My Brother’s Favorite

My brother, Graham Hart, was the villainous second male lead in a romance novel. After the female lead, Celeste Rodgers, faked her death, he spent every day thinking of ways to die for her. But before he could follow through, he got a call from my kindergarten teacher, Carly Rocha. "Are you Mila Hart's brother? Please come to the school. She keeps climbing into the aquarium and pretending to be a goldfish. She says she learned it from you. What exactly is going on?" After that, Graham didn't dare try to kill himself anymore. He had to set a good example for me. Then one day, years later, the school called him in because I had been caught dating a boy with bleached hair. As it turned out, the boy was Celeste's younger brother, Dylan Rodgers. When she realized who I was, Celeste smiled. "So Mila is your sister. Dylan may not be much of a student, but he's a good kid. I think he'd be perfect for her. Once our families are joined—" Before she could finish, Graham cut her off coldly, "You think becoming part of the Hart family is that easy? Tell Dylan to stop dreaming and stay away from Mila." Chapter 1 The female lead, Celeste Rodgers, wanted to escape my brother, Graham Hart's control. So, in front of everyone, she jumped off a cliff into the endless ocean below. Standing at the edge in a white dress, tears shimmering in her eyes, she said her final words, "I'm sorry, Graham. If there's another life, I swear I'll never betray you again." If I hadn't already read the spoilers and known she'd faked her death so she could run away with Luca Hodge, the male lead, I might've actually believed that load of crap. Unfortunately, Graham knew nothing about any of that. Celeste's "death" devastated him. He sent multiple search-and-rescue teams out to sea. They searched for an entire week without finding a trace of her. After that, he spent his days crying his eyes out and going to the shore, constantly threatening to throw himself into the ocean after her. Then he got a call from my kindergarten teacher, Carly Rocha. "Hello, is this Graham Hart, Mila Hart's brother? We need to discuss some concerns about Mila. Could you please come to the school so we can talk in person?" Graham sounded impatient. "Can't you just tell me over the phone?" Carly sounded even more exasperated. "She says her brother goes to the beach every day pretending to be a seagull, so she's going to be a goldfish. Apparently, if you both die, you'll find each other again and still be brother and sister in your next life. What on earth is going on?" Graham fell completely silent. After retrieving me from kindergarten, he took me home and sat me on the kitchen counter. Then he put his hands on my shoulders so we were eye to eye. He looked at me with absolute seriousness. "You little troublemaker. Why do you want to die with me? Am I really that important to you?" Young and clueless, I told him exactly how I felt, "Of course you are. You're the most important person in the whole world to me. You're Graham. You're the only family I have." And just like that, the villainous second male lead became the world's most overprotective big brother. He stopped trying to die and started doing everything he could to become a good brother instead. His text history went from endless walls of messages to Celeste to endless walls of messages to Carly. [Ms. Rocha, Mila doesn't like drinking water. Please remind her to drink more. I bought her a 27-ounce insulated bottle. That's how much she needs to drink during the day, so please make sure she finishes it.] [Ms. Rocha, Mila is short. If you put her all the way in the back, how is she supposed to see the board?] [Ms. Rocha, Mila told me you gave another kid pudding today. Why didn't Mila get any? Did I donate that library to the school last month for nothing?] Carly replied coldly: [Zoe Fox's mother brought the pudding from home. I only helped her open it.] That shut Graham up. The very next day, he had someone deliver an entire case of pudding cups to the school and asked my teacher to open one for me. By the time I started elementary school, I thought Graham had finally gotten over Celeste. Then one night, I caught him secretly scrolling through her social media, wiping tears from his eyes. Chapter 2 I had an idea. I changed the privacy settings on my social media so only I could see my posts. The next afternoon, when I got home from school, I heard Graham asking Warren Price, the butler, "Why can't I see any of Mila's posts anymore? Is something wrong with my phone?" Warren answered cautiously, "There's nothing wrong with your phone. I think she blocked you." Graham looked like he'd been struck by lightning. "What?" Warren