My Brother Chose A Gold Digger Over Me, So I Left Him With Nothing

Both of our parents died, leaving me and my younger brother to depend entirely on each other. I worked to the bone to raise him into a grown man. Until the year he turned twenty. To marry a divorced woman sixteen years his senior, he secretly got a vasectomy. He even slammed the medical papers right onto the coffee table, yelling at me with bloodshot eyes: "Weren't you always breathing down my neck to get married and have kids?" "Well, I'm sterile now!" "I'm not marrying anyone except Amber!" "If you keep pushing me, I swear to God I'll cut ties with you forever!" I stared at the brother I had raised with my own two hands, my entire body turning ice-cold. Fine. If that was what he wanted, I was done being his sister. The year our parents were killed in that car crash, Leo was twelve, and I was twenty-one. One accident took two lives, leaving behind a girl who had just gotten into college and a terrified little boy who did nothing but cry for our mom. To keep food on our table, I dropped out. I bussed tables at diners during the day and stocked shelves at grocery stores all night. At my absolute broke lowest, I didn't eat a single scrap of meat for three straight months. I couldn't even afford pads, having to wash and reuse old rags. I never dated, and I never thought about marriage, because I had a younger brother clinging to my side. I clawed my way up from an entry-level temp to CEO of my own company. Once, I drank so much at an executive client dinner that my stomach started bleeding internally, and I collapsed into a coma. The doctor told me, "Keep burning the candle at both ends like this, and you won't live to see thirty." I replied, "I can't die. If I die, what happens to my little brother?" And yet, this very boy I had bled myself dry to protect went and sterilized himself for a woman he hadn't even known for a full month! "Leo, have you completely lost your mind?!" My voice shook uncontrollably. "You're only twenty! Do you even understand what a vasectomy means?!" Leo stood in the center of the living room, his neck flushed crimson, his eyes defiant. "I know exactly what it means! I did it on purpose!" "Didn't you always look down on Amber? Didn't you want me to cut her off?" "Now that I can never have kids, no one else will want me. I'm hers forever!" My vision blacked out for a split second, and I had to steady myself against the wall. Amber was lounging on the sofa nearby. Wine-red curls, stilettos, blood-red manicured nails. I knew who she was. Thirty-six years old. Divorced twice. She had a son in middle school—only five years younger than Leo. Just last month, she was working as a barista at the café downstairs from my office building, shamelessly seducing my brother until the entire company was gossiping about it. "I will never accept a woman like her," I gritted out through clenched teeth. "Over my dead body." Right on cue, Amber dabbed a tear from her eye, putting on a fragile, timid act. "Leo, sweetheart, I told you not to pressure Chloe. It's okay if we don't sign the marriage certificate. As long as I can be with you, I don't care about anything else..." "Look at how you're bullying her!" Leo snapped, lunging forward and shoving a finger right into my face. "Chloe, you don't know a damn thing about love! Amber might be divorced, but she actually cares about me! She makes me happy!" "As for you? You treat me like an inmate in a maximum-security prison! You veto my dating life, you monitor who my friends are!" "You don't care about me. You're just a controlling freak!" "Don't you ever forget—you're just my sister. You are not my mother!" Every single syllable sliced straight into my chest like a jagged blade. Bleeding me dry. I stared dead at Leo. "What... did you just say?" Leo acted as if a dam holding back years of resentment had finally broken. "Did I stutter? All these years, you act like you own me just because you fed me!" "Well, I'm an adult now! I have the right to live my own life!"The blood in my veins turned to ice water. This was the boy I had raised with every ounce of my youth. The night I was hospitalized for internal bleeding, he had rushed in wearing his faded school uniform, eyes swollen, weeping until his whole frame shook. He had held my hand and promised: *Chloe, I'll take care of you when I grow up. Once I make real money, I'll support you, and you'll never have to suffer like this again...* And now, for the sake of another woman, he looked at me with pure disgust. Like I was his worst enemy. I shut my eyes. Amber spoke up softly, "Alright now, Leo, don't fight with Chloe." Her eyes flickered, nudging him with a sly look. "Didn't we have something important to discuss with her today?" Leo gave her a nod, sucked in a breath, and turned back to me. "Chloe, since everything's out in the open, I won't beat around the bush." "Amber and I are getting married." "We need a hundred and fifty grand for the wedding and our starter fund. Wire it to my checking account in the next couple of days." My head snapped up. "What did you just say? A hundred and fifty thousand dollars?" Leo acted as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why act surprised? Your money is going to be mine eventually