EIGHTY-THREE.

With a sudden jolt, I push the folder away from me as if it were ablaze, my heart pounding in my chest. My body recoils, scrambling away from the cabinet in a frenzy.

Wide-eyed, I find myself unable to tear my gaze away from the ominous folder, its contents shrouded in mystery.

I... I have a brother?!

As much as my heart is screaming at me that there must be a misunderstanding, I know for certain that my eyes don't deceive me.

My mother had a family before she settled down with my father, giving birth to Rose and me a few years later.

But how?

How can she just up and leave her son?

Did something terrible happen and was my dad just a rebound guy that she stood beside because she wanted a simpler life?

I have so many questions and my mother's not here to answer them.

I wonder if my father knows that she had a son and if he did, is he to blame for her abandonment?

"Shit, fucking arsehole, shit!!" My inner goddess screams.

With my eyes burning holes in my mother's most pr