The streamer leaped out of the back seat, sliding off a pair of dark sunglasses, while half the precinct stared as if an alien had just touched down. I didn’t understand what was happening at all. Honestly, I thought they might have mistaken me for someone else. The tattooed guy next to me stopped talking immediately and even straightened his posture, trying to look less like a troublemaker. The elegant man kept staring straight at me, his expression serious, as if he were comparing my face to an old memory.
“Are you Autumn Song?” he repeated.
I nodded slowly.
The streamer’s eyes went incredibly wide. “No way… she really does look like Mom.”
I felt a strange tightening in my chest when he said that. Mom. Not “the lady.” Not “your mother.” Mom.
The elegant man took another step closer. “I’m Adrian.”
The oldest. The financial mogul. And honestly, my very first thought was that he smelled way too expensive to be my brother. Impeccable dark suit. Luxury watch. The tired face of a man who sleeps too little and commands too much. But his eyes… he had my mom’s exact eyes. That disarmed me a little bit.
The streamer rushed over right away and hugged me without even asking. He did it so fast that my plastic tote bag almost slipped from my hands.
“I’m Gael,” he said with a grin. “The third one. Well, technically, the internet’s favorite.”
The police officers were still watching everything with total bewilderment. The tattooed guy looked like he deeply regretted trying to hit on me five minutes ago. I remained completely frozen. Because while they looked like they had just walked out of a luxury magazine… I was wearing an old hoodie, my hair was messily tied up, and my sneakers were covered in dirt from the long journey.
I nodded.
And something shifted in his expression. It wasn’t pity. It was pain. As if only at that exact moment did he truly understand how I had lived all those years.
Gael immediately grabbed the bag from me. “This thing is heavy. What do you have in here? Rocks?”
“Clothes.”
The streamer looked at me, puzzled. “Just one bag?”
I didn’t answer. Honestly, I was starting to feel ashamed just existing in front of them. Then, something happened that I completely didn’t expect. Adrian took off his expensive suit jacket and draped it over my lap because I was shivering from the rainy weather. He didn’t say a word. That tiny gesture hit me incredibly hard. Because it felt exactly like something Mom would do.
We got into the Rolls-Royce in absolute silence. The tattooed guy kept staring at the car with a traumatized look on his face while the officers cleared a path for us. I sat in the back seat, clutching my bag as if I still needed to protect it.
Gael couldn’t stop looking at me. “You look exactly like her when you frown just a little bit.”
I furrowed my brow. “How do you know?”
The streamer smiled softly. “Mom used to show us pictures of you on the sly.”
I felt something shatter inside of me. “She actually talked about me?”
This time it was Adrian who answered from the front seat. “Every single year.”
I immediately looked out the window because I felt tears welling up. My entire life, I had grown up thinking my brothers didn’t even know I existed. But they did. And that changed everything.
When we arrived at the house, I finally comprehended just how wealthy they truly were. It wasn’t just a mansion; it was something else entirely. Security guards. Massive sprawling grounds. Giant floor-to-ceiling windows. Everything was quiet and perfect, like a five-star luxury hotel. I was terrified to even step out of the car. Honestly, I felt like I was going to ruin something just by walking on it.
Gael opened my door. “What’s wrong?”
I looked down, my voice quiet. “I don’t belong here.”
And right then, the streamer stopped smiling. Because for the very first time, he truly understood the world I had come from to get to them………
