19/08/2025
HEIR OF SINS by
I clutched my glass of whiskey, staring at the molten amber swirl as if I could burn the words right out of my skull. Around this table, they were all smiles, poised gestures, and silverware that gleamed like polished swords.
Ayakaâs hands on my knees made my stomach twist. I could see the poison in their eyes, the lies dripping from every practiced word like acid on skin. Every polished grin was a dagger aimed straight at me, and I was bleeding from all sides.
âMy son,â my stepmotherâs voice cut through the chatter, silk masking steel, âyou will marry Ayaka next month. This is not a request. Our families will become the number one legacy family in Japan, and it all starts with you finally playing your part.â
I almost choked on the whiskey. My throat closed, bile rising. âExcuse me?â I yanked Ayakaâs hands off me.
Stepmom didnât flinch. Her eyes, sharp as obsidian, bored into me. âYou heard me. You will honor the Takahashi name, your dirty and disgusting background will be fixed. No excuses. No hesitation. Do I make myself clear?â
I was stunned by the way she spat about my origin⊠my mother. I forced a sarcastic smile onto my face. I was never one to play by her rules. Defiance was all I had left. âOh, really? Enlighten me.â
âYou should be grateful to be part of this family,â she hissed, venom laced with condescension. âYouâve done nothing but be difficult, but the time to step into the family legacy has arrived. Even more, since Mr. Hoshizaki has accepted a bastard son to marry his only heiress, despite our shameful past.â
âYou have a responsibility, Kaito,â my fatherâs quiet, weary voice cut through my fury. Just like that, the weight of this family fell on me. âYou are a Takahashi. You must do this for us, for the family.â
âWhy donât you marry your legitimate son instead?â I spat. âSince this circus is all about being legitimate and perfect on paper sh*t.â
âLanguage!â Reiko snapped, dripping with fake politeness, but I just rolled my eyes.
I glanced at my brother. Polite. Weak. Caught in the middle, like always. âI⊠I donât want this,â he said, timid, failing.
Ayaka, the delusional little princess, fluttered her lashes and smiled like sheâd just won the lottery. âOh, Kaito, donât be so dramatic. Weâll be happy! Our families will be number one! Weâll have beautiful children, a perfect legacy!â
Her mother leaned in, lips curled into a cold, calculating smile. âDonât be foolish, Kaito. Weâre doing you a favor. You should be thanking us. Youâre lucky someone of my daughterâs stature even looks at a bastard like you. Our families combined will dominate this country. Youâll learn gratitude or shame yourself further.â
That little parasite, always scheming to get me between her legs, now had a family-sanctioned leash on me. Perfect. That word made bile rise in my throat.
âHappy?â I spat it out like venom. âYou donât even know what real life is!â
Ayaka dismiss me like I was nothing, âThe Asahina family has no heir for me to get married with, anyway. Our families combined will be a powerhouse in this country. I like you, and you are⊠well, good-looking. Honestly, Kaito, we could make it work.â She tilted her head, a smug, condescending smile plastered on her face.
Every word dripped with the entitlement of someone convinced they were doing me the greatest favor on Earth.
That parasite, always scheming to get me between her legs, now had a family-sanctioned leash on me. Perfect. That word made bile rise in my throat.
âFather?â I pleaded, voice tighter than I wanted. I needed someone, anyone to stop this insanity. My stepmotherâs hand tapped the table like the final gavel of a court trial. âEnough, Kaito. You will comply. It is for the greater good. Donât make this difficult. Preparations start immediately. This is your engagement dinner!â
I wanted to scream, rip the gilded walls down, burn their perfect little world to ash. My father just nodded, eyes heavy with shame, as if apologizing to the universe for what heâd allowed. My brother sat frozen, useless, caught between loyalty and fear.
Ayakaâs wide, fake smile was so bright and plastic that felt like a knife twisting mercilessly into my chest. Then my phone buzzed. I opened it.
A single message:
âI really loved you, Kaito⊠Youâve broken me. I hope youâre happy.â
I blinked. Read it again. My thumb hovered over the screen, but I didnât reply. Didnât need to. Didnât want to. My chest felt hollow, but I shoved it down. This⊠wasnât worth my attention. Not now.
âIt is for the better,â I muttered, voice tight and raw. I couldnât face her, not after what Iâd done. My thoughts churned like a storm I couldnât quiet. I set the phone down, letting the words curl in the back of my mind like smoke, choking me with their silence.
The anger at my stepmother, the suffocating whispers at this dinner, they were all still there, plotting my future like I was a marionette. And yet⊠something in me had paused. A hollow tingle, impossible to place, slithering under my skin.
