Brother, Her Stepping Stone

1
My brother and I were transported into one of those trashy, high-society romance novels. When our mission was over, I chose to leave.
He, however, had fallen for the story’s obsessive female lead and decided to stay for her.
Eight years later, the System informed me that she had thrown him into a psychiatric hospital. He had three days left to live.
When I arrived, he was strapped to a hospital bed, his eyes vacant, muttering my name over and over again. Meanwhile, his loving CEO wife was planning a wedding of the century with her one true love, the male lead.
I looked at my brother’s hands—hands that once commanded a grand piano—and saw nothing but a horrifying tapestry of track marks.
“You came… I knew you’d come…”
He strained, turning his head with the last ounce of his strength. “I was such a fool. I thought my devotion, my presence, was the ultimate declaration of love. But I was just a stepping stone for her.”
“Take me home, Raymond. I don’t want to die here…”
“Roberta…” My voice was a raw, trembling whisper.
“Of course. We’re going home.”
Blinking back the hot tears that threatened to spill, I forced a broken smile onto my face. “I’m here to take you home!”
His clouded eyes shifted, as if he was trying to smile back, but only a single, rigid muscle in his cheek twitched. “Raymond… Raymond…” His voice was so faint I could barely hear it, each word a final, desperate gasp of life.
My hands trembled as I reached for the leather restraints digging into his wrists. They were embedded so deeply into his flesh that dark, crusted scabs had formed around them.
A doctor in a white coat entered, his face a mask of indifference. He shot me a cold look. “Who are you? Visiting hours are over.”
I snapped my head around, the ice in my eyes making him flinch and take an involuntary step back. “What did you do to him?”
The doctor adjusted his glasses, reciting a rehearsed, clinical line. “The patient suffers from severe delusions and exhibits violent tendencies. These are necessary protective measures.”
“His legal guardian signed the consent forms. All treatments are administered in accordance with hospital policy.”
Guardian? That monster, Seraphina Vance?
My gaze fell back to Roberta. I gently pushed up the sleeve of his worn hospital gown. The hands that once danced across ivory keys, weaving the world’s most beautiful melodies, were now just a skeletal ruin of bruised skin and puncture wounds, new marks layered over old. There wasn’t an inch of undamaged skin.
“Does it hurt?” I choked out the words.
He didn’t seem to hear me. He just stared at me, his lips moving soundlessly. “She’s getting married… It’s all over the news… Her and Liam. They look so perfect together…”
“Don’t say another word!” I cut him off, my voice sharp, my heart shattering into a million pieces.
The doctor knocked impatiently on the doorframe. “Ms. Vance gave specific instructions not to agitate him. Sir, you need to leave. Now.”
I ignored him, leaning in close to whisper in Roberta’s ear. “Roberta, hang on. I’m getting you out of here.”
“We’ll go back to our own world. There’s no Seraphina, no Liam. Just us.”
“I even booked you a world tour. Your fans, they’re all waiting for you.”
At the mention of the piano, a flicker of light sparked in his empty eyes, only to be extinguished a moment later. “My hands… they’re ruined…” he mumbled. “They give me injections… shock therapy… My mind… it’s not right anymore. I can’t remember the music…”
I bit down on my lip so hard that the coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. I couldn’t cry. Roberta needed me to be strong.
“It’s okay. I’ll remember for you,” I said, clutching his ice-cold hand. “I don’t care about any of that. I just need you to live. Let’s go home, okay?”
“Okay… home…”
The last flicker of light in his eyes died out. His head lolled to the side, coming to rest on my shoulder.
In that instant, the world went silent.
The only person I had ever cared for, my only anchor in this universe, had died so quietly in my arms.
And at that very moment, on the other side of the city, Seraphina Vance was throwing a lavish engagement party for the love of her life. The television showed her radiant face, her smile full of adoration as she stood beside Liam, a picture-perfect couple.
They were celebrating.
