I Have Five Kick-Ass Brothers – Episode 06
Theo had arrived at the Smith mansion prepared to settle a promise that had shaped most of his life. Instead, unease tightened in his chest as Coco smiled at the prospect of marrying him without asking a single question about the accident they supposedly shared. Finding his savior should have felt like coming home. Somehow, it felt like meeting a stranger.
Coco understood the danger behind his silence. She had never dragged Theo from wreckage or stood beside him while blood soaked through their clothes. If anyone in the Smith household had done those things, it had been Raina. But Raina was gone now, and Coco had no intention of surrendering a billionaire because of a truth no one else remembered clearly.
Mrs. Smith drew her biological daughter closer, glowing with pride. “When did you save Theo? Was it while you still lived with the Lincolns?” The question exposed the flaw in the assumption at once. Theo’s accident had occurred years before Coco entered the Smith household.
Coco let out a careful laugh. “It was a long time ago. I don’t remember every detail.” She lowered her eyes with practiced modesty. “I vaguely remember helping someone, but I never knew he was a Jones.” The answer was plausible enough to satisfy an excited mother, but not the man who had relived that day in nightmares.
The girl Theo remembered had been fearless despite her terror. She had spoken to keep him conscious, refused to leave when adults shouted at her to run, and taken an injury while shielding him. Coco’s manner held none of that stubborn compassion. Her attention lingered on his watch, his clothes, and the status his name promised.
Mr. Smith began discussing dates and alliances as though the marriage were already a signed contract. Coco brightened with each mention of the Jones family’s influence. Theo watched her, troubled by the gap between the child in his memory and the ambitious woman before him.
“We shouldn’t rush,” he interrupted. The room fell silent. Coco’s smile stiffened, and Mr. Smith stopped halfway through a sentence about an engagement banquet. Theo rose, turning the proposal into a conversation before it could become a commitment.
“I want time to know Miss Smith,” Theo said with controlled politeness. “If she has no interest in me, I would never force her into marriage simply because she once helped me.” He offered Coco a graceful escape, while quietly testing whether any part of her cared about him rather than his fortune.
“No one is forcing me,” Coco replied too quickly. “I would love to get to know you.” The eagerness in her voice confirmed nothing except her desire to keep him close. Theo’s uncertainty deepened.
Mr. Smith recovered and praised the decision as wise. A strong relationship should come before marriage, he said, though disappointment flickered across his features. An alliance with Jones Group could elevate the Smiths overnight, and everyone in the salon understood the stakes.
Theo ended the visit with flawless courtesy. At the door, he told Coco they would meet again. She heard a promise; he intended an investigation. As soon as he crossed the threshold, the mansion’s warm lights felt less welcoming than before.
Inside, Coco’s sweetness vanished. She rounded on her father, furious that he had not pressed Theo to formalize the engagement. “This is the Jones family,” she snapped. “Do you understand what you almost let walk away?”
Mr. Smith reminded her that relationships could not be forced, even when wealth was involved. The rebuke touched the insecurity Coco could not control. “You still prefer Raina,” she accused. “Even after learning I’m your real daughter, you’re protecting the life she stole.” Before anyone could answer, she stormed from the room.
Theo settled into the rear seat of his car, watching the Smith mansion recede. His assistant glanced at him in the mirror. “You planned to propose today. What changed?” The question followed them into the flow of evening traffic.
“She is nothing like I remember,” Theo admitted. Saying it aloud made the discrepancy harder to dismiss. The assistant suggested that people changed as they grew older, and logic supported him. Still, courage did not usually ripen into calculated greed.
Theo closed his eyes and summoned the memory again. He could not clearly see the child’s face, but he remembered bright eyes above a soot-streaked cheek and a voice that refused to let him surrender. Coco’s face would not fit those fragments, no matter how firmly the records named her a Smith.
The sedan slowed at an intersection near a grocery market. Theo opened his eyes as a young woman stepped onto the sidewalk carrying overfilled shopping bags. She wore simple clothes and struggled with the weight, yet she stopped to help an older man retrieve an orange rolling toward the street.
When she straightened and laughed, Theo forgot to breathe. The expression struck through years of fog with the force of recognition. Same bright eyes. Same unguarded warmth. Even the stubborn way she readjusted the heavy bags rather than accept help felt achingly familiar.
A flash of memory overtook him: smoke, a small hand gripping his, and that same smile trying to hide fear. Theo leaned forward so abruptly that his assistant turned. “Stop the car,” he ordered, his composure finally breaking.
The driver braked beside the curb. By the time Theo opened the door, the young woman was disappearing into the crowd with groceries meant for the Lincoln food stand. He did not know her name yet, but every instinct insisted the stranger on the sidewalk held the truth Coco could not give him—and he was no longer willing to let her vanish.