Images of her flickered unbidden. The tilt of her head, soft and patient, oblivious to my cruelty. Her small smile that never reached her eyes when Iâd hurt her. And yet⊠I couldnât bring myself to care too much. She was distant. Untouchable. A ghost in my mind Iâd failed.
An hour into this nightmare, another buzz.
âYo, bro⊠Wendy just killed herself. Cops are everywhere. Itâs all over the news.â
The world stilled. My stomach dropped. My mind blanked. Numbness rolled over me in relentless waves, cold and merciless. Anger, guilt, confusion, they all tangled together, impossible to separate.
I stared at the phone. Stupid. Impossible. Final. And beneath it all, a voice I didnât want to hear whispered: You had a hand in this.
The world around me blurred. My stepmotherâs voice droned on about flowers, colors, catering, seating arrangements.
Ayakaâs high, synthetic giggle sliced through my skull. My father nodded, polite, tired, like a man whoâd given up entirely. My brother leaned in, whispering, âKaito⊠whatâs going on? Are you okay?â
I didnât answer. Couldnât. Hollow. Like the air had been sucked out of me, like someone had yanked my soul free and left a cold, empty cavity where everything used to be. My fingers trembled as I snatched my phone again, reading her words over and over:
âI really loved you, Kaito⊠Youâve broken me. I hope youâre happy.â
I opened the news app. The headline screamed at me in scarlet letters, flashing like a warning I couldnât escape:
âHORROR IN HIKARIZAKA: EXCHANGE STUDENT WENDY JONES LEAPS FROM 57TH FLOOR, POLICE ON SCENE, MULTIPLE WITNESSES, LIVE COVERAGE UNDERWAYâ
The reporterâs voice cut through my head, harsh and incredulous, replaying like nails on blackboard:
ââŠand in an utterly tragic turn of events, eyewitnesses report the young exchange student plummeting to her death. Authorities are on the scene, traffic halted. Bystanders are screaming. Details remain scarce, but the school and local authorities are in shock. This is a tragedy that has gripped the city. Again, Wendy Jones is confirmed dead.â
The words hit like a freight train. My stomach churned, blood drained from my face, knees leaden. I was falling, falling into something black and endless, and nothing could stop it. Images of her spun in my mind: laughing, trusting, kind⊠and the sharp cuts I had left on her heart, the humiliation, the betrayal, all pressing down like a mountain, relentless, unyielding.
I could hear my family, oblivious, voices full of entitlement, planning my wedding like I wasnât even here, like the world hadnât just shattered. I couldnât hear them. Couldnât feel them. The glass in my hand shook, and I drank. Hard. Bitter. Fire curling down my throat, trying to claw its way into my soul and burn away the numbness.
Another drink. Numbness thickened like fog, wrapping my chest in iron. My limbs disconnected. I was here, but I wasnât. A ghost in a golden cage, silent while the world went on as though nothing had happened.
Her blood on my hands.
One, two, three glasses. Each sip a little more oblivion, a little more distance from horror, a little more⊠nothing.
And yet, beneath it all, the pulse of unbearable guilt throbbed: You did this. You killed her. I wanted to scream. To tear down walls. To throw myself into the fire of my own chaos, but my body wouldnât move. Sinking. Sunken. The abyss had swallowed me whole, and there was no bottom.
I didnât notice the toast, my stepmotherâs bright smile, Ayakaâs laugh floating above me. Nothing reached me anymore.
I drank to feel nothing. To stay alive in the black. I couldnât stand the fakeness. The polished smiles. The silverware clinking.
The chatter. Every word about flowers, seating, colors, wedding arrangements, mockery. A circus. A golden cage. And I, the exhibit.
My hand shook as I drained the glass again. The burn of whiskey slithered down my throat, bitter, cruel, a lifeline to nothing. I couldnât look at them. Couldnât listen. Couldnât breathe. I wanted to vanish. To feel⊠anything. Anything besides this hollow void gnawing at my chest.
I snapped. The chair scraped across the marble floor, a jagged, shrill screech that made a few heads turn. I didnât care.
âăăăȘćŠæłăăć„łăšăŻç”ć©ăăȘăăâ
(Iâm not marrying this delusional little sh*t-woman.)
The words burned in my mouth, sour and bitter, tasting of every lie, every betrayal, every bit of my suffocating rage.
