Page 5 of Knocked-up Bratva Bride
“Sounds yummy already. You have to show me that secret recipe you’ve been working on.”
“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Here, let me help you with your bag. I’ll empty it and hang it out to dry later.”
I smiled, handing him the bag. “Thank you.”
Aside from my brother, I didn’t think I had ever met a more caring young man or anyone more passionate about getting messy with flour and baking tools.
“How was school?”
“Good. I think I’m finding Ms. Marie’s Spanish class a lot easier now,” he said, walking ahead of me. “And work? Have any fun today?”
“I doubt there’ll ever be anything fun about being a marketing executive, with all the planning, executing, and, myleast favorite part, the talking,” I mumbled, stripping off my blazer. “But I can’t complain. My boss was pleased today.”
“I like hearing that.” Then, he paused in his steps and turned around with a solemn look that made him appear more mature than his age. “Lee….”
Under the light, the scattered freckles on his cheeks were more pronounced, and the green in his eyes appeared a lot darker than usual. In that fleeting moment, his resemblance to our mother was uncanny.
“What’s wrong? What’s that look for?”
Jasper tried to muster a smile, but it wasn’t convincing. “Our lives will get easier. I hope you know that.”
My heart melted into a batter of love and the sadness that I’d been fighting off from the second I arrived at the apartment building. Moving closer to him, I cradled his cheeks while salty tears stung the back of my eyes.
A wave of emotions threatened to suffocate me, but I fought back the tears, sniffling.
When I didn’t think it was possible for my brother to love me any more than he already did, he sprang up to prove me wrong over and over again. And the love I had for him was fiercer and more protective. That was what moved me to tears, knowing I would do whatever it took to shield him from experiencing even half of the burdens I carried.
“Jaz, I don’t want you worrying about anything, okay? Just focus on school and being happy.”
“I know.” He covered my hand with his, and the smile on his face wobbled. “But I think about Mom, too, and I think about how you try to handle both her and us at the same time. I know it’s not been easy,” he said with a chuckle. “And I know you don’t really like your job, but you have to pull through every day to keep us afloat. But Lee, our lives will get easier someday soon. I just want you to believe that.”
The tears I fought so hard to suppress began to stream down my cheeks, and I stopped trying to hold them back. Chuckling through my tears, I kissed his cheeks.
“How are you only thirteen years old?”
“Beats me sometimes.” He laughed and wiped the tears from my eyes. “I think I get all that wisdom from spending so much time with Nana.”
She hated it when we called her Granny, and said it made her feel older than sixty-five. Then, she would brag about how big of a star she was back in the day, a star who could do almost everything: bake the best pastries, cook the most delicious meals, sing, act, model, paint, and perform a bunch of other hard-to-believe arts.The Rita Richard.
“Speaking of which, where is she? I thought she would be home by now.”
Jasper resumed his walk to one of the two bedrooms to spread my handbag. “I’m guessing the rain held her up,” he shouted from his room. “She’s still at the hospital. I tried calling her an hour ago, but there’s been poor service.”
My chest did a little dip, sinking deeper when I remembered that, in addition to Nana’s already sparkling resume, she had to include being an excellent caretaker of her severely ill daughter, who needed a liver transplant within two months.
For two years now, after Mom fell sick, Nana looked over her and Jasper without complaints while I worked to the bone to provide for our financial needs. Jasper intentionally learned to lighten the load and was able to start attending school and returning without a twenty-four-seven chaperone. He developed an interest in cooking and somehow forced Nana to teach him while I was away, so when she was at the hospital, none of us would starve.
“But if you ask me, I don’t think Nana will want us to wait up,” Jaz continued. “You know how stubborn she can be. She won’t want to leave Mom’s side.”
“Did she at least take some food?”
“Yup. Veggies, rice, and a few muffins I managed to get done before she left.”
I nodded but didn’t find the strength to say anymore before going into my room to shed off the remaining wet clothes and take a shower. Thankfully, the hot water was working.
While in the shower, I finally allowed the weights on my shoulders to collapse, and I bawled my eyes out as my heart squeezed uncomfortably with frustration and an anguish so deep it felt like it suffocated my entire existence.
It didn’t matter how hard I worked; finding a liver donor and raising the money for the operation were more challenging than I expected.
