Chapter 1

After battling with his life at the hospital for days, he was finally discharged from the hospital. At noon, Adrian rode the bus back home, he was covered in bruises, his face etched with pain and fatigue while he thought about the last few days that he had been at the hospital. The bus finally came to a halt at the bus stop and he knew that he had to continue the rest of his journey back home on foot.

As he walked closer to his family estate, he could feel the weight of his family's disapproval bearing down on him, but Adrian chose to be positive knowing that today was his birthday.

He stepped into the large living room and could feel the air of excitement that lingered around, his Mother and father both gathered around his brother while a cake was placed on the table as they celebrated his birthday.

They were all filled with excitement and although Adrian and Finn shared the same birthday, it did not matter to them where He had been for days now, for all they could care, he might be dead and his existence never mattered to them in the first place.

Seeing Adrian walk into the large living room, they were all startled at his appearance “Adrian! How are you still alive after been involved in such a terrible accident, there is no way that you were able to survived perhaps you are a just indeed a freak!” His mother's voice panged a sad emotion through his heart and even while the words slipped out of her mouth, she did not bother glancing his way even for a moment, her entire attention was focused on Finn.

“I guess that he is indeed a freak!” Finn muttered while he rolled his eyes at him.

“Why are you back here, if you were going to die, shouldn't you have just remained dead!” His foster mother Mrs. Eleanors sneered, as her face screwed up in distaste. Although she had despised him and he was used to her constant humiliation, but it felt different today, like she had not expected him to come back or probably wanted him dead.

“I can't believe that after what you did, you are going to have the gut to show your face here again. I brought you to this house, fed you for years. The least that you could do was to be grateful. Rather than what you did, you went as far as going behind our back and stealing your brother's internship opportunity at West cooperation. How can you be so cruel to do such a thing knowing how much that internship at west cooperation meant to Finn”

“Mother you need to calm down, I do not know what you are talking about because I did not apply for any internship programme at West cooperation” He explained, although everyone at their high school had taken the test, Adrain wasn't interested in it.

“You low life and even up still now, you still have the guts to lie to my face, how dare you, that is the extent I can take from you, leave this family right now and never come back and on no circumstances should you refer to me as your mother or any members of the smith family, because you no longer belong here and I never ever want to set my eyes on you!”

She yelled out furiously, Adrian wanted badly to plead with her, but seeing how furious she was, he knew that it was going to be a colossal waste of time.

He lifted his head to stare at every single one of them, they were having the moment of their life and for them, his presence seemed like a nuisance to them. Adrian turned around and started walking away, but came to a halt at the sound of his father's voice.

“Adrian, I know that you must have had a hard time at the hospital, how about you have some cake first before you leave to celebrate your brother's birthday” Mr. Reynold suggested but Adrian knew that he did not mean the words that he asked.

Ignoring the old man and walking out on them, Adrian could vividly recall how he had risked his life just so that he could save Finn, and yet his sacrifice did not matter to them, they did not hesitate in celebrating his death like it was something they had wished for a long time while Mrs. Eleanor hoped that he would go away, that way he did not have to vie for the family's inheritance.

This made him realize so much that none of his efforts ever mattered to them, all he would ever be regarded as was a freak and no matter what he did, he was never going to be able to earn the love of both his father and mother.

Scurrying out of there, Adrian headed for his cramped bedroom just right under the stairs, he had slept there for the last eighteen years while their legal children enjoyed the luxury of a bigger and warm room. Opening the door, the entire place was empty, it was just a few days ago that he was right here, but now everything was gone. Adrian stood there staring with bewilderment in his eyes.

There was a mixture of anger and anxiety in him seeing that all of his stuff were gone, they were all that he got and in it was something that was very much valuable to him and he could not endure it so he immediately scurried back to the living room.

“Mother! Where is all of my stuff?” He asked, although still trying to suppress his anger.

“We all thought that you were dead, so I threw all of it this morning, besides, it was taking up so much space and considering how worthless they were, I needed to take them away!” She replied in a disdainful manner. This was a tiny space under the stairs that was of no use to them and yet she still went ahead to throw them away.

“Can you at least show me where you threw it off, there is something of value to me that I need to take!” Adrian requested, but just then, his eyes fell on the silver ring on Finn's finger, he immediately recognized it. Adrian would recognize it even in his sleep because it has been with him since he understood his existence and for him, it was the only thing that proof his identity.

“Finn, can you hand over the ring on your finger, it does not belong to you!” He went ahead to request politely, Finn stared at the ring on his finger, a disdainful smirk spread through his lips and although he did not think much about it, he suddenly became interested in it.

“Oh, you mean this. I am sorry but you can't have it back, it is now mine”

“No you can't have it, you can have anything else, you have taken all of my belongings but not this, please hand it over to me at once!!” He went ahead to request and at this time, Adrian bit his lower lip softly and was getting impatient.

“Why should he hand it over to you, you are such an ungrateful freak, do you realize how difficult it was to raise you for the last eighteen years, at least we can have that as repayment for all of the stress you had to put me through”

“I am sorry Mother, but I promise to pay you back, whatever amount that you request for, but as for this ring, it means so much to me, in fact it means more than my life to me and I can't leave it with you” Adrian replied as he lunged forward in an attempt to snatch it back the ring away from Finn.