I didnât wait for arguments, screams, or protests. I bolted. My steps heavy, heart hollow, each beat echoing a rage I couldnât name. I grabbed my keys, slammed the door, and ran, the echo of polished silverware and fake laughter following me like a curse.
The sports car roared beneath me, a beast of steel and fury I barely recognized as mine. My hands shook violently on the wheel, vision blurring through the tears I hadnât allowed myself to shed in front of them.
I drove. Fast. Too fast. Faster than reason, faster than law, faster than guilt itself. Every flash of streetlight, every neon sign, every turn, every shadow blurred into a tunnel aimed straight at⊠something. Death? Release? Escape? Or just a fleeting end to the crushing weight pressing into my chest.
And then, flashes of her face. Her laugh. Her blue eyes wide with trust. The small ways she had let me in, how Iâd taken her heart⊠and then destroyed it. The betrayal, the humiliation, the way I had let the world see her naked, her vulnerability exposed and mocked.
Jagged shards of memory stabbed me, bright, blinding, impossible to dodge. I tried to shut them out, but they screamed louder than the engine beneath me.
I didnât care anymore.
Not if I lived. Not if I died. Not about her. Not about my family. Not about me. Nothing existed except the wheel in my hands, the screaming engine, the rush of wind whipping my face, the tunnel of lights stretching endlessly ahead.
The night air stung, slashing against my cheeks and eyes, but I barely felt it. Her face was seared into my skull, her voice an echoing ghost. I gritted my teeth, knuckles white, heart pounding in a rhythm of panic and surrender.
I was speeding toward oblivion, and I was ready to fall. Ready to let everything burn. Ready to let the darkness take me, to take her memory, to take the blame. Her blue eyes. Her laugh. And the way I⊠how I had destroyed her.
The park. That so-called confession. The way I held her, whispered the words she wanted to hear, kissed her like it meant something, while the hidden cameras rolled, capturing every fragile flicker of trust in her eyes. I knew every inch of her insecurities, how she didnât fit their twisted, unforgiving Japanese beauty ideals. How her laughter was pure, her hands trembling slightly, how she trusted me.
And I⊠I stole it all.
I took her virginity. I took her purity. I took the sacred, fragile thing she had entrusted to me and handed it over to a world that didnât deserve her, a world that would tear her apart.
Every hidden camera, every phone recording, every whisper of cruel delight, every smirk, every mocking laugh, etched into my memory like a blade. Every photo I spread across the college, every screenshot that branded her name into humiliation. Her trust, her body, her soul shattered, posted, mocked, watched by eyes I had wanted to impress.
I drive through the darkness now, but numbness wonât come. The shame burns through my veins, hot and choking. The rage, the grief, every shred of guilt, they claw at me relentlessly. Every smile I faked, every lie I let her believe, every malicious word I allowed the cameras to catch, it's all roaring back, unstoppable.
I should have stopped it. I could have stopped it. I didnât. And now⊠now sheâs gone. Her absence is a weight that crushes me from all sides.
I didnât even see the red. Didnât care. My vision bleeds through tears that burn like acid, hands gripping the wheel as if it could hold the broken pieces of me together. I want the world to end. I need it to end. I need it to bring me to her.
Impact.
Metal screamed, glass exploded, and fire seemed to crawl along my veins. Pain erupted through my chest like molten knives, jagged and unrelenting, stealing my breath in a single, merciless wave. The car spun violently, collided again and again, twisting reality into something unrecognizable. Every second stretched into eternity.
My head slammed into the steering wheel, then the side, then⊠something gave way. Darkness clawed at me, smothering, consuming. I could feel my body breaking, every bone a shattered wire of agony. Every fiber, every nerve, ablaze with torment. Yet I was floating above it all, detached, a ghost staring at the ruin of what I had become.
Hands reached for me, voices screamed, I knew they were trying to pull me back, but it all felt distant, muffled, unreal. My chest heaved with pain I could not survive, lungs clawing at air that would not come.
And then⊠a flicker of her smile. Just for a heartbeat. Her hand, impossibly soft, brushing my chest as if trying to reach me through the chaos. A warmth I had no right to, a forgiveness I did not deserve. My vision blurred with tears I hadnât allowed myself to shed in life. My lungs seized, my heart pounding like a hammer, and for a split second, I prayed.
A desperate, broken prayer: âMom⊠Ancestors⊠hear me. I beg you⊠If I could⊠had one more chance to fix what Iâve destroyed.âŠâ
The world dissolved. Darkness. Silence. The abyss welcomed me. I was weightless, shattered, drowning in the grief of what I had done, my last breath a whisper of regret and hope that would never be answered.