I held Roberta’s cooling body and a slow, cold smile spread across my face.
You dragged him through hell? Then I’ll turn this world into your own personal inferno.
The Vance Corporation’s engagement party of the century was held at the most exclusive seven-star hotel on the bay. The ballroom glittered with high society, a sea of couture gowns and expensive champagne.
Seraphina, draped in a bespoke gown, gracefully accepted the endless stream of congratulations. Beside her, Liam wore a pristine white suit, his smile as pure and innocent as a prince from a fairy tale.
“Seraphina, thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” Liam said softly, his eyes brimming with love.
She gazed back at him, her voice thick with affection. “For you, my darling, anything is worth it.”
BOOM!
The grand, gilded doors of the ballroom burst open with a deafening bang. Every head turned.
I stood in the doorway, dressed in a stark black suit that was a stark contrast to the festive opulence of the room. My expression was darker than the suit I wore, my gaze a dagger aimed straight at the couple on the dais.
“Raymond?!” Seraphina’s eyes widened, her pupils contracting in shock the moment she recognized me.
So, she remembered. Eight years ago, Roberta and I appeared in her life together. But I had chosen to leave.
Liam clutched Seraphina’s arm, affecting a look of startled vulnerability. “Seraphina, who is this gentleman…?”
“Who are you? Who let you in? Security!” Seraphina’s assistant immediately stepped forward, her voice sharp and commanding.
A team of guards quickly moved to surround me, ready to drag me out.
I swept a cold glance over them and uttered a single word.
“Leave.”
The hulking guards, professionals trained for violence, were frozen by the sheer menace in my eyes. They hesitated, suddenly unwilling to touch me.
I began to walk, my leather shoes clicking with sharp, deliberate taps against the marble floor as I advanced toward the stage.
“I brought you a gift, Seraphina.”
With that, I reached into my suit jacket and produced a small, simple urn. I placed it gently on the crimson-draped table. The stark white of the box was a glaring wound against the sea of festive red.
“You lunatic! You’re insane!” Seraphina’s face turned ashen. She swiped the urn off the table, sending it crashing to the floor. The ashes within spilled out across the pristine marble.
“Ah!” Liam cried out, his face pale as he scrambled to hide behind Seraphina.
My eyes fixed on the gray dust on the floor, and a hot, red wave of fury washed over me.
“Seraphina,” I said, my voice a low growl, each word forced through clenched teeth. “You personally shoved Roberta into hell. And now you shatter even the last peace he had left?”
“What nonsense are you spouting?!” she shrieked. “Roberta had a psychotic break! His death has nothing to do with me!”
“Nothing to do with you?” I laughed, a sound devoid of any humor. “Eight years of his life, paving your way to the top, deflecting every corporate attack aimed at you, taking all the blame for your dirty work. And his reward? You label him a madman?”
“You locked him away in that hellhole, torturing him with drugs and electroshock day after day. You destroyed his hands, shattered his mind, all to make room for your precious boy toy!” My voice rose with every word, each syllable a sledgehammer blow landing on the hearts of the listening guests.
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. The looks directed at Seraphina and Liam began to shift, filled with suspicion and dawning horror.
“Lies! All of it!” Seraphina was losing control. “Get this maniac out of my sight! Throw him out!”
This time, the guards charged.
A predatory gleam entered my eyes. I sidestepped their clumsy rush, a blur of motion. In the split second of their confusion, I moved. A swift wrist-lock, a clean takedown. In less than ten seconds, all four guards were writhing on the floor, groaning in pain.
The ballroom fell into a stunned, dead silence. No one had expected this slender man to possess such terrifying skill.
I turned my attention back to Seraphina, a chilling smile playing on my lips.
“Seraphina. And you, Liam…” I pointed a finger at them, sealing their fate. “I will not only ruin you, leave you with nothing… I will make you feel every ounce of the agony Roberta endured.”
