His to ruin

"We'll be back in about three hours."

That was the first time in fifteen years that my father; Leonard Forrester, had ever lied to me, but at the time, I didn't know it was a lie.

"Okay," I glanced up from the novel I was reading to smile at him.

"Did you get the letter from Harvard yet?" My stepmother walked into the living room, clipping on her earrings distractedly.

I nodded, my smile increasing, "Yeah, but I haven't opened it yet. I don't know if I got accepted or rejected."

Mum laughed, "Don't be so modest. You'll surely get accepted. I trust your brain enough to know that this is a success. You know what? We can open the letter together when we get back. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Love you," she blew me a kiss and a moment later, I heard the door click shut behind them as they left the house for their anniversary date.

Even though my eyes were on the novel in front of me, I wasn't focusing on it. Instead I was a mixture of anticipation, anxiety and excitement over the letter from Harvard law I had received earlier today.

Becoming an attorney like my late grandpa had always been my dream and I was this close to finally achieving it.

While my mates partied and dated around, I kept my face buried in my books and being top of all my classes. After all, the only thing I have ever loved while growing up is books and the more I grew up, the more my fondness for books grew.

"Where's mum and dad?"

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of my half brother's voice. When I raised my head, I found him standing at the doorway leading to the kitchen.

"They just left. Did you need something?" I asked.

Matteo's jaw clenched, "Yeah, but don't worry about it."

"Maybe I can help," I shrugged.

My elder brother just scoffed and then gulped down the bottle of whiskey I had just noticed. My forehead furrowed as I wondered what was making him drink.

"Unless you have seven figures lying around in your savings account, I don't think you can help me."

My jaw dropped open and I hurriedly sat up, "What do you need that kind of money for?"

"None of your business," he snapped, " But dad and mom won't lend it to me."

He dragged a hand through his hair and chuckled bitterly, "It's not fair. I never get what I want."

"What about your inheritance?"

My stepbrother's eyes narrowed at me and then he threw his head back and laughed, "Are you trying to mock me?"

My eyebrows shot up and just as I opened my mouth to voice out my confusion, his phone rang, cutting me off.

I watched him pull the phone out of his pants pocket and tense as he stared at the screen.

"What's going_"

But he pressed the phone to his ear and stormed out the living room, leaving me alone again and very confused.

As soon as he was gone, my anxiety over the college letter returned with full force, pushing the whole scene with Matteo to the back of my mind. I was sure he just wanted to buy a new car or something like that. He was a known spendthrift.

Unable to stand my own racing thoughts anymore, I decided to go bake to distract myself till my parents returned.

I walked into the kitchen and saw Lisa wiping down the counters.

"Hey, Lisa," I smiled at her.

She was the cook's daughter and we had grown up together, so she was kinda my best friend even though she was a maid.

"I'm sure that there's a good news behind this smile of yours" she said with a smile as she washed the dishes.

"What do you mean? I smile a lot, so what makes you think that there's a good news behind my smile?" I asked in confusion.

"Let me guess, you got accepted and you're about to become a fancy lawyer?" She squealed.

I chuckled, "I wish," I told her, "I'm going to wait for mum and dad to get back so we can open the letter together. I'm so nervous."

"It's going to be fine. You'll get in. And then you can leave this city. With your grandfather's former connections, you can get a job at a top law firm and you'll be swimming in money."

I rolled my eyes at her, "I don't want to use Grandpa's connections. I want to do it on my own."

She raised one dark brow, "You want to start scraping at a lowly job when you'll have over fifteen million of inheritance money in your account?"

"Something like that?"

"Ugh," she groaned, "You're so humble for someone who grew up with a whole house staff."

The thing was that my status as a bastard had always segregated me from the kids in school and the other wealthy kids. My upbringing up until age six when my mother had gotten diagnosed with cancer and brought me to the Forrester's house had been very humble.

It made me believe in hard work and paving a way for myself without having to depend on the Forrester's money even though I'm kinda part of them now.

"That's just me I guess."

"Go get some sleep," Lisa urged, "I'll come wake you up when your parents get home. You're just going to worry yourself into illness if you continue like this."

It was both a good and bad thing that Lisa could read me so well.

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep with that letter just sitting on my table and taunting me."

"Try," she ordered sternly, "You're making me nervous."

With a sigh, I nodded and decided to take her advice.

I climbed up the stairs slowly, trying not to think about the life ahead of me at the law school. I couldn't wait to start learning all about the justice system, fighting for good and being on the side of justice.

I would help to put evil guys behind bars forever, and then I would fall in love with a good, decent man, get married and grow old with him.

My future was literally at the tip of my fingers. I could almost feel it.

"Kathleen," my brother's voice called from the end of the hallway, specifically from dad's office.

"Yeah?"

"Don't just stand there," he barked, glaring at me, "Do you expect me to shout from across the hallway?"

I jerked, startled by the irritation in his voice. Did I do something? Perhaps he's just irritated about that problem of his that needs to be resolved with a six figure money, whatever that problem is tho.

Hurrying to the office, I had just crossed the threshold when lightning flashed in the sky and a loud thunder boomed around the house.

