Part 2The Other Man’s Understudy

I fell silent.

Technically, Hayes and I were in a shady, secret arrangement.

But hearing it said out loud in front of an outsider made me want to crawl under the floorboards.

Thankfully, Caleb was too traumatized to ask follow-up questions. He left shortly after.

Hayes scooped a fresh bowl of oatmeal and slammed it in front of me.

Seeing me stare at the door, he sneered.

"Miss him?"

"Want me to run down the hall and get him back for you?"

The acid in his tone could burn through steel. He was mocking me, but mostly, he was hurting himself.

As I ate quietly, Hayes finally snapped. He tore off the mask of indifference.

"That kid really likes you. Why haven't you mentioned him?"

"He calls you 'Nora' so casually. Did you know him in college?"

"How much younger is he? You’re into interns now?"

I didn't respond. Hayes looked like he was about to lose his mind.

He pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down.

Silence. Then:

"You think I’m too old?"

"I'm five years older than you... that's not exactly geriatric, Nora."

"But I guess fresh meat is appealing."

I rubbed my temples. "Can you stop making a scene?"

Hayes opened his mouth to argue, but I cut him off.

"Brother, please."

I said it out of habit. It meant nothing.

But Hayes stood up so fast his chair screeched across the floor.

He stared at me, eyes dark.

"You haven't called me 'Brother' in years. Why now?"

" trying to break up with me?"

Terrified that I might say yes, Hayes grabbed his clothes and fled the apartment before I could explain.

I stared at the closed door.

I thought about what he told Caleb: I knew her before you were born.

It was true.

Caleb is two years younger than me.

The year he was born was the year my mother married Hayes’s father.

I was two. Hayes was seven.

Hayes hated my mother.

At his seventh birthday party, he swore he’d kick us both out of the Sterling estate.

My mother would smile and say, "He's just a child, I don't mind."

In private, she ground her teeth so hard I thought they’d crack. She was desperate to have a son to replace Hayes as the heir.

I did whatever my mother told me. She told me to suck up to Hayes, so I did.

Even when he bullied me, even when he pranked me, I chased him around calling him "Big Brother."

It didn't work.

The year he hated me most, he locked me in the basement while our parents were away. Two days. No food.

I almost died.

Mr. Sterling couldn't ignore it anymore. He forced Hayes to apologize and demanded he treat me like a biological sister.

What did Hayes say back then?

He said: "I would rather die than like her."

But years later...

The man who begged me.

The man who willingly became my dirty little secret just to stay near me.

It was him.