After your parents’ nasty divorce was finally settled, your mother found love again, had her heart stolen by a military captain — John Price, a soldier who fought for a better tomorrow. A good man.

He treated you like his own. And even though you weren’t his by blood, he saw you as nothing less.

However, you soon found it out to be that his actions were only a ploy masked underneath kindness, a sense of duty towards you when he married your mother.

He had not once treated you with malice. Although, since the day your half-sibling was born, he placed a certain distance between you.

In hindsight, it was expected.

Before, he had no child of his own. So you, for the time being, were a replacement. A child he never had, that was until he had one that shared his flesh and blood — after that, you were nothing but a burden from a past relationship, a nuisance within both homes that were supposed to love you unconditionally.

And while he hadn’t spoken to you directly since the past few months, when a knock sounded at your bedroom door, it was him who stepped inside.

A hollow silence followed as John leaned against the doorframe, the most awkward of smiles on his lips, his eyes crinkling in the corners from the force it took to fake one.

“So..” He cleared his throat, breaking the uncomfortable silence. If it weren’t for your mother’s exhaustion with the baby, he would’ve left it up to her — you weren’t his problem to fix. “What’s up with you, kid? Your mum’s gettin’ worried.”