tried to reassure him, though he only made things worse. "It's fine. Mila's a teenager now. It's perfectly normal for her to have things she wants to keep to herself." He paused. "That said, she is at that rebellious age, and she grew up without her parents. We wouldn't want her feeling neglected and getting swept up by some troublemaker or some guy with bleached hair." That sent Graham into an even deeper spiral. He stopped paying attention to Celeste's social media. Instead, he spent every day obsessing over what I could possibly be hiding from him and why I'd blocked him. Then one day, I made my posts public again. Graham checked immediately. There was no guy with bleached hair or troublemaker like he'd imagined. Instead, my first pinned post was a photo of my brother from behind, cooking for me himself. The caption read: [My brother is officially my favorite person in the entire world!] Graham burst into tears on the spot. Then I started high school. The Harts' private investigators uncovered a lead suggesting that Celeste Rodgers might still be alive. Someone claimed to have seen her in the city. That was all it took to rekindle Graham's hopes. He quietly sent people to search for her. The very next day, a new boy transferred into my class. His name was Dylan Rodgers. His hair was bleached, his skin was pale, and his features looked almost exactly like Celeste's. Sure enough, irresistible charm apparently ran in the family. On Dylan's very first day, two girls in our class got into a physical fight over him. One of them was even notorious throughout the school for being a troublemaker. Dylan just stood there and watched coldly, sticking to three simple rules: Never make the first move. Never take responsibility. Never turn anyone down. Exactly like his sister, Celeste. Back then, Celeste had entered Graham's life like a ray of sunshine. But once Luca came along, she strung Graham along while seducing Luca at the same time. After the two men became bitter enemies because of her, Celeste offered herself to Graham in exchange for him leaving Luca's company alone. She never clearly rejected Graham, yet she would turn around and cry to Luca that Graham was controlling and coercing her. Graham was hopelessly obsessed with her, and her constant push and pull left him completely off balance. Eventually, he made the ruthless decision to confine her to his estate. However, Celeste wasn't about to accept that quietly. She and Luca joined forces and carefully planned an elaborate fake death. While Graham was away attending an exclusive event for the city's elite, Celeste secretly slipped out of the estate. By the time she was nearing the coast, Graham had already gotten word that she'd escaped. Afraid he would retaliate against both her and Luca, Celeste deliberately said those unforgettable things before staging her death. That evening, over dinner, I mentioned the new transfer student to Graham. He barely seemed interested. His attention stayed fixed on his phone, his fingers constantly tapping the screen. After dinner, we went back to our respective bedrooms. Later, when I headed to the kitchen to warm up some milk, I overheard Graham and Warren arguing heatedly. "Mr. Hart, Celeste never loved you. She faked her death because she wanted to get away from you." "That's not true! She must've had a reason she couldn't tell me! If she hated me, why would she come back here to Ravenport? She knows this is my territory..." Chapter 3 The thought of my brother's tragic ending—tortured to death because he insisted on tearing Celeste and Luca apart—kept me awake all night. If I couldn't escape the plot, then I'd face it head-on. Dylan's grades were terrible, so our teacher, Lauren Bishop, paired him with me, the class academic rep, and asked me to tutor him. I agreed without hesitation. Dylan gave a dismissive scoff. Clearly, he thought I was just like all the other girls who'd fallen for his looks. What he didn't expect was that I genuinely only talked to him about schoolwork and nothing else. One afternoon after class, a spring breeze drifted through the open window, billowing the curtains and blowing loose strands of hair across my face. My vision was blocked, so I took off my glasses and casually tucked my hair behind my ear. When I looked up again, I found Dylan staring at me. I feigned ignorance. "What?" His Adam's apple bobbed. "Nothing." But our daily tutoring sessions after school gave our classmates the wrong idea. One of them was Paige Brock, the same troublemaker who'd gotten into a fight over Dylan on his first day. She started turning people against me and went out of her way to make my life difficult. When I