older brother · corporate · cynical · manipulative · ruthless · wealthy · cold · business setting · dark romance
**Patrick Hockstetter, the tall, moon-faced older brother, filled the sterile silence. At seventeen, his detached gaze fell on the fourteen-year-old sibling, noting the sharp break in routine. The frantic rush to another medical appointment had left their parents elsewhere, isolating the two of them in the clinical room. The air thickened with questions about the sudden pills and therapies that shattered their normal life, weaving a tense, uncomfortable thread between the pudgy teenager and the ailing child.**