My Step Father's Son

Prolog

Little Ava Summer

13-year-old little girl Ava Summer entered the fancy restaurant with her mother. She looked so cute in her sweet rose-printed cold shoulder dress just above her knees. Her mother brushed her curly blonde hair and tied a scarf as her headband.

Her mother told her that they were going to have dinner with Edward and his son. Edward was her mother's fiancé. She decided to marry again after being a widow for three years.

Edward was a rich businessman who just got divorced six months ago. He had some companies in the city. Ava and her mother were about to meet with him and his son at the restaurant.

"Hello, Ava, how are you?" Edward greeted her with a big smile as he offered her his hand. Edward was a good-looking man in his forties, with brown hair and brown eyes.

"I'm fine, Edward, thank you," she answered her soon-to-be stepfather, shaking his hand.

"Glad to hear that," he responded with a smile on his face.

"I want you to meet my son, Rhys." Edward said as he looked to the side and patted his hand on a boy's shoulder.

Ava looked at the boy's dazzling brown eyes. The boy wore a blue shirt and navy pants. His brown hair was brushed neatly to the side. He was about 18 years old, and he looked just like Edward's younger version.

Ava's eyes shone brightly when looking at him. She always wanted to have a big brother like Emily, her best friend at school.

Emily had a big brother who was 2 years older than her; his name was Mark. And Mark always protects Emily and cares about her. And Ava always dreamed of having a big brother who would protect her and care about her. It was only Ava and her mother after her father died three years ago.

Ava smiled wide at Rhys and offered her hand to him. Rhys was just looking at her; he didn't like the idea of dining with his father's fiancé and her daughter. He hated Sarah, Ava's mother. He always thought that Sarah was a gold digger and the reason for his father and mother's divorce six months ago. And looking at cute Ava didn't make him like her either. Even with the sweetest smile Ava gave him.

Rhys shook Ava's hand after his father patted his shoulder again and gave him a look of demand.

That was the first time they met.

They met again on their parents's wedding day. Ava wore a beautiful white dress. She smiled, looking at her mother's smiling face. She was glad that her mother could be happy again.

But not with Rhys. He can't accept that his father is married again, but he had to pretend to be nice the whole day.

A week after the wedding, Ava and her mother moved to the River's house in the city.

The house was really big, with a beautiful front yard with a fountain and drive-through. The backyard was spacey and also beautiful, with a large swimming pool in the center.

Ava was so happy with her new life, new home, and new family, especially with her new stepbrother. But Rhys has never treated her like his sister since the first time she entered the house. He acted indifferently towards her. He ignored her and never spoke to her.

Ava's mother tried to be nice with him, but Rhys was stubborn and still couldn't accept Sarah in the house. Ava tried to help her mother persuade and impress Rhys in many ways. She made a lemonade for Rhys and his friends when they came to play at the house; she always brought something for him when her stepfather told him to pick her up from her school or her friend's house. She tried to have a conversation whenever they had time together. But Rhys kept ignoring her.

Once, when Ava and her mother baked chocolate cookies, Ava wanted to give the cookies to Rhys. She put the cookies in a small, beautiful jar, and she placed them carefully so as not to break the frangible cookies. She waited until Rhys came home from college.

Ava heard Rhys car entering the driveway, and she waited for him in the living room. When the door opened, Ava stood up to give him the cookies she had made.

But Rhys ignored his 16-year-old stepsister and walked past her.

"Rhys," Ava called him. She was so persistent.

He kept walking and started to step on the stairs to his room on the second floor.

"Rhys wait!" Ava called him again as she walked fast besides him.

"What?" he asked her, stopped for awhile, and looked at his stepsister, the little sister he never wanted.

"I made cookies today. Here. You should try it," Ava said as she gave him the cookie jar.

He looked at her. He wanted to snap her and her cookie, but he didn't have the heart to break the little girl. So he took the cookie without saying anything and continued walking up the stairs to his room. He didn't look back.

Ava was so happy that he took the cookies, even without saying anything. She thought it was a good start for their step-sibling relationship.

Ava went to her room happily, and she decided to make more cookies for him the next day.

