STEPBROTHER: Bad Boy Blues (Taboo Romance) by Ora Wilde Page A

patience with Darwin.”
     
    “Why?” I asked, puzzled by what she suddenly stated.
     
    “He’s been through a lot his entire life.”
     
    “What do you mean, Mom?”
     
    “Well you see... when your Uncle Charlie married his mom, she just came from a really bad marriage.  She already had three kids at that time.  Then Darwin was born.  When he was growing up, he received... the least amount of love from her mother.  Her mom prioritized her other children more than Darwin.  I don’t know why, but if I was to guess, she felt that her kids from her previous marriage needed more love... more attention... maybe because they were the ones who weren’t living with a father... a real father.”
     
    “That’s... that’s not right,” I reacted in disbelief.  How can a mother be that unfair to one of her children?
     
    “Yes, it’s not right, but it was what it was.  She would buy her other kids new stuff... toys, clothes... and Darwin had to live with hand-me-downs.  On social occasions, she would bring along Darwin’s half-siblings, but she would leave him at home, either in Charlie’s care or a babysitter’s.”
     
    “That’s so sad, Mom,” I replied, my eyes swelling and threatening to cause some tears.
     
    “When Darwin was a little older, things didn’t change.  He found other means to get the love that he was deprived of.”
     
    “Other means?”
     
    “Yes.  He rebelled.  He invested so much of his time and himself in the company of people... friends he made in the neighborhood, friends he made at school, friends with rather... dubious characters.”
     
    “What?  Like he did drugs or something?”
     
    “Charlie said he didn’t.  But twice, he was busted for doing something bad.  Once, he was caught shoplifting.  Another, he crashed his mom’s car in the middle of the night while driving under the influence of alcohol.”
     
    “Oh my God!  I bet she didn’t like that.”
     
    “Oh... she didn’t!  She made life harder for him.  She started to abuse him... not physically though.  But painful words can do more damage.  He was emotionally scarred.”
     
    “How did he deal with it?”
     
    “You said that he has become a very popular... personality... in school, right?  Even if he’s been there for less than a week?”
     
    “Yes.”
     
    “That’s because it’s what he has become.  Those traumatic events he experienced while growing up made him seek refuge in the company of other people.  For him, the people outside his family were his family.  He found validation from other kids... regardless if they were positive influences in his life or otherwise.  He makes an effort to be accepted by other people, to be admired, to be loved... because outside of Charlie, he never got those from his own family.”
     
    “Is this... is this the tragic event you mentioned before, Mom?”
     
    “No.”
     
    “Then what was it?”
     
    “It was when his mom died two years ago, when Darwin was seventeen.”
     
    “What did she die of?”
     
    “Lung cancer.  On her deathbed, Darwin’s siblings didn’t even allow him to visit her.  One night, he managed to sneak into her room at the hospital.  I guess he even didn’t want her mom to know he was there.  Maybe he just wanted to hold her hand and say his goodbye, even in silence.  But her mom woke up and saw him standing beside her.”
     
    “And?”
     
    “And she pressed the nurse button to ask the personnel to get him out of the room.”
     
    “Oh my God...”
     
    “She died and he wasn’t even able to bid her farewell.  He wasn’t even able to fix things with her... to find the answers he sought… the closure he needed.”
     
    Silence followed as we both failed to finish our dinner.  I felt so sad at that time, but I also began to understand him.  He has been repressing a lot of his feelings for so long... that’s why he seemed so distant and uncaring and unkind.  He was denied the love of a