The Numbers That Brought Our Fates Together - 304 His Real Name.

“Coffee?” David suggested to his brother when the latter approached him, “I know that you do not like coffee from vending machines, but this is the best I could find in this place.”

Daniel put his arm on the younger Anderson’s shoulder, his head buried in David’s temple, “Does your machine offer whiskey? I would not mind.”

“How about hot chocolate?”

“Double sugar, please.”

David took a slightly crumpled bill out of his pocket, inserted it into the machine, and after a couple of minutes, Daniel had a glass of hot chocolate with a double portion of sugar in his hands.

“Did you tell her?” David squinted at his brother’s left side.

“No. Moreover, I asked that they inject me with a huge dose of pain killer medication, so even if I break a couple of ribs now, I won’t even notice it.” Daniel tried to sit back, but the trauma that he had after the fight with Rick reminded him of it even after all the painkillers.

“Yeah, that’s you, like always. Sometimes it’s ok to show others that you have a weakness too,” David took a sip of coffee and grimaced a little, it was stronger than the man expected.

“Well, no, it will negatively affect my attractive image.” Daniel ignored his brother’s skeptical look, which was like saying so-what-attractive-image-are-you-talking-about. “Tsk, that’s why I drink coffee with sugar, so as not to sit and frown like you are doing now.”

“Pervert.”

It was all that Daniel heard in response. There was silence between the brothers, each focused on his drink and his thoughts.

“You OK?” Daniel could not stand this silent scene for long.

“Fine.”

“As for Elena, I don’t think that Marcus will do anything to her.”

“I know that she is all right. At the moment, this is enough for me. But what worries me now is our dear “cousin”, who turned out to be the owner of very outstanding abilities.”

Nick’s personality was of most interest to David. After the guy teleported their entire group straight to the hospital, which caused the expected commotion among the staff, he easily processed the brains of the staff with his hypnotic abilities, that even Daniel was surprised at the level of his skill.

“I contacted our father and guess what? Uncle Jack returned with his family from the expedition a couple of days ago, and they even had dinner together with our parents. It turned out that for the last two months they had strange communication problems that they could not communicate with the rest of the world, no matter how they tried. An interesting coincidence, don’t you think?”

“What about Nick?”

David squinted his eyes, this information could well be the final cherry on the cake, “Our dear Nicky was also present at this dinner, that’s just it,” the man opened the gallery on the phone and showed a family photo, which his mother sent him immediately, as soon as she found out that he suddenly became interested in family affairs.

In the photograph, among two couples of adults, there was a young man with glasses, about twenty years old in his looks; he was thin, with braces on his teeth. His image was too far from the charming guy who lived in their house recently.

“Damn, and then who the hell is our Nick?” Daniel, too, began to think that something was suspicious about this guy, but did not expect everything to be so serious.

“This is exactly what I would like to know.”

. . .

Armand noticed how Lina wrinkled her nose as one of the locks of her hair slipped onto the woman’s face. He gently pulled it back, trying not to hook her face, but she still felt his touch and opened her eyes.

“Sorry, I woke you,” the man looked guiltily at the woman and could not help smiling. Her light blue eyes were looking into his dark blue eyes as if the sky was connecting with the surface of the ocean.

“It’s okay, I’ve already rested,” Lina got up to sit down. Armand immediately put a pillow under her back to make her feel more comfortable.

“Thank you,” the woman whispered, the last time she felt such care on his part before the rebirth, and although she tried to behave confidently with him, she was now embarrassed just like the first time.

“How’s Rick?”

“It is still uncertain, doctors aren’t giving any predictions, but they said to prepare for the worst.”

“Hmmm, I see. Where’s Nick?”

“I don’t know, he disappeared after teleporting us here and didn’t show up again,” Armand answered, the noticeable concern in Lina’s voice about this guy’s condition caused him slight irritation, “Hey, where are you going?!”

Armand blocked the woman’s path when he saw how she began to get out of bed.

“I need to find Nick. I am worried about him. After what happened, he can do stupid things,” Lina pushed back Armand’s hand, which was blocking her path, and began to look around in search of her shoes.

