instead, he just stood there with both hands in his pocket and watched them calmly.

Normally Oliver was not an impulsive person, he was very rational and calculative which was why he could stay very calm during any kind of crisis. He kept staring at them and realized this was not the first time Ava and Daniel met, they knew each other. Suddenly a sarcastic smile showed up on Oliver's lips, of course, why didn't he think of that? Daniel and Ava were in the same school and he was her senior. So this was the senior she was talking about the other day who was also the son of her piano teacher.