Chapter 14

“I don’t want to be like Dad,” his voice was hoarse, and he kept shaking his head. “So…so hearing you say that was…I couldn’t…Kuro, you really think I’m like him? You’re really that afraid of me?”

To say that this was unlike my brother was an understatement. I had no idea he valued our relationship this much—or was it that he despised the idea of being like Dad, it was enough to make him sick?

I tried to play this carefully. “I think you have anger issues that you don’t know how to address. I don’t think you even know why you’re angry. And that was Dad’s problem.”

Mizu scoffed, nodding. “He acted like the world was against him. Like…like he was the only person who mattered, and he only ever expected people to disappoint him. That’s why he was so disappointed in is, I think. It was preemptive.”

“It was. I think before we were even born, he had decided that we were just going to be burdens. That we would never live up to his expectations.”