I Have Five Kick-Ass Brothers – Episode 26
Hospital lights washed Theo’s face in pale color while machines counted each breath. Doctors described his smoke inhalation as serious but treatable, yet Raina heard only the uncertainty beneath their reassurance. She sat beside him with the restored necklace wound around her fingers.
Years earlier, she had kept a frightened boy conscious until rescuers came. Now no childhood courage could force the man before her to open his eyes. The helplessness hurt more than the smoke still burning in her own lungs.
Noah arrived with clean clothes and news that Walter was in custody. He did not tell Raina to rest or attempt to remove her from the room. He simply placed coffee beside her and sat on the other side of Theo’s bed.
“He went into the fire because of me,” Raina whispered. Noah corrected her gently. Theo went inside because he made a choice, just as Raina had chosen to follow Coco. Love could inspire reckless courage, but responsibility still belonged to the person acting.
Raina looked at her brother with surprise. Weeks earlier he would have ordered her home. His restraint showed that apologies had become behavior rather than words, and she leaned against his shoulder for the first time since learning the Lincolns’ secret.
Across the hall, Coco received treatment for minor burns under police guard. Mrs. Lincoln waited outside her room despite every betrayal. Mr. Lincoln asked why she remained. “Because I raised her,” she answered. “Love does not vanish when someone becomes difficult to love.”
Coco heard through the half-open door and turned her face toward the wall. The statement offered no escape from consequences, which made it harder to dismiss. She had always assumed affection existed to excuse her; Mrs. Lincoln’s love expected truth.
Investigators questioned Coco about Walter. She admitted hiding his messages as a teenager and later using him to access Raina’s medical records. She denied ordering the fire, but confessed she told his employee to frighten Raina’s business.
The distinction reduced neither her guilt nor the damage. Her attorney advised silence, yet Coco continued. Watching Raina enter the factory for her had destroyed the satisfaction of every victory she imagined.
In Theo’s room, dawn touched the windows. Raina spoke to him about ordinary things: rebuilding the food stand, buying the robot vacuum with honest earnings, and making him pay full price for lunch. Her voice finally cracked when she admitted those plans included him.
“You said you wanted the woman I am now,” she murmured. “Then wake up and let me decide whether I want the impossible man who keeps running into fires.” His hand remained still beneath hers.
The monitor changed rhythm. Theo’s fingers tightened faintly, and his eyes opened to a blur of light and Raina’s tearful face. His first attempt to speak produced a rough whisper. “Full price seems unfair.”
Relief broke through her in a laugh. She bent over him, careful of the oxygen line, and pressed her forehead to his. Theo asked whether Coco survived. Raina told him both women were safe and Walter had been arrested.
He closed his eyes again, this time from exhaustion rather than unconsciousness. “Good,” he said. The answer confirmed what Raina had begun to understand: Theo’s protection was not a performance reserved for the woman he loved.
Mr. Jones arrived with an entourage that filled the corridor. The elderly patriarch had expected to meet the Smith daughter who saved his heir. Instead, he found Raina in simple, smoke-stained clothes holding Theo’s hand.
Raina stood to greet him, but Mr. Jones bowed first. He thanked her for saving Theo twice—once as a child and again by guiding him from the factory. She corrected him: Theo had helped guide both women out.
The old man smiled at her refusal to claim glory. He announced that the Jones family debt belonged to Raina, not Coco. Raina answered that she wanted no payment, repeating the same principle she had given Theo.
“Then accept respect,” Mr. Jones said. He invited her and the Lincolns to a formal dinner after Theo recovered, an occasion the press would interpret as a public endorsement.
Theo woke enough to object to his grandfather arranging Raina’s calendar. Raina surprised them both by accepting. She would attend as herself, not as a savior being rewarded or an heiress being displayed.
Outside the room, a hospital administrator received an anonymous demand for Theo’s medical file. The request carried Jones Group credentials, but the signature was false. Walter was in custody, Coco was guarded, and someone else had begun searching for a weakness in Theo.
