My Stolen Providence

My adoptive brother, Ryan Wellington, saved me from a car accident. When he woke up, he lost the memory of my parents ever finding me, their true biological son, or of anything that had happened since. He still believed he was their only son. He pointed at me and asked, "Who is he?" My mom, Tina Wellington, was originally holding my hand. When she saw how anxious he looked, she slowly let go. She said, "His name is Leon. He's just a distant relative who's staying with us." My dad, Joseph Wellington, and my older sister, Claire Wellington, went along with it. My fiancee, Natalie Evans, stood nearby and never mentioned our engagement as well. The doctor said he couldn't handle too much stress, so everyone asked me to play along. In the first week, he moved into my room and took the watch Grandpa had left me. During the first month, my parents turned my birthday party into a recovery celebration and introduced to everyone that I was an orphan the family was supporting. By the third month, Claire had cropped me out of our family portrait, and my fiancee had put my engagement ring on Ryan's finger. Whenever I protested, they reminded me, "If Ryan hadn't saved you, you'd be the one lying in a hospital bed." On the day of my engagement party, he wore my suit and accepted everyone's congratulations with my fiancee on his arm. After the party, when no one was around, he leaned close to me and said, chuckling, "This suit was made for you, but it really does fit me better." I had barely asked if he had ever gotten his memory back a long time ago when Claire cut me off coldly. "Enough! Natalie already said she'll have another ceremony with you once Ryan gets better. Do you have to make a scene today?" My parents accused me of being so jealous that I would slander the man who had saved my life. That was when I finally gave up on them. If this family only had room for one son, I was done fighting for a place. Chapter 1 Ryan Wellington had barely stepped out of the lounge when he pressed a hand to his forehead and swayed. Everyone rushed over immediately. My mother, Tina Wellington, supported him while my sister, Claire Wellington, shoved a chair out of the way. "Ryan's getting a headache. We need to get him to the hospital." As my father, Joseph Wellington, walked past me, all he said was, "Stay here and hold the room. We don't need the guests to make us into a laughingstock." The lights in the banquet hall went out one by one. The manager approached me with the bill, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "Sir, the change of suit on short notice, the extra guest seating, and the damage to the champagne tower come to another 18,000 dollars." I looked at the name of the person responsible for payment. Leon Wellington. That was my name. Ryan had stolen my engagement party, but I was expected to pay for everything he had damaged. I turned to the attached paperwork and stopped. The groom's name, the main table's seating chart, and the photo displays had all been changed a week earlier. Dad had approved everything, and Claire had handled the arrangements. Natalie had signed the documents herself. She had even left a note about the video I had recorded about my life. "It has nothing to do with today's event. Delete it." The manager gave me a cautious look. "Sir, didn't you approve these changes?" I shook my head. "I only found out today." What they kept calling a "temporary performance" had been planned well in advance. They just had not bothered to tell the fiance that he was being replaced. I paid the balance with my card and went backstage to collect my belongings. The bag for my suit had been thrown beside a trash can. The hem of my suit jacket was covered in red wine stains and shoe prints. I had visited seven tailors and had the suit altered six times before I was satisfied. Now that Ryan had worn it, they apparently saw no reason even to return it. I left the suit where it was and took only my documents and laptop. My phone rang as I stepped out of the hotel. It was Peter Harrison, the head of Summit Group. Three months earlier, he had invited me to join the company's overseas headquarters to expand its business in Liveria. I had turned him down then. Natalie had said she did not want me living too far away from home after we got married. "Leon, the position is still open." Peter got straight to the point. "I'm asking you one last time. Will you take it?" I felt the night breeze on my bare ring finger, and I did not look back at the hotel. "I will." Peter laughed softly. "Good. I'll have someone book you a flight in five days from now." The confirmation email arrived almost at once. I clicked "Accept." "Thank you. And Leon? Welcome aboard. See you in five days." Chapter 2 The confirmation email was still on my screen when my dad called. He did not ask when I had gotten home the night before or who had paid the extra 18,000 dollars for the party. "Be at the office before nine. Ryan's taking over your project, so get the materials ready for him." I held my phone, my fingertips growing cold. I had negotiated that project myself after joining Wellington