The next day, she waited for Rhys to come home again. This time she made peanut butter cookies, which she already put in the jar. He wanted to go to Emily's house, but she wanted to wait for Rhys first.

"Rhys, how's the cookie? You like it?" Ava asked him as she walked fast, catching her stepbrother's foot steps on the stairs.

Rhys didn't answer her and kept walking.

But Ava was persistent. She made him stop and offered another cookie jar in front of him.

"I made this today. It's peanut butter. It's really taste good." She said it with her bright eyes and smiled from ear to ear.

Rhys looked at her, trying to understand what his stepsister was trying to do. He thought it was obvious that he did not want to be disturbed and ignored her all the time.

"Here. Take it," Ava said as she took Rhys hands and put the jar in between his hands. She had to go to Emily's, so she didn't have much time to wait for her dumbfounded stepbrother to accept the cookies.

"I have to go now. Bye, Rhys!" she exclaimed as she half ran downstairs.

Rhys was just looking at her in disbelief before continuing to walk to his room with the cookie jar in his hand.

He put the cookie jar on his desk, just next to the chocolate cookie jar Ava gave him yesterday. He hadn't tried any of them, and he didn't intend to eat them anyway.

The next day, Ava made another cookie for him. This time she made cheese cookies, for which she found the recipe on the internet. As usual, she put the cookies in a jar and waited for Rhys to come home.

Rhys came late in the night, when Ava had already fallen asleep. She slept on the couch in the living room while waiting for him. Rhys saw her but didn't do anything about it. And then he saw the cookie jar on the table in front of her. He knew Ava waited for him to give him that cookie.

He ignored it and kept walking to the stairs. Suddenly, he stopped on his track. He felt guilty and pitied her.

So he called Maria, one of the maids in the house, to wake Ava and tell her to sleep in her room. After that, he continued to walk to his room and then locked the door.

Ava was woken by Maria, who told her to go to sleep in her room.

"Rhys home?" Ava asked her with a puffy face.

"Yes, Rhys is in his room," Maria answered.

Ava felt disappointed because she couldn't meet him. She walked slowly upstairs, feeling dejected. But before she opened her room's door, Ava stopped and turned her head towards Rhy's bedroom. It was only next door. She decided to go over and find him to give him the cookie herself.

"Rhys.." She called him as she knocked on his door.

"Rhys..." She called again for the second time, but no one answered. She tried again, but still got no answer.

Finally, she gave up and went back to her room to sleep. She would give it to him tomorrow.

Unfortunately, Rhys went early the next morning, and Ava can't meet him again. So she decided to put the cookie jar in his room and put a note on it.

She walked inside his room, which was the first time for her.

The room was the same size as hers, but the interior style was more masculine.

She looked around and noticed the cookie jars she gave him a few days before on his desk. They were still full and not yet opened.

Ava felt sad and disappointed because Rhys didn't even try her cookies.

Disappointed, she put the cheese cookie jar on the desk and then left the room. She decided not to make another cookie for him or make any other effort to impress him.

In the afternoon, when Rhys went home with his friends from college, he saw the new cookie jar with a note on top of it.

He knew it was Ava who put the cookie there. He picked up the note and read it.

'Try this, Rhys; I'm really good at making cookies (smile emoji). -Ava-'

"Wow, cookies!" Mike, one of Rhys's friends, took a jar with chocolate cookies inside and opened it.

"It's really good. Where did you buy this?" Mike asked as he kept chewing the cookie and took another one. Rhys other friends also came, and they tried the cookies, opening other jars and trying each of them.

"I like this one," Ronald, Rhys other friend, said as he took a bite of the cheese cookie.

"Ava made it," Rhys answered. He took a piece of a chocolate cookie and took a bite at it.

It actually tasted good. Ava really can bake cookies, he thought.

"Your stepsister is really nice, Rhys. She made you cookies, and soon she will make us lemonade," Mike said, laughing happily.

"I don't mind if she became my sister too; she is kind of cute too," Ronald said as he winked, and then they laughed.

"I know you are actually here to see her," Patrick exclaimed, teasing Ronald.