anyway." For a second, I genuinely thought I was hallucinating. He demanded my hard-earned fortune without a shred of hesitation or shame! Greed danced shamelessly in Amber's eyes. Leo continued as if checking off a shopping list. "Oh, and one more thing." "Amber's son has mediocre grades. He probably won't get accepted into that elite magnet prep school." "You sit on the board and know the trustees, don't you? Drop twenty grand as a donation to grease the wheels and pull strings to get him enrolled." My entire body stiffened. "You want me to spend money buying a spot for another man's kid?" "What do you mean, *another man's kid*?" Leo's face darkened instantly. "He's going to be my son!" "Besides, do you know how hard it's been for Amber to raise a kid alone? What's the big deal with helping out?" "You're rolling in millions. Is twenty grand really going to break your bank?!" I couldn't take it anymore. I raised my hand and swung it across his face. *SLAP!* The living room went dead silent. Leo's head jerked to the side, his cheek blooming violently red. He looked back at me in utter disbelief. "You... you hit me?" My chest heaved violently. "Leo Vance, what kind of selfish monster did I raise?!" "You got sterilized for a woman, and I swallowed it!" "You humiliated me for her, and I swallowed that too!" "And now you have the nerve to target my company? My assets?!" "You want me to pave the way for her kid?!" "Do you honestly think I owe you this?!" Leo sneered, his face contorted with bitter hatred. "Don't you?" "When Mom and Dad died, you were the one who insisted on keeping me!" "I didn't beg you to raise me!" My brain exploded with a deafening ring. The chill sank all the way to my bones. He screamed, his eyes wild with fury. "All these years, you hold raising me over my head every single day! Aren't you sick of repeating it? Because I'm sick to death of hearing it!" "You think I enjoyed walking on eggshells around you every second of my life?!" "Chloe, I've had enough of you!" "Amber actually loves me. She understands me. She doesn't act superior and try to control every breath I take like you do!"Every word plunged straight into my heart. Memories flashed violently behind my eyes. When he was twelve and burned with a 104-degree fever, I carried him on my back for two miles in the freezing rain to reach the clinic. When he was bullied in middle school, I stormed into the principal's office with a baseball bat. During his senior year, I pulled all-nighters right beside him, tutoring him until morning. My dream had once been to become a literature teacher, living a peaceful, simple life. For his sake, I gave up every dream I ever had. And yet, in his eyes, I was nothing more than a suffocating, domineering warden. Amber stood up right then, dripping with false sympathy. "Come on, Leo, she is the one who raised you, after all." Her lips offered fake comfort, but her eyes gleamed with triumphant cruelty. She turned to me. "Though, Chloe, look at you. No boyfriend, no husband, no kids. When you're old and grey, you'll be totally alone. Who's going to take care of you?" "Lucky for you, you've got Leo and me. Once we're married, our boy will treat you like family." "Don't worry. In honor of how you're helping us out now, we'll send you an allowance every month when you retire." "A couple hundred bucks should be plenty for an old maid like you." She said it so casually, as if handing down the ultimate royal mercy. A sharp, humorless laugh almost escaped my throat. It was painfully obvious. She didn't love Leo; she was hunting the wealth and power sitting right behind him—me. And my idiot brother actually believed he had found the love of his life. I didn't even bother tearing her mask off. I was just so tired. For eight agonizing years, I had run myself ragged like a madwoman, only to nurture a venomous snake. "Whatever, Chloe," Leo snapped coldly, looking down his nose at me. "We've said our piece. Think it over carefully!" With that, he grabbed Amber's hand and stormed out, slamming the front door behind them. The deafening thud made the entire penthouse rattle. I sat on the sofa, motionless. I don't know how many minutes passed before tears rolled down my cheeks without warning. I looked down at my hands. Years of manual labor had scarred my knuckles and roughened my skin. Later on, even with the most expensive creams and weekly spa treatments, nothing could completely erase the marks left by those brutal early years. I had believed that because we shared the same blood, we were each other's anchors in this cruel world. Only now did I realize that some people were born hollow. No matter how much you fed them, they would never be full. My phone chimed on the table. It was my assistant. "Ms. Vance, regarding tomorrow morning's board meeting..." "Sarah," I cut her off, my voice hoarse. "Cancel every single secondary credit card linked under Leo's name right now." Silence hung over the line. "...All of them, ma'am?" "Every single one." "Also, that luxury penthouse he's living in—list it on the real estate market immediately." "And revoke access to the BMW registered under company assets that he drives." "From this second on, not a single cent from my accounts goes to him without my personal written consent!"