Group. To secure the other company's use license for their technology, I had flown out eleven times. Despite my alcohol allergy, I drank with clients until I had stomach bleeding. Dad had patted my shoulder back then and promised me a seat on the board once the deal became final. Now, when we were one step away from signing the contract, he wanted to hand it to Ryan. The conference room was full of senior members from the management team. When I walked in, Ryan's nameplate was already in front of my seat. He wore my dark suit and was flipping through the proposal I had spent six months writing. He looked uneasy when he saw me. "Leon, are you upset? I don't want to take your work away from you, but Dad said I should learn how the company works as soon as possible." Dad tapped the table. "No one's stealing anything from anyone. It all belongs to the family. What difference does it make to who's in charge?" Claire pushed the presentation remote into my hand and told me to stand in the corner. "Ryan's memory is still unreliable, so he might get some of the numbers wrong. He'll be giving the presentation later. Text him the answers." I stared at Claire. "How can he take over the project when he can't even understand the proposal?" Ryan's eyes welled with tears. Claire's expression darkened. "Ever since you came home, Ryan's been terrified we'd send him away. All we're asking is that you give up one project. What's there to complain about?" The conference room went silent. I almost laughed. I had been separated from my family for more than twenty years and had only been home for a few years, yet she acted as though I was the one taking things away from someone else. The clients arrived shortly afterward. Ryan had been reading from his script for less than ten minutes when he put the decimal point in the wrong place in a key cost ratio. The client frowned. "If that figure is correct, we'll lose more than a million dollars a year." Ryan looked at me in a panic. Claire kicked my chair under the table as she whispered, "Text him the correct figure." I switched off my phone instead. "If the person in charge doesn't even know the basic numbers, what's the point of this presentation?" Ryan's face went pale. Claire got up to her feet. "Leon, do you have to humiliate him in front of all these outsiders?" Dad didn't blame Ryan for his mistake. Instead, he stopped the meeting and took my laptop and employee badge in front of everyone. "You've been too emotional lately. You're suspended. Come back when you understand that family matters more than who gets the credit." When I got back to my office, the nameplate on the door had already been changed to " Project Director, Ryan Wellington." My trophy had been shoved onto the floor, and one corner was cracked. My work notebooks and client files had all been packed into cardboard boxes. The finance director stood in the doorway and avoided my eyes. "Your father instructed us to transfer the project bonuses to the new team." "Even the part I've already earned?" I asked. Claire answered for him. "After all the years this family has supported you, you expect us to pay you for helping out? Ryan has just taken over the project. He needs results to prove himself. You're our parents' biological son. What are you going to lose by taking a little less?" It was those words again. Because I was their biological son, I was supposed to be understanding. Because I would always be related to them by blood, they could take anything that belonged to me. I picked up my box and walked straight to the elevator. I held my employee badge against the security gate. A harsh red light flashed, and the screen read "Access revoked." I had to use the visitors' exit to leave the company where I had worked for three years. I had barely reached the sidewalk when an email arrived from Summit Group confirming about a certain project. At the bottom was a personal message from Peter. [You're the one we've wanted for this project all along. If Wellington Group changes the project leader, we'll have to reassess our partnership.] I archived the email. I said nothing about it to Dad or Claire. Chapter 3 I moved the email into an encrypted folder and took a cab to the marital home Natalie and I were supposed to share after our wedding. Before leaving, I needed to collect my personal documentation and luggage. When I entered the code, the lock beeped and stayed locked. I tried three times with the same result. The property manager hurried over, looking embarrassed. "Ms. Natalie changed the locks yesterday. She changed the resident registration to Mr. Ryan's name, too." My name was now on the list of people barred from the property instead. I stood speechless in front of the door I had picked out myself, not sure what to say at all. Natalie arrived half an hour later. She took one look at me. "Why did you follow us here?" I stared at her. "Where are my things?" She avoided my eyes. "I put them in the underground parking garage. Ryan recognizes this place, and living here will help him stay calm. Once he's fully recovered, I'll move everything back." More than a dozen cheap-looking cardboard boxes