collected homework, Paige deliberately refused to hand hers in, then told Ms. Bishop I'd skipped her. When it was my turn to clean the classroom, she'd kick over the trash can and give me a taunting smile. "Oops. My foot slipped. Guess you'll have to clean that up again." Once, while I was in the bathroom, she even dumped a bucket of water over the stall. I had to walk back through the halls, soaking wet. The more I endured without fighting back, the worse Paige became. But no matter what Paige did to me, I never stopped tutoring Dylan after school. The way he looked at me gradually changed from curiosity to concern. Again and again, he seemed like he wanted to say something, but each time, he stopped himself. Then one day, after gym class, all the money I'd collected from the class for our test-prep materials disappeared from my desk. I searched through it several times before finally emptying everything out and putting it all back. The commotion quickly drew the entire class's attention. When I turned around, Paige was watching me with an amused smirk. "Oh, no. Don't tell me our class rep lost all that money she just collected for the test-prep materials." I stood up, my expression cold, and strode toward her. "I've let everything else go, but don't mess around with everyone's money. Give it back." Her face immediately hardened. "What makes you think I took it? Where's your proof? "Because no one else has this much time on their hands." At that, she stood. She was half a head taller than me, and the height difference made her deliberately intimidating. "Say that again." My expression didn't change. "You were the only person who sat out of gym. Everyone else was outside." She kicked her chair over. "That's bullshit. I was in the nurse's office the entire time. I wasn't even in the classroom. "And, Mila, you could've handed the money over to Ms. Bishop before gym instead of carrying it around. For all we know, you lost it yourself and decided to blame me." Chapter 4 Things quickly got out of hand. Paige and I were both called into Ms. Bishop's office. After hearing both sides of the story, Ms. Bishop turned to me with a grave expression. "Mila, once you'd collected everyone's money for the test-prep materials, you should've brought it straight to me. Why didn't you?" I pressed my lips together. "The classroom was really noisy between classes, so I couldn't get an accurate count. I counted it twice and got a different total each time. Then the bell rang, so I was going to count it again after gym and bring it to you." Paige scoffed. "Who would believe that? Mila gets near-perfect scores in math, but she can't even count some money? More like she hid it herself, then remembered I was sitting out of gym and decided to pin it on me." I stubbornly bit my lip. "I didn't." More and more students gathered outside the office to watch the drama unfold. Eventually, someone in the crowd accidentally pushed the door open. Then a voice called out from the hallway, "Mila, even if you and Paige have issues with each other, you can't pull something like this." "Exactly. Sure, Paige shouldn't pick on you, but you can't use everyone's money to get back at her." Ms. Bishop's attention immediately snapped toward them. "Mila, Paige, you two have had problems before?" Everyone started talking at once. "You don't know the half of it. Paige has a thing for the new transfer student, Dylan. She's made a move on him several times, but he never gave her the time of day." "But Dylan is always hanging around Mila, so Paige played a few pranks on her." Ms. Bishop seemed to reach her own conclusion. She looked at me with the solemn expression of someone trying to reason with a difficult child. "Mila, Paige was wrong to play those inappropriate pranks on you. But that doesn't mean you can use everyone's test-prep money to get back at her. Just tell us where you hid it. If you give it back now, I won't hold it against you." Paige's father, Andrew Brock, was the CEO of a publicly traded company. As a prominent alumnus, he'd previously donated $150,000 to our school. Because of that, almost none of the teachers or students dared to cross her. So, this time, Ms. Bishop had clearly decided that I, the poor academic rep, was an easier target. I could've easily replaced the missing money with my allowance. But this time, I refused to back down. "I'm not admitting to something I didn't do. If we can't figure out who took it, check the security cameras." Paige answered arrogantly, "Fine. Check them. I'm not scared." We went to the security office, where the security guard scratched his head awkwardly. "Sorry. The cameras on your floor are down, and the technician