Traded Away to His Brother

I followed Christian Vance around for ten whole years. Everyone in our circle knew the young Vance heir’s fiancée was a fool. Because of that, Christian hated me for ten years. Until one night, over a casual joke, he gave me away like an unwanted toy, smiling with sharp, careless malice. "We’re both Vances anyway," he said. "If you don't mind the bad luck, take the idiot. She's your present." So, I gave him exactly what he wanted. I traded our engagement for one with his older brother. Yet on the day of my engagement party... He barged into the ballroom, his eyes rimmed in red, his teeth clenched tight. "Elena, how dare you marry someone else?" Midnight came, and Christian still hadn’t come home. I slowly pushed open the door to the VIP lounge. The room was loud, hazy with smoke, and chaotic. Christian sprawled across the middle of the plush sofa, looking completely relaxed and detached. When I spotted him, my eyes lit up. I walked straight up to his table. "Christian, it’s really late. Grandpa told me to bring you home." Christian froze. The rowdy music and chatter cut out for a brief second. The crowd exchanged glances, and then burst into loud laughter. "Hahaha! Look at that, Christian! Grandpa’s calling you home!" "Your idiot fiancée is here. Shouldn't you hurry up and go with her?" The blatant cruelty in the room made me shrink back. Helpless, I looked down at Christian. "Chris, it’s time to go home..." "Shut up!" Christian jumped to his feet. An empty glass bottle went flying, grazing past my ear with a whistling rush of air. Irritation flashed across his handsome face. He glared down at me coldly. "Who let you come here? Get the hell out!" A sharp, stinging ache throbbed near my temple, but I still stared up at him stubbornly. "Come home with me." A girl sitting beside Christian suddenly stood up. She walked right over and shoved me hard. "Didn't you hear Mr. Vance tell you to get lost? Are you deaf?" My footing slipped. I tumbled straight onto the shards of broken glass. A muffled gasp tore from my throat as warm blood instantly soaked through my skin. Silence fell over the lounge. A few people began to look at me with uneasy pity. Someone murmured, "Hey, Christian... maybe you should just head home." Christian knit his brows, pure annoyance showing in his eyes. His gaze swept across my bloody palm. He let out a derisive scoff. "Serves you right." Yet, perhaps feeling a twinge of guilt, he turned on his heel and strode out of the club without another word. Swallowing the burning pain, I quietly hurried behind him. Back at the Vance estate, I didn't try to hide my wound. My bloodied palm immediately caught old Mr. Vance's eye. The grandfather spun around and smacked Christian upside the head. "You reckless brat! What happened to Elena’s hand?" Christian’s eyes flickered, but his jaw stayed tight and unyielding. "She came looking for me on her own. Whatever happened to her is not my fault!" Grandpa stared at him in utter frustration. "Elena is your future wife!" Bringing that up set Christian off completely. He stood up abruptly, shouting with raw fury. "I never asked to marry her! Who in their right mind would marry an idiot like her?" "You think you can force some outdated promise down my throat to control me?" His words hit me like a splash of ice water. I stood frozen in place, unable to take a step forward. Grandpa clutched his chest, his eyes closing in pain. "You... you ungrateful little punk!" "Get outside and kneel in the driveway! You're not stepping foot inside tonight!" "Fine by me! I’d rather marry a stray dog than marry Elena Miller!" Christian gritted his teeth and shot me a venomous glare. I pressed my lips together tightly, my eyes cast down. Christian slammed the door shut on his way out. Grandpa let out a long sigh and gestured for me to come sit beside him. He stayed silent for a long moment before speaking softly. "Elena, don't be mad at Chris." My gaze dimmed, but I nodded. I wasn't mad at him. Christian had saved me once. I loved him very much, and I wouldn't hold something like this against him.Grandpa stood his ground this time. Even after Christian knelt outside in the freezing cold for two hours, he wasn't allowed inside. Grandpa forbade me from seeing him, too. It was bitterly cold. Looking out from the window, I watched Christian shivering violently in the dark. My heart broke for him. I sneaked out into the chilly night, clutching a warm fleece blanket in my arms. "Chris, take this." It was a pastel-pink blanket embroidered with tiny flowers, smelling faintly of lavender. It was my favorite blanket in the world. Christian looked up, startled. But the moment he saw it was me, his face hardened into ice. A mocking sneer touched his lips. "Isn't this exactly what you wanted? Coming