"We heard a knocking on the door and it wasn't going away so I decided to quickly see who it was," Crystal continued, "when I opened it, Electra was outside, on her knees, and crying as her face was wet. She asked if she could work for us, and at that time, we weren't really accepting anyone but she seemed desperate so we decided to give her a job."

Mariana listened intently but then her mind recalled back to when Electra said that she could literally be Micah's "little maid", but wasn't she one to his family in the past?

What a little hypocrite. How dare she says that to Mariana when her situation was worse; crying in the rain, how pathetic.

"Electra was so different back then. She was sweeter and humble, and pretty much willing to do anything," Crystal explained.

Mariana raised her eyebrows as she didn't believe what she had heard. Electra used to be sweet? What happened to that sweetness then.

"Now I said there weren't to be any relationships with the employers, but I don't think Micah listened to that," she sighed.

"I noticed how he couldn't keep his eyes off her when she walked into the room. I did have a bit of a suspicion that they were sneaking around, but every time I questioned him about it, he would always deny it," Crystal shook her head. Micah was so stubborn back then.

"Anyway, one day Micah went to his room and caught Mason and Electra in his bed."

"In his what?!" Did Mariana hear that correctly?

"In his bed. I can still remember hearing the pain and anger in his voice as he started shouting at them. He yelled at Electra first but she just started laughing," her chest started tightening and she felt her chest and belly heat up. Even though she was not that far from Micah's room at the time, Electra's laugh was loud enough for her to hear.

"She broke my baby's heart, and then laughed at his face, which was clearly shattered and broken by their actions." Crystal's tone became aggressive. She couldn't stop wondering how someone can be so wicked and heartless to cheat on someone, even worse, with their own brother and even in their own bedroom?

Her legs shook as well as her head she didn't want to imagine Micah on that day. The way he broke down in tears sent a sharp pain through her chest. She caused him so much pain and for what? He even made an effort to buy roses for her, roses!

Roses for that wicked witch who clearly didn't deserve it. Roses for someone who made her son feel worthless. Roses for her even when she betrayed him, even when they welcomed her with open arms.

Her son was way too good for her if only Micah could see that.

Meanwhile, Mariana was frozen in her seat, deep in thought of what she had just heard. No wonder why he never wanted to talk about Electra. Now she hated her even more because of what she had done to Micah. No one deserved what she did, especially of how sweet and genuine Micah is.

Crystal took a deep sigh and then continued, "after shouting at Electra, he went after Mason next. They got into a huge fight and Micah punched him all the way downstairs. He ended up breaking Mason's nose and his mouth was full of blood."

"Oh my... and I always thought they were close," Mariana said. She felt like she didn't know Micah's relationship with his brother despite all the time they have spent. It seemed like she was discovering a whole new side about them.

"They are," Crystal rested her head in her palm as her eyes stared at the wall, "to an extent." She hated it when her two sons fought, especially to that point.

"It's only when it comes to their dad that they start to fight, other than that, they are good brothers," she added.

"Hm alright," Mariana nodded along but couldn't stop thinking about those two. She felt like she wanted to know more about their relationship because this looked like only the beginning.

"Anyway, their dad eventually came to separate them and instead of telling Mason to apologize to Micah, he starts telling Micah off and that he shouldn't get mad at Mason for what he did. He even said that he deserved it and that if he had done this or that, then Electra wouldn't have cheated and Mason would not feel any need to take her away."

"Why would he say something like that?" Mariana said lowly as tears started to break out. She couldn't believe that his father would blame Micah for something that wasn't even his fault. Why couldn't he just leave him alone? This wasn't fair on Micah, it was just wrong in so many ways!

"I don't know, he's so delusional when it comes to Mason and Micah. He treats Micah so unfairly just because he doesn't want to do what his dad has in mind," Crystal huffed and rolled her eyes. Aidan's behavior was ridiculous towards his sons, she never understood why he would treat Micah like he did over something so petty.

"But on that day, Micah started arguing back to his dad about it. He was actually going to hit Micah but I pulled him back before he could strike, I wasn't going to allow him to hit my baby for something that was out of his control," Crystal said.

"Yeah, I agree," Mariana said. It was not right for Micah to be dealt with like that, and even worse, hit him just because of what his brother did.

"Now, many times in the past, I've warned his father not to treat Micah so harshly. Because if he keeps treating him the way he does, he's going to lose him forever."

"However, Mason did say he was sorry and that he won't do it again," Crystal's tone grew lighter because she could tell Mason felt remorseful because of how his brother reacted.

"Everything was then fine until next week when it was Micah's birthday."

For some reason, the way Crystal mentioned his birthday made Mariana feel uneasy. It seemed like it wasn't so happy and that something terrible happened.

"Everything was going well and Micah was enjoying himself so much that he seemed to have forgotten what had happened. That is, until Mason gave his gift which was a little video."

Mariana's heart started beating fast. She had a bad feeling of what that video could be but she didn't want to say it.

"We all sat down to watch it. It started with a little presentation of pictures of when Mason and Micah were younger, but then it quickly changed to a recording of everything that Mason and Electra did in Micah's bedroom."

"What?!" Mariana exclaimed, although her voice came out louder than she intended. She was absolutely horrified at how much Mason had done to his own brother. Wasn't the cheating enough? Why did he have to also have to record it?

"I quickly stopped the video before it could get any worse and Micah was paralyzed in his seat. He couldn't seem to take his eyes away at the black screen, and suddenly he threw up his cake."

"Oh my poor Micah," Mariana groaned. All she wanted to do right now was hug him and hold him in his arms because the way he was treated was not right, not right at all.

"Yeah, I know. They finally made up when their dad decided to send them off to the Caribbean in one of his private jets. They didn't come back until they were finally getting along with each other."

"Oh well that's good I guess," Mariana mumbled. She still wasn't happy with what Mason did to Micah.

"Yeah, even though Micah forgave him that day, he would never forget what his brother had done to him." Crystal said with a low tone.

"You know what he said to me Mariana?" Crystal turned to face her, she was close to crying while Mariana had an entire river already flowing down her face.

"What?" Mariana scooted closer.

"He said to me it's not the cheating that hurts, it's the fact that his brother would go that far just to hurt him. That Mason will do so much just to see him suffer. Even though he and his brother have a complicated relationship, he thought that his brother would respect him enough not to go after Electra. That he could trust his brother but apparently not."

Mariana started to think back to when Micah wanted her to go spend time with his sisters instead of being alone with Mason. Now it was all clicking in her head and starting to make sense.

"He said this to me while we were sitting down and I allowed him to cry it out all out. He kept blaming himself and asking 'what did I do?' While rocking back and forth. Seeing him break out like that and unable to do anything about it, was one of the worse feelings I've ever had." Crystal buried her head in her palms. She hoped that was the last time she ever had to see one of her children cry like that.

Mariana stared at the pale ground. Her legs slowly swung like her thoughts ticking like a pendulum. She felt like she has never seen Micah cry which means if he did, then this must've really hurt him. She hoped she wouldn't have to see her Micah in that much pain.

Crystal suddenly looked up and huffed out a sigh. "But even though they've put it behind them, it has caused a rift in their relationship and since then, nothing has been the same."

A/N: Woooo and end of chapter!!! Ayeee what did you think? Did you enjoy it?

Lemme know your thoughts! 👀❤️