Chapter 12

"Maybe you're right," I then said.

Watching him lift his eyes and look at me, I continued.

"Maybe I'm not unlike the other people of my generation. Maybe I'm just as disturbed, but at least I'm not ashamed to say it. I'm trying to be more, and yes, I'm still young, so I'm also still learning. I know drinking isn't the way to do it, but there are far worse ways to handle emotional trauma than having a drink or two. That's the way I have chosen, and you've chosen another way. Who's to say which is more effective?"

I knew his way was probably healthier physically in the long way, but not mentally. I still believed he was suppressing his emotions, even if he said he was acknowledging them.

Sometimes acknowledging wasn't enough. And maybe he knew that. And maybe that's why his math had earned his full attention.

"I still believe there's hope for you yet," He replied.

Yay me.

"But it's going to take dedication from your side."

"I'm dedicated, but I'm also me," I said, firmly. I wasn't going to change my way of things for him because he didn't approve of my methods. That just wasn't happening.

"That means I'm going to study what you give me, but I'm also going to keep doing what I feel is right for my needs. If that's going to disappoint you, that's a you problem, not a me problem. You were the one who told me to don't rely on other people's logic to solve my problems, so that's what I'm doing."

His lips twitched at that.

I had noticed he never really fully smiled, but like everything else kept his feelings to himself. A simple smile was all I got when he had nothing left to say.

I watched him as he now slowly turned towards the door and made ready to take his leave, but right then, a question popped into my mind. It was a question I had wanted an answer to for a long time, and now seemed like the only time I was going to get the opportunity to ask.

"This whole feud with your brother," I voiced, seeing him slowly pause up by the door.

"Is it really all because of what he did? Or is there actually something more to it?" Obliviously there was more to it, but whether or not he was going to admit to it was the real question.

"There has to be something you're not telling me, and I want to know why."

It wasn't really my place to ask, but then again, it wasn't really his place to lecture me. Since we were breaking the rules tonight, though, I believed I deserved an answer as to why I was playing a willing puppet in this whole thing-or at least had been playing until this morning.

I watched Harry as he now slowly lifted his head, but didn't meet my gaze. He stared at the door with a slightly pursed mouth.

"You really do seem to have a great deal of interest in family feuds," He then replied, turning towards me at last and met my eyes.

I shrugged my shoulders and pulled my knees up to my chin.

"Call me Richard Dawson."

He chuckled silently, but then looked at the floor.

Then, looking back up at me, he gave me a probing look.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Not if you don't want to tell me," I said.

"I mean, I'm not looking for more pointless gossip to gap about with my fellow youngsters. I'm just genuinely curious as to why I'm making a fortune on this shit. Or was making a fortune."

I was pretty sure I lost the money-part when he debunked the act to his brother earlier. I just hoped it didn't include the scholarship as well.

"You were making a fortune," He then slowly started, taking a few steps towards my bed again, "because that's all that's ever mattered to my family. Right from the moment my brother made his first fortune, they got a thirst for it that never truly stopped."

Money-vampires. Well, that was a new breed.

"I still don't see how that comes around to a feud?"

"Because I never cared about money," He replied, simply.

"And the fact that my brother despises how he had to silver-tongue his way to it and I earned it fair and square always made him bitter. The sad part is, if only he had bothered to try the real way, he might've succeeded."

He might've succeeded?

I tried to find heads and tails in that statement. We were talking about one of the richest men in the country, after all. You didn't get that rich simply just by talking your way to the money... or did you? If that was the case, I think needed an extra tongue.

"When I was a kid and my brother was a teenager," Harry then continued, unaffected by my grueling, thoughtful expression.

He slowly took a seat at the end of my bed and looked at the wall while he spoke.

"It became very clear that my brother had a knack for manipulating people. He was always very charismatic and seemed to know the price tag on every person's integrity. By the age of 17, he had already set a standard in our family as to how business was to be done. All he needed was a product, and he could sell to any man with ears.

"So when it turned out that I had a product that could be sold," He said, pursing his lips.

He was undoubtedly talking about his gift for mathematics and not his talent for sarcasm and being a dick.

"My family thought it obvious that I be put out to the world to flaunt my know-how in other people's faces. They would've made millions off of my knowledge if I had just bothered to actually share it."

"But you didn't," I said, now beginning to see a pattern.

He didn't tutor; That one principle seemed to grow far, far back.

"I didn't." He affirmed with a slow nod.

"As a matter of fact, I refused. I was the one person my brother couldn't manipulate, simply because of the fact that I was smarter than him. And it

made him bitter throughout the years."

So that was it?

This whole drama was based on petty ego and bruised self-esteem?

His brother had thought he was the biggest man in the family, quite possibly maybe the world, only to be out-smarted by his own little brother who refused to share his gift?

"That's how I got my rep," Harry now spoke with a little, almost self-righteous smirk.

"For being private. Everyone knows I don't share my work and my process with anyone, because they think I'm selfish and don't want to out of pure egotism. But you know the truth."

I did.

"You're just a bitter old man, tired of mankind," I replied with a little grin, seeing him chuckle back.

"My brother still tries to this date to get me to share my knowledge," He continued, sighing with a little, almost disappointed shake of his head.

"That's why he decided to help fund the scholarship. Hoping it might make me more lenient to spill my secrets."

"But you don't," I said, leaning my head on my knees.

I honestly didn't know how to respond to all of this. The feud hadn't been anything like I thought it would be, but then again, nothing about Harry had been in any way something I had been able to compare to anything else. He really was one of a kind.

He smiled silently to my response, whereafter he merely looked down at his shoes. He had shared the family secret with me, and I couldn't even find anything proper to say. Maybe because I had a feeling there was still something more he had purposely left out..

"So you got tired of being the one constantly being manipulated and decided to switch the act up on your brother," I said, leaning back on the palms of my hands.

I blew out a breath between my lips.

"You really are the most obnoxiously privileged brothers I've ever known." But on some crazy level, I actually got it.

- I understood that Harry had done it out of petty, 'how-does-it- feel-to-taste-your-own-medicine?' reasons, but I got it.

If Richard had been trying his whole life to get his brother to sell his amazing gift, despite the clear wish of him not wanting to, I could see how not taking no for answer could get you to do something petty, like setting up your own brother for a scam that was meant for yourself - once again proving he was smarter than his brother, and once again lowering his ego a peg.

The crazy part was, as I heard it, their parents had supported Richard's claim - that Harry should share his gift - so if he was doing it out of gaining his parents love, then it wouldn't add up.

That meant his sole reason to wanting Harry to sell out had to simply be to prove that every man could be bought and to the sound of his tongue.

I shook my head, almost letting out a laugh. That really was crazy. I was seriously struggling with taking it all seriously, but then again.. why take it seriously?

"So that's it?" I said, smirking his way.

"You were doing this just to spite your brother even more?"

"As I already told you," He stated.

It was true, I suppose he had told me. Just not the long and true version. Only the needing-an-heir part, which of course now seemed so much more hilarious. I think this is what they called Karma.

"You've been having a funnier summer than I have," I said, shaking my head when I saw his lips twitch.

Now that I was in on the joke, it almost made up for the fact that he scolded me earlier.

Almost.

"Laughing behind your brother's back whilst having your fun with me, too."

"You were the one who started that." He reminded me as I sat up again.

"True." I had started it. But hadn't he played along?