The Breeding Deal: Brother-in-law's Forbidden Offer - Chapter 59

Chapter 59: Favor

Ethan was only five when Wesley cornered and beat him up at the playground outside their kindergarten.

It started simply enough – while Ethan was queuing for the school bus, he accidentally knocked over Wesley’s backpack. Wesley’s new toy model fell out and broke.

The two brothers, though cruel, weren’t stupid. Wesley, seeing that Adrian wasn’t around and little Ethan was vulnerable without his protector, immediately gathered over a dozen classmates and trapped Ethan in a corner.

What started as pushing and shoving between children quickly escalated into a full-blown fight.

Ethan was small and skinny back then, no match for Wesley even on a good day. The older boys were deliberately cruel, showing no restraint. Soon, little Ethan was crying helplessly on the ground as Wesley and the other boys rained down punches on him.

He could only cry and whimper while trying to shield himself from their blows.

Wesley’s motivation for beating Ethan went beyond the broken toy.

Though both families lived under the same roof, their fathers harbored deep-seated grudges. The seemingly harmonious extended family was merely a facade. Victor spent every day scheming to make Adrian, Ethan’s father, look bad in front of their grandfather, trying to prove his brother’s incompetence.

The children simply followed suit – today I knock over your bag, tomorrow you tell on me to the adults, the day after I spread rumors at school that your family are thieves… and so it went on.

When Adrian finally received word from a classmate and rushed to the playground, he saw from afar his little brother’s tiny figure curled up in a corner, hands protecting his head, surrounded by more than a dozen children.

“THUD!”

Before Adrian’s eyes, Wesley landed a punch on his brother’s head, laughing with glee.

Then he saw his brother look up, his big eyes full of tears, crying out desperately: “Brother, help -”

The next second, ten-year-old Adrian charged into the crowd.

He didn’t try to restore order or mediate – without a word, he yanked Wesley from the crowd and punched him straight in the eye. Then he proceeded to fight every single child who had laid hands on his brother.

Wesley lay on the ground, clutching his eye, viciously threatening to tell their grandfather, saying Adrian had damaged his eye and grandfather wouldn’t let him get away with it.

Young Adrian didn’t flinch. He kept his brother safely behind him, telling Ethan to go ahead and call the adults home to settle this.

Little Ethan ran home clutching his bleeding nose and forehead, desperately seeking help from the adults.

At that time, the two families hadn’t split up yet – they shared everything from meals to living space.

Adrian and Ethan’s grandfather was a traditional, rigid man who valued propriety and moral conduct above all else. He was strict and couldn’t tolerate the slightest misconduct.

Adrian had always been exceptionally gifted. Not only was he intelligent with an excellent memory, but he also had a mature, reliable personality that made him seem like a little adult. Because of this, the old man had extremely high expectations for him. Despite his young age, Adrian often accompanied his grandfather to various auction houses, learning everything about the art business.

Consequently, Adrian spent most of his childhood with his grandfather. The old man disapproved of him mixing with children his age, saying that the future head of the family must maintain proper dignity. He believed that fooling around was beneath their status and unsuitable for someone studying fine arts.

Rebecca naturally had no objections – her son being favored by the old man brought honor to her as a daughter-in-law. If Adrian became the future head of the family, wouldn’t that mean her own rise to prominence?

She almost wished her eldest son could spend every minute with his grandfather.

As they say, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

When the old man heard that Adrian had gotten into a fight with younger children, he was furious. He immediately summoned Adrian to the living room and, without asking any questions, struck his palm three times with a wooden ruler in front of everyone.

“SMACK, SMACK, SMACK!”

The old man berated him while striking, accusing him of bullying younger children and having poor moral character, demanding if he admitted his wrongdoing.

Little Adrian’s forehead was still bleeding from where Marcus had scratched him during the fight.

The boy defiantly raised his head, saying he hadn’t done anything wrong – Marcus and Wesley had started it. The old man wouldn’t hear his explanation and continued striking until both his hands were severely swollen, but Adrian kept biting his lip, refusing to admit fault.

Finally, the commotion drew a crowd of relatives. The ten-year-old boy stood in the middle of the living room, tears welling in his eyes from the beating, trembling but remaining silent.

The old man, furious, threw down the ruler and announced Adrian would be confined for a month, plus banned from all social activities for half a year.

That month, Adrian’s father was in Europe, unable to look after his eldest son.

As for Rebecca, she didn’t dare speak up for her son – her daily task was competing with Victor’s wife for the old man’s favor. With limited family assets, everyone wanted a larger share, everyone wanted to prove their husband and son were more worthy of investment. Whatever the old man said, she agreed with.