"What? No!" Ronald denied it, but his face was blushing.

"Come on, Ronald. I saw you tried to approach her last week at the pool," Patrick added, giving a smirk to his blushing friend.

"No, I'm not. I helped her. She needed help with the lemonade, and I helped her," Ronald reasoned.

"Yeah, right," Mike replied with a smirk, not believing Ronald's excuse at all. Everyone agreed with him and laughed at ridiculous Ronald.

Rhys felt uncomfortable when his friends talked about Ava.

"Let's go to the swimming pool!" He suddenly said aHe took his swimming pants and towel and then walked outside. His friends followed him while keeping the cookie jar in their hands.

Ava didn't show up that afternoon or any other day to make them lemonade like she used to, nor did she give Rhys another cookie she made.

On the contrary, Rhys went home expecting to see Ava in the living room, waiting for him as usual to give him a cookie jar or doing whatever she always did to gain attention from him. But she wasn't there anymore.

Nor when Rhys picked her up at Emily's, Ava was just silent. She didn't talk like she used to.

She stepped inside the car and sat down silently, playing with her phone all the way home. When they arrived, she would step out without saying anything and leave.

Even at diner, Ava, who used to sit besides Rhys, chose to sit besides her mother. She never talked to him or looked at him with admiration like she always did.

He wanted to ask her why, but he was too egoistic to ask and made conversation first, although he missed Ava's cheerful voice.

He decided to let it go and tried not to think about her. Even when his friend came and they asked about her, he pretended not to hear.

Rhys was barely at home. He always looked for any reason not to be at home, not have breakfast, or not dine together. He only had dinner together when his father forced him to.

His relationship with his father was getting worse, no matter how much Sarah tried to persuade him or be nice and fair to him. And this made Sarah sad, and she cried sometimes.

Ava started to hate him for his ignorance, which caused her mother to be sad. But there was nothing she could do.

Everything started to change when she was in her senior year of high school.

One day, Edward told Rhys to pick up Ava from school. Left with no other choice, he went to Ava's school.

Rhys waited in his car in front of her school. But after waiting for half an hour, Ava was nowhere to be seen.

Rhys started to feel anxious. He turned off the engine and stepped out of the car to look for her. He went inside the school building and asked if they saw Ava.

"I think she is on the basketball court with her boyfriend," a girl told him.

Boyfriend? Ava has a boyfriend? He asked inwardly. He was surprised and didn't expect Ava to have a boyfriend.

Rhys went straight to the basketball court, and he heard Ava's voice vaguely.

"No, I said no! Let me go, Eric!" She was angry and sounded desperate as well.

"I know you want it, Ava! No one will see us. Come on!" a boy voice talked to her.

"Stop it, Eric! NO!" Ava yelled to reject him from doing something.

Rhys heard it, and he rushed with his foot to go inside the basketball court. He looked for her and found her. A boy was pinning her to the ground.

Rhys blood was boiling when he saw it. He rushed over, grabbed the boy's collar shirt, and then punched him. The boy fell to the ground in an instant, with a loud thud.

"She said no!" Rhys yelled at him. He was about to punch him again when he heard Ava call him.

"Rhys?!" Ava was surprised.

"Ava, are you alright?" Rhys asked her. He couldn't hide his worry. Ava nodded, and Rhys helped her stand up.

After making sure Ava was alright, he turned to the boy again.

Eric, who was able to stand up, ran his ass off when he saw Rhys was about to come for him with clenched hands.

"Don't you dare to touch her again!" Rhys shouts at him, making Eric run out of the basketball court.

"Are you sure you are okay?" Rhys asked as he looked at Ava from top to toe. He reached for her hand and rubbed Ava's wrist gently with his thumb when he saw bruises there.

Ava was shocked that Rhys became carefree.bout her. She stood there, observing Rhys's expression.

He looked worried. What changed him?

"You know him? We should report him to the principal." Rhys said as he continued to check on Ava's other wrist.

"No, it's okay." Ava replied.

"What do you mean, 'it's okay'? It's not okay! He tried to force you, Ava! It could happen again, and I won't be here to protect you next time!" Rhys said it angrily.

