I didn’t take it. I just kept eating. But Leonhart didn’t seem to mind and opened the box with a smile. Inside was a very expensive watch.
I only looked at it for one second—my pupils tightened and my whole body felt cold, as if I had fallen into artic ice sea.
Leonhart pushed the watch toward me. His expression slowly twisted, becoming frightening.
“What’s wrong, brother? Don’t you like this watch the most? You liked it so much you even stole it. Now I’m giving it to you. Aren’t you happy?”
That watch was the gift my sister gave to Leonhart. And it was the reason I was sent to prison for three years.
After our father died on the battlefield, our mother took the compensation money and ran away. My sister and I depended only on each other.
She dropped out of high school and took many wrong paths before she finally succeeded in starting a business. When she earned money, she adopted Leonhart, who also lost his father and brought him home.
In the beginning, I disagreed, but my sister told me, “Leon is in a poor state. Like us. You still have me, but he has no one. Be generous, Rein. It’s just an extra bowl at the table.”
Despite her words, she treated him better than me. It was like she wanted to raise a little brother all over again. Everything she didn’t have time to give me, she gave to him.
Toys, watches, luxury things—whatever Leonhart wanted, she bought it. In only two years, she spent tens of millions. That was the money she earned by working herself to exhaustion. Many nights she had to go to business dinners, drinking until she threw up, then continuing to drink again.
I felt sorry for Renata, really. I always told her to stop spending so much, but Leonhart hated me for that. That's when he hid the watch under my pillow, then cried to my sister and said I stole it.
My sister became furious and punished me by making me kneel in the rain and admit my mistake.
“Our Dad would be ashamed to have a son like you! He lived as an honorable soldier and I have always lived honestly. Why are you acting like our mother, Rein? She stole and ran away with our family's money!”
“Have I ever let you go hungry? Have I ever not given you clothes? Why would you steal?”
I got a high fever. I cried all night and said I didn’t steal it, but she didn’t believe me. The next day, my sister hired the best lawyer and took me to court.