She even believed that it was precisely because the old man valued Adrian so highly that he punished him so severely.

After serving his one-month confinement, young Adrian was subjected to a strict routine.

Following his grandfather’s orders, he had to wake up at six every morning, stand for two hours in the portrait hall before the ancestors’ paintings, then spend the entire day copying “The Earl’s Etiquette” until he memorized it perfectly.

He was just a ten-year-old boy in his growing years, yet his meals were reduced to a small piece of bread and a glass of water for both lunch and dinner. He ate alone in the dining room, with only servants bringing food, clearing dishes, and monitoring his table manners.

Marcus and Wesley certainly didn’t miss this opportunity to torment him. Though Wesley was young, Marcus had already devised plans, encouraging his brother to mix dirt from the garden into Adrian’s daily bread as a “nutritional supplement.”

Throughout that entire month, Rebecca never once visited her eldest son.

When his confinement ended, Adrian went to see his mother.

On his way to Rebecca’s room through the garden path, Marcus “accidentally” dropped a small cactus pot from upstairs, which landed squarely on Adrian’s head.

Though the pot wasn’t heavy, several spines pierced deeply into his face, causing sharp pain.

He clenched his fists and stood silently for a moment, deciding not to confront Marcus upstairs. Instead, he quickened his pace toward his mother’s room.

He believed his mother would embrace him lovingly, kiss him, comfort him, remove the spines from his face, ask him how he got hurt, and then seek justice for him – because, after all, he had done nothing wrong.

In the room, Rebecca was holding her five-year-old son, playing with his new toy train – a gift she’d bought when she took Ethan out shopping the other day after he expressed interest in it.

Ethan wore new clothes his mother had bought him, with a small bandage covering the scar from Wesley’s beating a month ago.

Adrian stood silently at the doorway, waiting for Rebecca to notice him.

But Rebecca didn’t turn around, absorbed in playing with her younger son. Minutes passed until Ethan spotted his brother standing at the door.

The five-year-old, too young to understand the situation, had completely forgotten about his brother’s punishment, and just giggled, pointing: “Brother, brother’s here!”

Only then did Rebecca notice him, exclaiming with surprise: “Oh! Why are you here!”

Adrian remained silent, just watching his mother.

He lifted his face, hoping she would notice the spines, or how much weight he’d lost, and show him the same care and affection she showed his brother.

However, Rebecca’s brows furrowed instead.

Adrian’s heart sank as he heard his mother’s reproachful voice: “Your confinement’s over? Have you apologized to grandfather yet?”

The room was filled with pleasant scents – perfume, food, fruit, and the sweet smell of his brother’s favorite cake… Various aromas mingled together, but Adrian felt nauseous.

He pulled back his still-swollen hands, looking at his mother while carefully controlling his emotions. Yet he couldn’t help wondering: Why was it always like this? Why did his mother never care about him, only pointing out his faults?

Ethan blinked his big eyes, looking innocently at his brother.

Young Adrian avoided his mother and brother’s gaze, lowering his head and answering softly: “No.”

“You stubborn child!”

Rebecca instantly became angry. She patted Ethan in her arms and scolded Adrian loudly: “How can you still refuse to apologize even now! Go apologize to grandfather right away – or do you want to be confined again?”

Then she drove her eldest son out of the room, saying he could either go apologize or stay alone in his room.

She said he was unrepentant and disobedient.

Little Adrian stood there, staring at the closed door, listening to his mother console his crying brother inside, followed by women’s laughter mixing with his little brother’s bell-like sobbing and whining.

He numbly touched the cactus spines in his face, then, one by one, pulled them out himself.

A few days later, his father returned and heard about the incident. He believed that as the older brother, Adrian should set a good example for his younger siblings. Not only should his behavior be proper, but as a man, he should learn to be tolerant and not let minor squabbles damage brotherly bonds.

Patting Adrian’s shoulder, he said: “Son, Marcus and Wesley are family, we’re all Blackwoods. They’re younger than you – treat them like your real brothers, be more accommodating, and don’t bully them anymore, understand?”

Little Adrian had always thought his parents weren’t as gentle with him as they were with his brother because he spent all his time with grandfather, leaving no time to talk with his parents, to tell them what he wanted, what he needed to hear.

But this time, he finally seemed to understand – no, that wasn’t it at all.

It turned out that because he was the older brother, no matter what he did, he would never receive love from his parents or grandfather.

It turned out that his parents had never hugged him, never asked if he was sad or hurting, because… in this family, no one liked him.

He was merely a tool, used by his parents to win his grandfather’s favor.