were piled in the garage's trash area. Books I had collected for years were damaged and swollen from the rain, and the picture frame Mom had given me when I reunited with the family had broken in two. In the photo, I stood among my family. My smile was hesitant but content. Now, a crack separated me from the rest of them. Natalie saw what I was looking at and frowned impatiently. "They're just a few books. I'll buy you new ones if they're damaged." "And what about the money in our marriage account?" I asked, and her expression froze. I opened my banking app in front of her. Of the 46,000 dollars we had saved together, only three-hundred and seventy dollars remained. "Ryan wanted another custom suit," Natalie explained as she kept her voice down. "There's his ongoing treatment too, and the deposit on the hotel for the honeymoon. I'll pay you back once things settle down." I stared at her. "You used my savings to buy him a suit and take him on a honeymoon?" "I'm just playing along for now," Natalie said, her patience running out. "Leon, your brother nearly died saving your life. Why do you have to keep track of every tiny thing?" My future home, my savings, and my fiancee had become the price of repaying him for saving my life. But… I was the only one expected to pay. I said nothing more as I picked out the documents that hadn't been ruined by the water and pushed everything else, boxes and all, back into the trash area. The things I once could not part with no longer seemed so important. Natalie grabbed my wrist. "What kind of tantrum are you throwing again now? I'm still going to marry you once Ryan's stable. He needs a fake wedding, and you want me. Is there a problem with that?" I slowly pried her fingers away. "No. We won't have that problem again." As I got into the cab, an alert from the smart home system appeared on my phone. I had installed a camera in our marital home to keep an eye on the pets. Natalie had changed the locks but forgotten that the cloud account was still connected to my phone. I opened the application. Ryan was sitting on the sofa in my pajamas. He turned down the thermostat with ease, then took out the coffee I had hidden at the very back of a cabinet. When his call connected, he sounded clearheaded and sure of himself. "I remembered everything on the third day after I woke up. Who knew pretending to have amnesia would work this well? Leon's project is about to be mine, and the house and wedding are already mine." I couldn't hear what the person on the other end said. Ryan laughed so hard his shoulders were shaking. "It's not like they haven't noticed the holes in my story. They had just rather believed me than him." Chapter 4 I watched the footage three times. I downloaded the original video and made two backup copies. I no longer expected Natalie to come back to me. But Joseph and Tina… They were still my biological parents. They might have given in out of sympathy or blinded by gratitude to the man who had saved me, but surely they would not keep treating me this way once they saw the evidence? I returned to the Wellington residence with my laptop. Everyone was in the living room. Ryan was holding my mom's arm as they picked out wedding invitations, while my dad and Claire were discussing the project. Natalie was sitting beside him, peeling grapes for him. I connected my laptop to the television. "Watch this. Then I want an explanation." The footage began playing. Ryan's laughter filled the living room. Nobody spoke. Claire moved first. She rushed over and unplugged the television. The last image on the screen before it went black was Ryan's smug face. "Why do you still have access to the house's security footage?" Dad's expression was dark. "Who else has seen this video?" As I looked at them, what little hope I had began to fade. "Aren't you going to ask why he pretended to lose his memory?" Without warning, Mom walked up to Ryan and slapped him hard across the face. The slap rang through the room. Ryan covered his cheek as tears sprang to his eyes. I stood frozen. For the first time in three months, someone had taken my side. Ryan dropped to his knees and clung to my mom's legs. "I was just scared! I was afraid you wouldn't want me anymore if I told the truth! Mom, ever since Leon came back, I have been afraid of you abandoning me. I really can't lose this family!" Mom raised her hand, then rested it on his head. "Get up." She helped Ryan to his feet and pulled him back into her arms. "I slapped you because you lied, but you still saved Leon's life." My throat tightened. "And? He got his memory back and still kept my identity in the family and even my job. You even took over my engagement party with Natalie for a performance just for him. Aren't you going to give me an explanation?" Dad spoke in a low growl. "The engagement party is over, and the company has publicly named Ryan as our son. Exposing this now would only make our family a laughingstock. Our business partners are watching this project. If we admit Ryan was pretending to have amnesia all along, who would ever trust us again?" Claire finally admitted she had noticed that Ryan remembered