“And I will make you kneel at his grave and beg for a forgiveness you'll never receive until the day you die!”
The engagement party was a disaster. Seraphina and Liam became the laughingstock of the city.
The next day, the Vance Corporation’s PR machine went into overdrive. The internet was flooded with stories designed to discredit me.
[Mysterious Man Crashes High-Profile Engagement, Spurned Ex-Lover Suspected?]
[Insider Reveals: Man Identified as Raymond Croft Has Family History of Mental Illness. Ms. Vance’s Compassion Was Her Undoing.]
[Raymond Croft: The Man Who Vanished Eight Years Ago. A Troubled Past, A Violent Present.]
They were painting me as the lunatic, framing Roberta’s death as the inevitable outcome of his own fragile mind. Public opinion began to sway, and sympathy started pouring in for the “victims,” Seraphina and Liam.
Liam even gave a tearful interview, his eyes red-rimmed and filled with sorrow. “I… I don’t know Mr. Croft, and I don’t understand why he harbors such animosity towards me. As for Roberta… my heart breaks for him. Seraphina did so much for him over the years. We all just wanted him to get better…”
What a perfect, pitiful performance. A true wolf in sheep’s clothing.
In her office, Seraphina scrolled through the comments online, a sliver of relief easing the tension in her face. “Where is Raymond Croft now?” she asked her assistant.
“We can’t find him. It’s like he vanished into thin air. He’s not on any surveillance footage, no digital footprint, nothing.”
Seraphina’s brow furrowed again. The man had been an enigma eight years ago; now, he was an unfathomable phantom. “Find him. I don’t care what it takes.”
She had no idea I hadn’t gone anywhere.
At that very moment, I was sitting in a quiet café, my fingers flying across the keyboard of my laptop. On the screen, cascading lines of code flowed like a waterfall.
“You want to play the media game?” I murmured to myself, my eyes cold with contempt. “Then let’s see how you handle a real storm.”
At three o’clock that afternoon, the Vance Corporation held an emergency press conference. Seraphina and Liam sat side-by-side, ready to play the victims for a national audience and scrub their reputations clean.
“Regarding the recent rumors, I would like to clarify…” Seraphina began.
Suddenly, every screen in the conference hall—the massive displays, the reporters’ laptops, their phones—flickered and changed.
A high-definition video began to play.
The scene was a hallway in the psychiatric hospital. In the grainy footage, Liam was speaking to a doctor, his face twisted with malice. “Up the dosage. I want him to be a drooling vegetable, incapable of a single coherent thought.”
The doctor hesitated. “Mr. Sterling, at this rate, the patient could die.”
Liam sneered. “Even better. A clean slate. The man of the Vance family can only be me, Liam Sterling. That worthless piece of trash, Roberta Croft? He was never worthy.”
The scene cut. Now, it was a conversation between Liam and Roberta.
“Don’t blame me, Roberta,” Liam said, a sickly sweet smile on his face. “You just got in my way. Seraphina has always loved me. You were just the stepping stone she needed for her career. Now that she’s on top, it’s time for that stone to be kicked aside.”
In the video, Roberta struggled, shouting in protest, but two orderlies pinned him down, forcing him into the electroshock therapy room.
His agonized screams echoed through the speakers, filling the press conference with a sound of pure horror.
The reporters went wild. A blinding storm of camera flashes erupted, all aimed at the blood-drained faces on the stage.
“No… that’s not real! It’s a fake! It’s been doctored!” Liam shrieked, his composure completely shattered.
Seraphina was stunned into silence, staring at the venomous man on the screen, unable to reconcile him with the pure, innocent angel she thought she loved.
The video ended with a final message from me, my voice a cold, synthesized tone that chilled the room to the bone:
“Did you see that, Seraphina? That is the man you swore to protect for the rest of your life. You’re not just blind, you’re blind to the core. Consider this my first gift. You should be excited. The real show is just getting started.”

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