2025-03-10 14:08:33Zara Bennett paced the length of her spacious hotel suite, the soft click of her heels echoing against the marble floor.
She had just wrapped up an exhausting day of interviews and press junkets, her life as a global celebrity demanding every ounce of her energy.
Yet, despite the flashing cameras and adoring fans, her mind was elsewhere on her brother, Ethan.
She had warned him. Over and over again, she had warned him about Sophia. But Ethan, ever the optimist, ever the one to see the best in people, hadn’t listened. He never did when it came to matters of the heart.
Zara knew that about her brother, and it frustrated her to no end. Now, the betrayal she had seen coming for years had unfolded exactly as she had predicted, leaving Ethan broken and humiliated.
With a sharp sigh, Zara grabbed her phone off the coffee table and dialed Ethan’s number.
She didn’t care that it was late or that he was probably hiding away somewhere in the mountains. He needed to hear her out, whether he liked it or not.
The phone rang twice before Ethan’s voice came through, distant and weary. “Zara?”
She didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “Ethan, what were you thinking? I warned you about Sophia, I told you she wasn’t the woman you thought she was. And now look at where you are.”
Ethan’s silence on the other end only fueled her anger. Zara’s pacing quickened, her voice rising with every word.
“Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to sit back and watch you fall into her trap? I told you, Ethan! I told you she was using you, that she only wanted control. But you wouldn’t listen!”
“I know,” Ethan’s voice was quiet, but there was a hard edge to it. “I don’t need the ‘I told you so’ speech right now, Zara.”
Zara stopped pacing, her free hand gripping the edge of the table as she tried to rein in her frustration.
“Ethan, I’m not saying this to hurt you. I’m saying it because I care about you. You’re my brother, and I couldn’t stand watching you get torn apart by that woman.”
There was a long pause, and for a moment, Zara thought Ethan might have hung up on her. But then he spoke, his tone clipped.
“I don’t want to talk about Sophia. Not right now.”
Zara felt her heart twist with a mix of anger and sympathy. She had always been the fierce one, the one to protect Ethan when they were younger. And now, watching him retreat into his shell, she felt powerless. “You can’t just ignore what happened, Ethan. You can’t run away from this.”
“I’m not running away,” Ethan snapped, his voice sharper than she had ever heard it. “I’m handling it. My way.”
Zara closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she fought to stay calm. “And what does that mean? What are you going to do? Hide out in the mountains until it all blows over? Pretend like she didn’t humiliate you in front of everyone?”
Ethan’s silence was deafening.
Zara’s frustration bubbled over, her voice cracking with emotion. “I just don’t understand why you always have to do things the hard way. Why do you have to get hurt before you finally see the truth.”
“You don’t get it,” Ethan said, his tone softening, but still laced with pain. “You weren’t there, Zara. You didn’t see how it was in the beginning. She… she made me believe she loved me.”
Zara’s chest tightened, and her heart ached for him. She could hear the raw emotion in his voice, the pain that he was trying so hard to mask.
As angry as she was, she hated hearing him like this. Hated knowing that the brother who had always been so kind, so giving, had been shattered by someone so undeserving.
“I know it hurts,” Zara said, her voice gentler now, a sister’s love breaking through her frustration. “But you can’t let her win, Ethan. You can’t let her destroy you.”
“She hasn’t won,” Ethan replied, his voice firmer now. “I’m not letting her destroy me. I’m… I’m making sure she pays for what she did.”
Zara’s brow furrowed, a sense of unease creeping into her chest. “What do you mean by that? Ethan, what are you planning?”
There was another pause, and when Ethan finally spoke, his words were calm, but there was something darker underneath. “I’m taking back control, Zara. I’m going to make sure they all regret what they did.”
Zara’s breath caught in her throat. She knew her brother, knew the kind and patient man he was at his core. But this… this wasn’t the Ethan she knew. There was something hard in his voice, something cold.
“Ethan,” she said softly, her voice trembling with worry. “Revenge isn’t going to fix this. It won’t make you feel better.”
“It’s not about feeling better,” Ethan shot back. “It’s about taking back my dignity. They took everything from me, Zara. And I’m not going to let them get away with it.”
Zara’s heart pounded in her chest, fear and frustration swirling inside her. She wanted to shake him, to make him see that this path he was on could destroy him just as much as Sophia had.
“Ethan, please. Don’t let this consume you. You’re better than this.”
“Maybe I’m not,” he replied quietly, the vulnerability in his voice barely masked by the determination. “Maybe I’m not better than this.”
Zara’s throat tightened, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. She hated this. Hated seeing her brother, the one person she had always looked up to, so lost and so broken.
She had tried to protect him, to warn him, but now it felt like she was losing him to something far worse than Sophia’s betrayal.
“Ethan…” she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion. “I just don’t want you to lose yourself in this. I don’t want to lose you.”
For a long moment, there was nothing but silence on the other end of the line. Zara wiped at her eyes, trying to steady herself, hoping that her words had gotten through to him.
“I’ll be fine, Zara,” Ethan finally said, his voice softer, though still distant. “I know what I’m doing.”
Zara exhaled slowly, her heart heavy. She knew Ethan wasn’t ready to hear what she had to say, knew that he was still too wrapped up in his pain and anger to listen. But she couldn’t just walk away. She had to stand by him, no matter what.
“I’ll support you,” Zara said, her voice firm but tinged with sadness. “Even if I don’t agree with what you’re doing, I’ll be here. Just… don’t shut me out, Ethan.”
There was a pause before Ethan responded. “I won’t. Thanks, Zara.”
The call ended, but Zara remained where she stood, staring down at her phone with a mixture of frustration, worry, and love. She had done what she could, for now. All she could do was hope that Ethan wouldn’t lose himself in the darkness he was stepping into.
As she sat down on the edge of her bed, Zara felt a heaviness settle over her heart. She would stand by her brother, as she always had.
But something told her that this was just the beginning, and that the road ahead was going to be far more dangerous than either of them realized.
***
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