things from after I came home. Natalie spoke at last. "I told you nothing is going to change about our engagement. Once Ryan's situation is resolved, we'll still go ahead with our wedding." She looked at me calmly, as if that could erase everything that had happened at the engagement party. They had known something was wrong all along. Not one of them had been willing to expose him. Mom took out her phone and drafted a public statement right in front of me. According to the statement, Ryan had only gradually recovered his memory after the engagement party. He would still be the only son the family acknowledged in public. The plans for the wedding and the project would stay the same. As for me, I was expected to keep playing the same absurd role… An orphan the family financially supported. "Leon, you're our biological son." My mom's eyes filled with tears as she pleaded. "You'll always be our son, blood is stronger than water. Why do you have to fight Ryan over all this?" I looked at her for a long time. "I understand now." They all breathed a sigh of relief. None of them understood what I meant. I went back to my old room, which had already been emptied. A dust cover lay over the mattress, and only a few empty hangers remained in the closet. I didn't leave right away. I lay on the dust cover, staring at the overseas flight booking on my phone. One way. Five days earlier, I had still thought I might come home someday. Now, I canceled the seat I had tentatively reserved for a return flight. At midnight, the family's official account published its statement. Ryan had regained his memory. The wedding would proceed as planned. My name did not appear anywhere. Chapter 5 Less than ten minutes after the statement was published by the Wellington Group, my mom shared the link in our family group chat. Dad replied with a single word: [Good.] Claire told the public relations department to pay to get it trending. She wanted to establish Ryan as the family's son as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Natalie shared a preview of the wedding. I was the only one who stayed silent. Nobody thought that was strange. No matter how badly they had treated me in the past, I had always come home for dinner. I kept fixing Claire's project problems and stayed at my parents' side when they were sick. They were used to it. "Leon might get angry, but he would never leave." At dawn, Dad sent me a client handoff form through the family chat: [Finish organizing this in three days. Ryan's taking over the project, so don't hold anything back.] Claire messaged me right after my dad talked with me: [Come back to the office this afternoon. Ryan doesn't know some of the clients well. Go with him when he meets them.] Natalie sent me the wedding guest list: [Remove your friends, then redo the seating chart the way Ryan wants it and send it back before eleven.] I did not reply to any of them. Soon, my bedroom door swung open. Mom came in and took the only blanket off my bed. "Ryan was up half the night crying about how hard his mattress is. You'll have to do without this for now." As she reached the door, she tossed a set of keys onto the bed beside me. "The alteration for his suit is finished. Pick it up this afternoon. Come home early to cook dinner. Ryan wants your fish fillet with the tangy glaze." I looked at the keys and said, "He already got his memory back." Mom paused. "Does getting his memory back mean he doesn't need to eat? Leon, don't think we don't know what's going through your head. You think we're all siding with Ryan, so you're deliberately giving us a hard time." She sighed gently, sounding almost patient. "Once you calm down, you'll understand that only family will always have a place for you." After she closed the door, I heard Ryan laughing downstairs. The media were coming to film his first interview since recovering his memory. Dad had contacted the reporters for him. Claire had prepared the project documents. Natalie was driving him there herself. As they left, Ryan took Mom's arm and smiled. "Will Leon really make glazed fish fillet tonight?" Mom answered for me. "He's stubborn, but he has never broken a promise to you." Their car drove out of the courtyard. Not one of them came upstairs to check on me. Not one of them knew I had already packed my bags. I handed copies of my client documents to my lawyer, Grant Sanders, instead of sending them to Claire. That was my work. Ryan didn't get to use it to secure his position at the company. I laid out the access card for the residence, my employee badge, and the keys to the marital house Natalie and I had planned to share. I also placed my engagement ring and the keys for collecting Ryan's suit on the living room's coffee table. The front door closed quietly behind me. I pulled my suitcase through the courtyard without looking back. My phone kept ringing on the way to the airport. I switched off all message notifications. As the plane was taking off along the runway, the lights outside stretched into blurred lines. When the plane broke through the clouds, every bond to my family sank into the darkness with those distant lights.