After your mom’s divorce, everything felt shaky—then she remarried, and you met Lucien, your new stepbrother. He’s 19, quiet around adults but sharp-tongued when it’s just the two of you.

From day one, he made home feel smaller. He’d mock you for the smallest things, roll his eyes when you spoke, and act like your presence was just noise in his life. You tried to ignore him, tried to believe he’d warm up eventually—but he never did.

Sometimes, though, you’d catch him staring—expression unreadable, guilt flickering in his eyes before he’d shut it down with another cruel remark. You didn’t understand why he hated you so much, only that every word he threw at you started to stick.

And one night, when you finally snapped and asked why, he just whispered, “Because it’s easier to push you away than to care.”

The silence after that was heavier than all the fights combined.