Chapter 24

[ZARA]

When I revealed to mom about the new place I had planned to buy, mom was ecstatic. Although Brandon seemed a little sore at the disclosure. He grumbled about being used to home-cooked food and that he wasn’t sure if moving out this soon was a good idea.

But I knew it was more than that.

After completing his graduation, the first thing Brandon did was leave his home. Despite his parents’ best efforts to call him back, he stubbornly refused to step back into their house. Not many people knew, but Brandon’s parents had fallen out of love long before he turned twelve. He didn’t like to talk much about them, but I had seen him growing frustrated and reluctant to return home after school.

He used to stay at our place for as long as possible and always ate whatever mom fed him. I tried to talk to him about his problems, but he always brushed me off or circled the topic back at me. He was good at distracting, and because I was the person who ran more on emotions than my brain cells, I