I had always been deathly afraid of storms, and so my heart was already pounding in my chest when I faced Matteo.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"They're dead." He dropped the shell bomb and I staggered backwards .

"Wh-who's dead?" My voice trembled, barely audible under the loud roar of thunder.

"Our parents are dead," his words confirmed what I hadn't wanted to believe.

"N-no," I whispered, "it's not possible. They- they can't be dead. They said they would be back in three hours. They said_"

"Shut the fuck up!" He snapped, "They died in a car crash on their way to the restaurant."

"Maybe it's not them," I said slowly even as tears blurred my vision, "Maybe_"

His palm slapped down on the surface of dad's desk, "I don't have time for your childish hypotheticals. They are dead and that's that."

I slapped a hand over my mouth as a choking sob tore out of my throat. It couldn't be. No, they couldn't be dead. We were supposed to open my letter together.

They were still so young and they_

Oh God.

"What are we going to do?"

"We?" Matteo snorted, "There is no we. There is you, the pathetic daughter of a gold digging, slut and then there's me, the rightful heir."

My jaw dropped open in shock as I stared at Matteo wondering if the news of our parent death messed with his head a bit or he's just saying all these words out of a place of hurt, "What are you talking about? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means exactly what I've just said," he snarled, "I've had enough of everyone acting like you aren't just some bastard that we got stuck with. Dad should have tossed you right out when you showed up with your raggedy clothes fifteen years ago."

I took a cautious step back at the cutting tone of his voice. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Had Matteo been hiding his true feelings about me this whole time?

"Did I d-do something wrong? If I did please tell me. I can fix whatever I did." I cried out.

His brown eyes narrowed dangerously, " Fine! You want to know know what the problem is right? You- you are the problem! You should never have been born. You're the cause of everything bad that has ever happened to me."

I blinked at him as tears rushed down my face. My chest ached like someone had stabbed a knife through it and I just wanted to wake up and realize that all of this was a bad nightmare.

"Now that I'm the master of this house, I'm going to make sure you're treated like the virus that you are."

With a terrified shriek, I spun around and raced out of the office, intent on heading to my room, but I skidded to a halt in front of the hallway at the sight in front of me.

"What's going on here?" I grabbed one of the servant's arms, halting him from carrying my suitcase.

"We are moving your things to the attic," the cleaner said, "That will be your new bedroom."

"Under whose orders?"

"Under my orders," Matteo's cold voice said from behind me, "From today, if you want to continue being fed, clothed and housed under my roof, you will have to earn it."

"Earn it?" I gasped, "This is my house too."

"Shut the fuck up. They left everything to me. Which means anything I say goes," my stepbrother snarled, eyes burning with hatred. Hatred that I had done nothing to warrant.

"You will sleep in the attic. And you will clean this house from top to bottom and if it is not sparkling clean, you won't eat that day."

"You're going to turn me into a servant?" I asked in a shaky voice, "B-but I'm your sister."

" That's what you should have been from the start!" Matteo roared, "But no, you just had to come and disrupt our lives. You had to wiggle your way into my inheritance. My birthright! And by the way you're not my sister. You're nothing to me."

"I've always loved and respected you."

He guffawed, then leaned forward and said in a frosty voice, "I don't need the love and respect of a pathetic thing like you. What I need is to put you in your place."

My shoulders shook with sobs, "Why are you doing this? Why are you being so cruel?"

"Because you're a bastard and it's high time you started being treated like one."

With those cutting words, he left me standing there, clutching my chest and the pieces of my shattered heart.

I couldn't live here, I couldn't allow my step brother to turn me into his punching bag. I had just a little bit of money to my name and I couldn't get my inheritance until next year when I turned twenty one, but there was a tiny sliver of hope in my heart.

With my Harvard acceptance letter, I could leave this house that now felt like my own personal hell and start my new life.

With that thought in mind, I raced into my room and began to search for the college letter, intent on finding out once and for all if I had been accepted.

I pulled open the drawers and found them empty.

Panic made my throat tight as I began to ransack through my room, searching for that important piece of paper.

"What are you looking for?" Lisa asked.

I glanced up at her through my blurry vision, "My college letter. It's gone! It was right here on my desk. I swear I kept it here."

"Master took it."

I stilled, "Master? Who's that?"

"Master Matteo," she lowered her voice, "He was here earlier and I saw him leave with it."

"That doesn't make sense. What would he want with my college letter? He doesn't _" my words trailed off and blood drained from my face.

"Oh my God!" I screamed in horror, "Oh God oh God."

Taking to my heels I raced out of the now empty room, my heart pounding in my chest. Who knew what Matteo had done with that letter? Now that he had revealed what he really thought of me, that letter wasn't safe with him.

As I rounded the stairs, I bumped into someone and lost my footing.

I let out a shriek as I began to fall backwards, squeezing my eyes tight together and bracing for a hard fall. All of a sudden, a hand wrapped around my waist and I was pulled into someone's hairy and hard chest.

"Oh, thank_" my words died on my tongue as I came face to face with the terrifying man.

