章 1: Ch 1. His Past Life
His first life had ended tragically.
Kai had grown up in a loving family of four, albeit poor, his childhood was full of warmth and familial love. Unfortunately, he later realized that good people and their good acts wasn't enough to protect them from the bad people out in the real world.
When his parents had been pronounced dead at the hospital after having been hit by a drunk driver, the twelve year-old Kai experienced his first ever heartache and anguish. The sounds of his and his sister's cries was still clear in his memories and the feeling of his heart ripping apart was unforgettable.
After his parents' deaths, his sister, Jade, dropped out of school with no choice but to work in order to provide for her and her little brother. Having been turned away from family members, Jade pushed herself out into the world in order to protect her only dear person left, often times coming back to their little apartment only to change clothes and head out to her other job. Little Kai was smarter than most kids his age and when he noticed how hard his sister was working to help them, he asked his teachers to help him finish school earlier.
From the ages of twelve to fourteen, Kai pushed himself to study hard, determined to make it count for his older sister. At fifteen, he got his first part-time job which only alleviated their situation by a little yet it was enough to allow Jade to breathe a little. But their vulture-like relatives, having caught wind that they had begun to save up a little, visited and demanded for money when he had been at school one morning.
When Kai had returned home, his eyes had zeroed in on the dark red hand mark that was printed on Jade's face. The siblings weren't allowed the privilege of indulging themselves in the things they wanted, such as make-up. With nothing that could help in covering the mark on her face, Jade had wished that the ice-pack she had used would help in making it less noticeable. But, when she saw the serious look in her brother's eyes, she could only shake her head with a weak smile.
"What happened to your face?" Kai had asked, walking right up to her without having bothered to remove his shoes at the door. Being the same height, he had gently grabbed and inspected the swelling that was occurring on her cheek. He noticed that aside from a hand print, there were small scratches on Jade's cheeks and forehead; her eyes were wet and red from trying to hold back her tears.
"Our aunts and uncle visited." Jade's lips quivered as she tried to reassure Kai. "But it's okay."
But that wasn't true, so Kai engulfed her in a hug, their heads resting on the other's shoulders and soon he felt wetness on him as Jade began to sob. They remained like that for a few minutes before Jade calmed down and then left for work. Once again, Kai was reminded of how their situation couldn't allow for them to breathe yet, and when he passed by the trashcan to go to the living room, he saw glass shards inside. Hurrying to the one bedroom in their apartment, he noticed that the jar where they had been saving up money was gone. The next week, Kai took on another part-time job.
It continued like that for months, the siblings silently helping each other out. Every now and then, they would make time for each other especially for their birthdays where they could only celebrate with a small cake and a candle, yet it was enough for them.
At seventeen, Kai had already graduated and finished high school. Jade, having been able to land a stable job with a better salary in the city, decided that they should move there where it would be easier for Kai to attend university and where they would be away from their greedy relatives who would unexpectedly show up and demand money.
And life got better. Jade was able to study during the night at a school program for a degree after having been noticed by her boss, Gloria. Seeing how the young woman was quick and eager to learn, Jade's boss offered to enroll her in a college where she would be able to get at least an associate's degree and after finding out that she hadn't been able to finish high school, her boss helped her in getting Jade her high school diploma. On the other hand, Kai was attending university while having landed an internship with a large tech company.
But fate really was too cruel. Three years later, Jade was diagnosed with liver cancer. Kai had been with her the day the doctor had given her the results of her health tests. Both too shocked to say anything, they silently listened as the doctor explained what needed to be done to help Jade and when her next appointment would be. When they had entered their car, Jade broke down and all Kai could do was hug his dear sister and comfort her quietly while swallowing down his own cries.
A few days later, Jade announced to him during dinner, "I'm gonna write a book. That's what I've always wanted to do." Kai lifted his head to look up at her from his plate and only nodded. Whatever his sister wanted to do, he would support her. In the following months, Jade would continue to go to work for however much time allowed her to do so and when she would return home, she would work on her story. There were nights when Kai would stay up alongside her to give her his company; he would study and she would write while sometimes asking for his opinion.