hasn't come out to fix them yet. We can't access any footage right now." Back in the office, Ms. Bishop saw that neither of us was willing to budge and decided to call our guardians. Just then, someone knocked sharply on the door. Dylan walked in holding his phone and admitted that he'd recorded the thief. Phones weren't allowed at our school, but to help me, Dylan voluntarily confessed that he'd brought one anyway. During gym, he'd gone to the boys' locker room to change. As he passed our classroom, he happened to see Paige acting suspiciously around my desk. After watching the video, Ms. Bishop's expression darkened. Paige, meanwhile, flew into a rage. "Then I'm reporting them for dating! There's no way Dylan would admit to bringing his phone just to help Mila unless something was going on between them! He could get suspended for this!" Overcome with anger, Paige lunged for Dylan's phone. He wouldn't let her take it. As they struggled over it, the phone fell to the floor. The screen suddenly lit up, and there, unmistakably, was my profile as I worked through a problem. It had been taken without my knowledge. Chapter 5 The moment Paige saw the photo, she thought she'd finally found something she could use against us. At this point, all she wanted was to drag Dylan and me down with her to distract everyone from the fact that she'd stolen the money and tried to frame me. "Ms. Bishop! Dylan didn't just bring a phone to school. He has a picture of Mila that he took without her knowing as his wallpaper! If they're not secretly dating, then he's sexually harassing her by taking pictures of her without permission!" Dylan said nothing in response to Paige's accusation. Seeing that, I spoke up for him, "We're not dating. But I gave him permission to take that picture, so he didn't take it without my consent, and it wasn't sexual harassment. I'm the one who likes him." With the situation spiraling further out of control, Ms. Bishop sent away the crowd of students gathered outside. Determined to protect Paige, whose family was one of the school's major donors, she deliberately glossed over the fact that Paige had stolen the money and framed me. Instead, she called Dylan's guardian and mine into the office. Celeste arrived first. The moment she saw me, she had no idea who I was. Back when Graham had kept her confined at our estate and forced her into a relationship with him, I'd only just learned to walk. By the time she staged her dramatic fake death, I'd only just started kindergarten. Celeste turned to Dylan and lowered her voice, "Seriously? This is the best you could do? When Ms. Bishop said you were dating someone, I thought she'd at least be pretty. She's just some average-looking nerd." Dylan calmly corrected her, "It's not what you think. Mila's great." By the time Graham finally arrived, Celeste looked completely stunned. She never could've imagined she'd run into him again under circumstances like these. I thought Graham would be so caught up in seeing the woman he'd never gotten over that he'd forget all about me. Instead, the first thing he did after rushing into the office was check whether I'd been hurt. Then his expression darkened. By the time Ms. Bishop finished giving him a carefully edited version of what had happened, skirting around all the important details, Graham's brows were drawn into a deep frown. "So this girl named Paige has been bullying my sister all this time. Is that what you're telling me?" Ms. Bishop clearly hadn't expected Graham to cut straight to the heart of the matter. She immediately panicked. "That's not what happened, Mr. Hart. It's just some petty squabbling between girls. I wouldn't call it bullying." Graham's face turned thunderous, his expression impossible to read. "Get your principal in here. I'd love to know how your school can accept a library donated with my money, then turn around and let Mila be treated like this." Ms. Bishop's face instantly went pale. She'd tried to protect the daughter of one major donor, only to offend an even bigger one. While she went to get the principal, the four of us—Celeste, Dylan, Graham, and me—were left alone in the office. Celeste smiled at Graham. "Graham. It's been a long time. How have you been?" He gave her a cold glance without answering. Celeste continued, "So Mila is your sister. Dylan might not be much of a student, but he's a good person. I think he'd be a great match for her. If our families ended up becoming in-laws—" Graham cut her off coldly before she could finish, "You think getting into the Hart family is that easy? Tell your brother to stop dreaming and stay away from Mila." His gaze turned icy. "Otherwise, I'll break both his legs."