"It's okay, Rhys; he won't do it again. Thank you for your help." Ava remarked as she grabbed her bag on the floor and then walked.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Rhys asked her, catching her step.

"Yes," Ava answered after awhile. She wasn't sure if that was a good choice to let her brother know she had a boyfriend since her mother restricted her.

"You shouldn't," Rhys said indifferently as he passed her and walked fast towards his car. He turned the car's engine and waited for Ava to get in.

"Why?" Ava asked him once she sat in the car.

"Why what?" Rhys asked her back.

"Why shouldn't I have a boyfriend? Do you even care?" Ava replied, giving him a sarcastic smiled.

"I don't. I just don't like to punch every boy every time I pick you up," he said as he started to drive his car.

"It's just Eric. Other than him, they never did that." Ava mumbled to herself.

Other than Eric? How many boyfriends did she have? Rhys thought inwardly.

Rhys never paid attention to Ava's physical appearance before, but now, from the edge of his eyes, he takes a few glances at her through the interior mirror.

Of course, she had a boyfriend. She is 18 and attractive. Even his friends had already told him how attractive she was. Not only one or two of his friends have been asking about her whenever they come to the house, including his close friends Ronald and Mike. He thought.

"Rhys, can we stop by at the book store? I have to buy some books for my literature class." Ava suddenly asked, waking him from his zone.

"I have to go to college in an hour. Can you make it fast?" Rhys asked her back. He was supposed to be at home, if not because of that boyfriend of hers.

"Yes, I'll make it fast." Ava answered him persuasively.

Rhys sports car halted in front of a big book store. Ava jumped out of the car right away, running fast to the entrance door. Soon she disappeared inside the book store.

Rhys turned off his car engine and walked inside the book store. He looked around, trying to find Ava in between the book shelves.

"Let me carry that." Rhys said once he found Ava. He pointed to the books in her hands.

Ava gave him the books and continued to search for the books she'd been looking for.

Rhys followed her, waited for her to finish, and even paid for her books.

Ava didn't expect that Rhys would accompany her to the book store and even carry those books.

Ava was so happy, feeling what it was like to have a big brother who took care of her and protected her like Emily's. That day, she smiled all the way back home.

At diner time, Ava chose to sit besides Rhys, like she used to before what happened with the cookies the other days. Of course, it surprised everyone at the dining table, but they didn't say anything; they just smiled at her.

Since that day, their relationship has been getting better day by day. Rhys was not ignoring Ava anymore, and Ava was back to her usual; she talked cheerfully when Rhys picked her up or dropped her off at school or at Emily's. She also started to make lemonade when Rhys friends were coming.

Rhys also promised her that he would come to Ava's graduation the next month.

It was late at night when Ava woke up from her sleep. She heard a loud voice from downstairs. Two people were yelling at each other.

Ava recognized the voice. It was Edward and Rhys. They were arguing toughly. And then she heard a door being slammed, making Ava gasp and hold her breath in shock.

"Go away and don't ever come back!" She heard Edward yell out loud.

"Fine, Dad! Don't regret it!" Rhys answered him angrily.

Ava ran out of her room to go downstairs, wearing only her short pajamas and bare feet.

She was afraid that Rhys would really go away, as Edward said.

Downstairs, she saw her mother try to calm Edward in front of his office while Rhys walked towards the door in a rage.

Ava knew Rhys was about to leave the house. She ran to catch him.

"Rhys, wait! Don't go!" Ava screamed, calling for him.

"Ava!" her mother called her and tried to stop her.

Ava ignored her and kept running outside.

Rhys has already reached his car and is about to drive away.

"Rhys!" Ava called him again as she ran to the drive-way.

But she was too late. Rhys already accelerate his car to the maximum, making a roar in the middle of the night. In a few second, his car disappeared from their driveway.

"Ava!" Her mother called, but Ava just stared blankly at the road where Rhy's car disappeared.

"Ava," Sarah called again.

Ava turned around and looked at her mother, before she followed her inside.

Ava has never seen or heard from Rhys since that night. Rhys didn't come to her graduation nor to any family holiday. It seemed that his relationship with the family was broken.