“But who is he, after all, that you care so much for him? A cheeky kid who has zero manners and respect for elders!” Armand was sincerely indignant, this Nick wasn’t so respectful towards the man and behaved imposingly several times.

“Armand!” Lina looked at the man with resentment, although he was not to blame for the fact that he did not know the whole situation, his words still hit the woman, “Don’t say so when you don’t know anything about him! This boy went through a lot, and there were no caring parents next to him who would demonstrate their love!”

“This is not a reason to act like that, Polina. If you remember, we were not particularly spoiled by parental care!”

Lina sighed, she did not want to argue with Armand about this, “Sorry, I was not going to yell at you. And Nick is not at all an ill-mannered guy, just… Hmm, how it would be best to tell you, let’s say he has a slightly biased attitude towards you. This is personal.”

“Ha, personal? And when did I manage to get into his blacklist, if I see him for the first time in my life?”

Realizing that the conversation could drag on and that this topic was not one that can be explained in a couple of minutes, Lina looked at Armand with a praying look, “Well, I’ll tell you everything later. Just now help me find Nick as soon as possible. I’m afraid that this child could do serious stupid things.”

. . .

The dim corridor was deserted and quiet, a young man was walking along it towards one of the rooms. His movements were automatic, his head was empty, and only his heart, contracting from resentment, pain and anger, reminded him that he was still alive.

He opened the door of the room and closed it quietly behind him. The boy sleeping on the bed did not notice the presence of an outsider and was deeply immersed in his sound sleep.

Nick stopped next to Sean’s bed and looked blankly at the child. What happened in the jungle still seemed to him like someone’s evil joke, he could not believe that it was this boy who was responsible for his failure.

“Now I understand how she felt. All these years she was silent and despised me. And it’s all because of you,” Nick’s palms clenched into tight fists, his nails dug into his skin, leaving a deep mark.

“I don’t even know who I hate more – you or myself,” the young man took a pillow out of bed and squeezed it in his hands, “If I couldn’t do what I came for, I will at least stop you. Maybe then they will have the opportunity to change everything,” Nick whispered and brought a pillow over the child’s head.

Click.

The young man froze, a pillow was a few centimeters from Sean’s sleeping face.

“Slowly remove it and take a step back if you do not want me to shoot your head off right now. And don’t even think about running away from me.”

Nick put his hands down, the pillow slipped out of his hands and fell to the floor. David’s gun was aimed at the back of the young man’s head. He would even be glad if the man fulfilled his threat since further existence had already lost all meaning to Nick.

The next second, Nick felt his body rise into the air, and then with all its might hit something hard.

“What the hell?!” Daniel jumped out of his chair when David appeared from the air right in front of him, and not just alone, but with Nick.

The man grabbed the guy by his collar and with all his strength hit the young man against the wall, it got dark in Nick’s eyes, a metallic smack of blood appeared in his mouth. He wanted to take a breath, but David again hit him against the wall with such force that Nick nearly lost consciousness.

The man’s eyes were blazing, he was even afraid to imagine what could happen if he was too slow and came to Sean’s ward five minutes later.

“Now give me, bastard, at least one reason I shouldn’t kill you right here and now!”

Nick bowed his head and did not respond to the man’s question. David got even angrier, grabbed the guy by the throat and squeezed it, “Look into my eyes and answer me! Who are you?!”

The young man practically did not resist, and whispered in a hoarse voice, “Nick.”

“Don’t joke with me, boy! Your real name!” David squeezed his throat even more, but Nick remained motionless as if he himself wanted this man to take his life.

“This is my real name. Nick. Nick Teser.”

“T-teser?” David’s hand trembled, he loosened his grip and looked at the young man with worry, “You want to say that you-”

“The surname Teser came to me from my mother, all my conscious life I lived as Nick Teser. But at birth, my parents gave me a different name.”

David stepped back, an incomprehensible sensation of how hundreds of small ants under the skin swept over the man’s body, his heart began beating faster. As if it already knew what they were talking about when the brain was still in the dark.

Nick looked at David with pain in his eyes, closed them and exhaled slowly. When he opened them again, David’s heart was throbbing the moment he saw his gaze – one of Nick’s eyes was blue and the other was brown.

“My real name is Nicholas. Sean Nicholas Anderson. I am your son.”