Small beady eyes stared down at me from a bald head, a leering expression on his face, "You should watch where you're going, sweetie."

I shuddered in revulsion at the predatory look in his eyes.

Pushing away from his hold, I took a wary step backwards, taking note of the tattoos climbing out of the man's sleeves and collar.

"Wh-who are you?"

His mouth curled up at one corner, "Someone that you'll be seeing a lot of in your nearest future."

"Such a great sense of humor you have there but I'll pass" I mumbled and he snorted at me.

A shiver raced up my spine and I watched the dangerous looking man walk away. What was a man like that doing in this house? That man looked like a criminal.

Shaking away the encounter, I continued on my way to my father's office which Matteo seemed to have now claimed as his.

I barged into the office and Matteo raised his head from the paper he had been reading.

"Is that my letter from Harvard?" I barked, "Give it back to me. It doesn't belong to you."

He slowly rose to his feet, a mocking smile playing on his mouth, "It's my house and so everything inside of it belongs to me. And by the way, I'll give you a pass now, but the next time you show such insolence, you won't like the consequences."

My fingers curled into fists at my side, "Just give me my letter. Matteo please."

He waved the paper in the air, "You mean this?" His chuckled, "By the way congratulations on getting accepted into Harvard law but...." He trailed off as he stared at me with a wary smirk.

I gasped. So I had actually gotten in. A single tear slid down my cheek. It was unfortunate that my parents would never get to see the result of all my hard work but I'd do anything and everything in my capacity to make them proud of me.

Just as I started to smile, his next words wiped the smile from my face.

"Unfortunately, you won't be going to Harvard law or any other college."

I blinked at him, brows furrowing, "What do you mean?"

Matteo tsked, "You've done nothing to deserve going to such a nice school. Or any other school for that matter. In fact, you owe me for fifteen years of living here and eating our food free of charge."

"I worked hard to get that admission!"

One dark brown brow hiked up, "you worked hard? Do you think it's actually your hardwork that got you this admission? Don't be so stupid. Either daddy paid for your admission or they saw that your last name was Forrester and decided to hand the admission to you on behalf of granddad."

"That's not true."

"Then you are more naive than i thought," he snapped, "Anyway that's none of my concern. You won't be going to Harvard because you're getting married."

I stared at him for one wordless second then a laugh tumbled out of mouth, "You've got to be kidding me. I'm not getting married to anyone!"

My stepbrother's lips peeled back to reveal a forbidding sneer, "This isn't a request, Kathleen. It's an order, and trust me, you do not want to go against my orders."

"Just give me my letter," I pleaded, "You can't do this."

"On the contrary, I can do whatever I want."

"Why are you doing all these? Why are you hurting me with your words? Have you forgotten who I am? I'm your beloved little sister! How can you..." I trailed off as I saw the gaze of disbelief and anger on his face.

This man could not be my brother, no! My Matteo loved me too much than to hurt me emotionally this way.

I let out a scream as Matteo squeezed the letter into a ball and tossed it into the blazing fireplace. I leaped forward, scrambling for the letter but it was too late. I watched all my hopes and dreams go up in flames right before my eyes and I was powerless to do anything about it.

"How could you?" I sobbed, "How cruel could you really be?"

"It's all your fucking fault you dumb bitch. If only you had never come here, I would have inherited all of grandfather's money and I wouldn't be in this state."

"You had your own inheritance from him."

The taller man scoffed, "A mere five million. What could that do for me, hunh? And it seems the Forrester company went bankrupt a while ago. So that left me with nothing but a steep debt."

I climbed to my feet and stared him down, "That's none of my business! You blew through all of your money carelessly so how is that my problem? It didn't give you the right to burn my letter."

I immediately knew I had made a mistake by the way his eyes flashed. Before I could react, there was a loud smacking sound followed by a stinging pain on the side of my face. I fell to the ground with the force of the backhanded slap, cupping my burning cheeks.

"You worthless bitch!" He spat, "Did you think I'll let myself suffer all because you stole my inheritance."

"I-I didn't steal it. Grandpa Forrester gave it to me."

"You must have manipulated him into signing away such a sum to you. That's why you were always hovering around him."

Before he died, grandpa and I had been very close because we were so alike. We understood each other perfectly and he had cultivated my love for the law while Matteo had teased me for having a senile grandpa as my only friend. I never know that he was serious about those words, now wonder he's always teasing and me and telling me some bad words about myself. Everything now makes sense!

"You're getting married and that's that. Don't try to be stubborn, because trust me, your soon-to-be husband won't be as merciful as me."

My mind flashed to the beady eyed man I had run into earlier and goosebumps raised up my arms.

Eyes wide I stared up at the man I had thought was my loving brother, "Don't do this, Matteo. This isn't what our parents would have wanted. They would have_"

"You don't know what they would have wanted. How could a weasel like you know?" He stared down at me with visible disgust written all over his face, "I'm sick and tired of you acting like you're so smart and perfect, because you're not. And I can't wait till the day he takes you away and I'll never have to see your face again."

He walked out of the office, banging the door shut behind him. The sound was like a gunshot being fired through my already shattered heart.