Kai saw how the cancer drained the life out of his sister and no matter how much he had tried to prepare his heart for it, the day Jade died, Kai felt his second heartache and grief. He had wailed and called out to the heavens while hugging his sister's lifeless body, the doctors and nurses giving him some time before pulling him away from Jade to wheel her body away.
At her funeral, only a small group of people had attended yet Kai was grateful that it was all people that had appreciated and helped Jade while she was alive. It took him some time to slowly accept his sister's death, yet once he had begun to adapt to his lonely life, he found the final draft of the story his sister hadn't been able to publish. And one night, he had revealed it in a party while drunk that Jade hadn't been able to fulfill one of her dreams. In that party, Gloria had attended and when she heard about it, she reached out to Kai in hopes that they could fulfill Jade's dream.
Kai had never expected that after having published the book, it would quickly empty out of the shelves in the book stores and there would be a high demand for it. He had never understood the hype around cliché romance stories but when Jade had decided to write such a story, he had shut his mouth and cheered her on.
'The CEO and his Secret Wife.' Even the name appalled him, but Jade had been proud of her work so he decided to just publish her final draft as she had left it.
The book was a successful hit and the money that ended up in Kai's hands landed in the six digits. But Kai didn't want the money. With the help of Gloria he donated all the money to help people with cancer.
When a knock sounded on his door a month later, Kai wasn't surprised to see his relatives standing outside the door with "warm" smiles on their faces. He could even see as their hands rubbed together gleefully while pushing past him to enter his home.
"Oh, my dear nephew!" exclaimed the eldest aunt of the group, whose name he had forgotten, as she took his hands in hers to pat. "It's been such a long time since we have last seen each other! How have you been?"
Kai opened his mouth to respond, only for one of his uncles to reply with envy, "Why ask when you can see how well he's been living?"
The eldest aunt sent him a sharp look, warning clear in her eyes for her husband to shut up, before turning back to Kai. "Ah yes. You've been doing well as I can see." Pulling away from him, she went further inside the apartment and asked, "Where's your sister? She hasn't been answering our calls these past few months."
"Why?" Kai asked.
The woman was about to respond when another idiotic person in the room opened her mouth. "It's past time that she send us some money," she complained while another aunt had slapped her hand on her mouth too late. Everyone felt the temperature in the room drop to a freezing point as Kai glared at them.
"Money? She still sent you scummy people money?!" he angrily demanded.
"What? No-! My dear nephew, you don't understand," Kai's eldest aunt, who seemed to be the only person with a sensible brain of the group, said in a coaxing manner. "We are only here because one of your cousins needs to undergo a surgery and we don't have enough money for it. You know, we were hoping-"
"Get out!" Kai began to grab them by their shoulders to drag them out through the door. "None of you are welcome here!"
Stunned at his behavior, it seemed that his eldest aunt had lost her patience and yelled at him, "Just give us some money and we'll leave you alone! Don't think we don't know how much your sister has made just from that book alone!"
The others joined her, shouting, "The money isn't even yours! That girl would've given us some if she were still alive!"
Kai harshly grabbed one of his uncles by the shirt and punched him in the face. "What the FUCK did you just say?!" Glancing at them, he noticed how scared they looked now that he had punched his uncle. "So you knew! All of you knew that she had died! But where were you when she was being buried in the ground?! You never cared for my family or treated us like one so why should I give you my family's money?!"
From the corner of his vision, he could see some of the neighbors had stepped out to see what the commotion was about.
Then, Kai asked, "Do you even know my name?"
The elders glanced at each other, as if asking with their eyes if they knew. One of them decided to take a guess. "Uhm… Brian?" she hesitantly asked.
"You should leave and never show up in front of me again," Kai sighed as he turned to go back inside. But one of his uncles, the greediest one of them all, lunged forward and grabbed him by his shoulder.
"No, you brat! We are family so whatever is yours has to be shared with us!" he furiously shouted while hitting Kai on his shoulder with a lot of force, pushing him back… in the direction of the stairs. This old man was also very aggressive and knowing her husband's behavior, Kai's eldest aunt tried to stop him before he would cause an accident.
But she was too late, or more like, she really didn't care enough about her nephew.
When Kai felt his foot slip and his body go backward, despite seeing the horrified yet satisfied expressions on his relatives' faces, Kai only felt peace. Finally, he was going to be able to reunite with his family.
Or so he thought.
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