out here to play the saint now?" I looked down, feeling stung. "I didn't... It's freezing out here. I'm scared you'll catch a cold..." Before I could finish, he snapped angrily, "Get lost! I don't need your damn pity!" He yelled so loudly my eyes welled with tears. Still, I gently set the blanket down beside him before turning around, heartbroken, to walk back inside. Christian hated me. It took me far too long to truly understand that. "Elena." A deep, cool voice sounded in the shadows. I looked up and instinctively pulled back my shoulders. It was Julian Vance. Christian’s older brother. His dark eyes swept over me, pausing for a beat on my bandaged, swollen hand. "You're hurt?" I kept my head down and nodded awkwardly. In my memories, Julian had always been cold, distant, and unapproachable. I had always been terrified of him. "Did Christian do that?" I didn't dare answer. Seeing me cower, Julian frowned. He stood in silence for a second, then turned and walked away. Just as I let out a breath of relief, he returned holding a first-aid kit. "Give me your hand." His expression was stern, but the way he lifted my wrist was incredibly gentle. I stood completely stiff as he cleaned and dressed the cuts. When he finally packed away the supplies, I thought I heard a soft, barely audible sigh. And then: "Take care of yourself, Elena." ... The following afternoon, someone knocked on my bedroom door. "Elena, come on out. I want to show you somewhere cool." I opened the door and blinked at him in confusion. Wasn't Christian still furious with me? "Chris... are you still mad?" I asked softly. For the first time ever, he didn't snap at me. Instead, he smiled with unprecedented warmth. "No. Why would I ever be mad at you?" It was the first time since we grew up that he had spoken to me with such gentle patience. My eyes sparkled. Did this mean we were finally getting along? I nodded enthusiastically and happily followed him outside. The Vance estate sat on the outskirts of town, surrounded by private, dense woods. Christian led me deeper and deeper along an overgrown path into the trees. "Chris, we're getting pretty far from the house." Frightened by the silence of the woods, I grabbed onto his sleeve. Christian paused for a second, then patted my head dismissively. "I'm right here with you. There's nothing to be scared of." Those words instantly calmed my racing heart. A long time ago, Christian had said the exact same thing to me. And he had saved me back then. Eventually, Christian stopped in front of an old, abandoned shed. It was pitch black inside. "Let's go in, Elena." His soothing voice coaxed me. I hesitated for a brief second. In the end, I chose to trust him and stepped through the threshold. The next second, the heavy door slammed shut behind me with a loud thud. Darkness swallowed me whole.Terrifying childhood memories rushed back, turning my vision completely black. It felt like I was being dragged right back into that endless nightmare. My body began to tremble uncontrollably. "Chris? What happened?" "I'm scared... Chris, please open the door..." My face drained of color as I cried and begged through the wood. Outside, Christian let out a low chuckle, his voice dripping with careless amusement. "You idiot, you actually fell for it?" "Sit in there and think about what you did. Next time, keep your nose out of my business." I couldn't catch my breath. Heavy tears rolled down my cheeks. "Chris, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." I sobbed, gasping for air. My vision blurred into gray. Before I completely lost consciousness, I faintly heard Christian talking to one of his friends outside. "I just wanted to mess with the dummy. She was getting way on my nerves." "Yeah, yeah, I know. I won't let anything actually happen to her." ... When I opened my eyes again, the harsh smell of disinfectant filled the air. Christian stood beside my hospital bed. Seeing me awake, he scowled. "You alive?" I shrank deeper beneath the blankets, refusing to look at him. He cursed under his breath and stepped closer to the edge of the mattress. In a flat, robotic tone, he muttered, "Fine. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pulled that stunt." I turned my face away and wiped at my red-rimmed eyes. Christian lost his patience and kicked the leg of the bed. "I already apologized, didn't I? You're supposed to forgive me. Did you hear me?" I stared at the white sheets and whispered quietly, "Just go." "I'm leaving! You think I actually want to hang around here and look at you?" With a cold snort, Christian stormed out. I curled myself into a tight ball under the duvet. The bitter ache in my chest wouldn't go away, no matter how hard I tried to swallow it down. I didn't understand. Why was Christian doing this to me? We hadn't always been like this. When I was little, my parents abandoned me because I wasn't as clever as other children. My grandfather had raised me all by himself. When he passed away in a tragic accident, I was left entirely alone in the world. That was when Grandpa Vance showed up. At my grandfather’s funeral, he wept openly. Tears streaming down his face, he swore he owed everything to my grandfather and promised to take the best care of me. So, I was brought to the Vance estate. I became the child bride promised to the Vance family. Perhaps because I was slow and awkward, I never made any friends there. People even found ways to torment me when Grandpa Vance wasn't looking. "She really is brain-dead. You're so gross." "Why are you even alive? Why don't you just disappear?" Children can be cruel in the most honest, brutal ways. They used to drag me into dark storage rooms. They shoved me around, their mocking laughter echoing off the walls. I wanted to beg them to stop. I wanted to apologize. But the rooms were always too dark, dark enough to crush any hope of fighting back. I could only curl up in the corner, shivering in the cold. *I wish Grandpa had taken me with him,* I used to think, over and over again. Until one afternoon, a sudden beam of sunlight shattered the darkness. The cruel voices abruptly died down. Christian stepped into the light. "Picking on a defenseless girl? Do you have any shame at all?" He looked down at them with disgust and kicked the nearest kid away. Then, his striking, sharp eyes locked right onto mine. He looked so noble, so untouchable. Terrified, I tried to shrink further into the shadows. Until he leaned down and took my trembling hand in his. "What are you scared of? I'm here to save you."The warmth of his palm had seeped right through my skin, straight into my soul. I had stared at him in awe, clutching onto that heat. It was the very first time anyone had ever shown me kindness like that. From that day on, I followed behind Christian wherever he went. I followed him for ten years. Every single memory of my childhood was filled with Christian. My grandfather had taught me that when someone shows you kindness, you should repay it tenfold. So, every time Christian snapped at me, every time he humiliated and mocked me, I always quietly gave him another chance in my heart. Christian used to be so good to me. I couldn't bring myself to leave him. Yet the Christian standing in front of me now seemed further and further away from the boy in my memories. I stayed in the hospital for a few days. One afternoon, I overheard two nurses whispering outside my door. "Did you hear? The two Vance brothers got into a massive fight." "I know! Apparently the older brother threw the first punch. Who knows what went down, but people said it was brutal." I blinked, startled. Christian and Julian? They had never really gotten along, but had things escalated to actual blows? I wanted to ask Christian, but remembering how he treated me made me shrink back. Not long after, Julian unexpectedly walked into my room. I scrambled to sit up. "Julian..." "Lie back down." He set a beautifully wrapped box on the bedside table. It was a pastry box from my favorite bakery. My eyes brightened, and a sincere smile broke across my face. "Thank you, Julian!" It was the first time I had ever spoken to him with such warmth. Julian froze for a moment. He pulled up a chair and looked away awkwardly. "I was just passing by. Good to know you like it." That was when I noticed the faint bruises across his cheekbone. The rumors were true. I bit my lip. "Did you and Chris get into a fight?" Julian's hands paused as he awkwardly peeled an apple. He gave a quiet "Mm." "Just a disagreement. Nothing serious." A beat later, he added in a softer tone: "Don't worry. It won't happen again." After that incident, Christian's attitude toward me softened slightly. When I returned to the estate, he didn't give me any smiles, but he stopped hurling insults. Hoping to bring us closer together, Grandpa Vance arranged for me to work as Christian’s personal assistant. Christian hated the idea, but under his grandfather's strict orders, he had no choice but to agree. Yet as he brushed past me on the first day, he muttered, "Watch your step, idiot." I curled my fingers inward and quietly kept my head down. I stayed by his side at the office. He surrounded himself with different women, making me run around fetching their favorite coffees. He would keep me in his office, forcing me to watch him flirt carelessly with others. It felt like calculated revenge. It was strange. Christian clearly hated me, yet he couldn't bring himself to ignore me entirely either. One afternoon, Christian stepped out of his office. When I walked in to grab some documents, a woman blocked my path.