Chapter 151
Chapter 151
Asher’s POV
O
I stared at the suit laid out on the bed.
Black. Crisp. Perfectly pressed.
Marcus would’ve approved. He was always the one who looked flawless, the one who knew exactly what to wear, what to say, how to carry himself. I was
the mess, the one who never quite fit into the image of a Sterling.
And yet, here I was.
I sat on the edge of the bed, gripping the fabric between my fingers. The funeral was in a few hours. People were already gathering, I needed to get dressed.
But I couldn’t move.
It felt wrong. Putting this suit on, walking into that ceremony, standing in front of a coffin that held my brother’s body.
I should have been the one in there.
I swallowed hard, pushing the thought away. Ivy would be here soon. She wouldn’t let me sit here and spiral.
With a deep breath, I forced myself up, moving on autopilot as I changed. The tie was the hardest part. My fingers fumbled with it, frustration boiling over
as I tried to get the knot right.
“Dammit,” I muttered under my breath.
I stared at myself in the mirror, the reflection of a man who barely looked like himself. Dark circles under my eyes, shoulders stiff, jaw clenched.
Marcus would’ve laughed if he saw me struggling with a tie. He always tied mine for me when we were younger.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I couldn’t do this.
But I had to.
The funeral home was packed, but it didn’t feel personal.
The air was thick with hushed voices, polite condolences, the quiet shuffling of feet. A deep, suffocating kind of grief hung over the room, but it wasn’t the kind that came from losing someone close. It was the kind that came from obligation.
Most of these people weren’t here for Marcus.
They were here for his name.
Sterling Industries executives. Business partners. People who had worked with him, admired him, respected him. But not friends. Not people who actually knew who Marcus was beneath the suit, beneath the empire he had built.
1 clenched my fists.
He deserved better than this.
Ivy stood beside me, her hand brushing against mine, grounding me. I could feel her watching me, but she didn’t say anything.
A familiar voice pulled me from my thoughts.
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“Asher.”
I turned to see Evelyn standing there. Marcus’s secretary.
She looked tired, her usual composure slightly cracked.
“I just wanted to say…
too.”
“She hesitated, then took a small breath. “I know I worked for Marcus, but these past few weeks, it felt like I was working for you
I frowned. “Evelyn”
“I mean it,” she said. “You stepped in when you didn’t have to. You handled things when everything was falling apart. Marcus would’ve been proud of you.”
I looked away, my jaw tightening. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You did more than you realize,” she said softly.
I swallowed hard, nodding. I couldn’t say anything else, not without my voice breaking.
Evelyn gave me a small, sad smile before stepping back.
As she walked away, another figure approached.
Isabella.
She looked different than the last time I saw her, but grief did that to people. She had helped me when I was in over my head, when Marcus fell into a coma leaving me to the worst parts of the world.
She had been the one to help me take down the mafia when they threatened my image, though it had cost her, she lost her most trusted informant in the
process.
She didn’t say anything right away. She just studied me, like she was trying to figure out what to say.
Then, finally, “You look awful.”
I let out a short, humorless laugh. “Yeah. Feels about right.”
She sighed, shaking her head. “I wanted to check on you.”
“I’m surviving,” I muttered.
“That’s not enough.”
-looked at her. “It’s all I’ve got.”
She hesitated, then stepped closer. “If you need anything, Asher. You know I’ll be there, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I know.”
She gave my arm a squeeze before walking off, leaving me standing there in the middle of a room full of people who didn’t belong.
The ceremony felt endless.
Speeches were given. People spoke about Marcus’s accomplishments, about his brilliance, about how much of an impact he had on the business world.
No one talked about him as a person.
No one mentioned his dry humor, the way he always adjusted his cufflinks when he was thinking, the way he used to stay up late reading when he
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Chapter 151
thought no one would notice.
Because no one here knew him like that.
58%
When it was over, the crowd slowly started to thin. One by one, they left. The board members, the executives, the investors who had come not out of grief but out of expectation.
Eventually, even our family said their last words and walked away.
And then it was just Ivy and me.
She turned to face me, eyes soft, filled with something I couldn’t quite name. She didn’t speak. She just stepped closer, wrapping her arms around me, holding me in a way that felt more like a promise than a goodbye.
Then she pulled back, pressing a gentle kiss to my cheek.
“I’ll wait for you outside,” she murmured.
And then she was gone.
Leaving me alone with him.
I sank to the ground, knees pressing against the damp earth.
I stared at the headstone, at the name carved into the stone. Marcus Sterling.
My brother.
Gone.
I let out a shaky breath.
“Marcus, Marcus,” I whispered. “You were always the perfect brother, you couldn’t just stay a bit longer, you had to just die…”
The words felt like acid in my throat.
“You had to give the ultimate sacrifice, you had to be perfect. You set the bar so high, now what am I supposed to do?” My voice broke. “You sacrificed yourself for me, now what am I supposed to fricking do? Should I kill myself to show everyone that I’m better?”
A bitter, hollow laugh escaped me.
“I don’t want to be better,” I muttered. “I’ll do anything, I just want you to come back. I’m fine with you being better than me.”
My vision blurred. My chest ached.
“I want my older brother back,” Ichoked out. “I want to have someone to talk to.”
I swallowed hard, my hands curling into fists.
“I want to talk about Sterling Winery.” My voice wavered. “I need your advice on how to go about everything.”
Silence.
Nothing but the cold wind and the weight of the words I would never get a response to.
“Marcus, please.”
And then, finally, I broke.
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Chapter 151
Jul
I pressed my forehead to the ground, my shoulders shaking, grief tearing through me in a way I couldn’t contain anymore.
I cried.
For Marcus. For everything he had been. For everything he never got to be.
And for the fact that, no matter how much I begged, no matter how much I wished for it, he wasn’t coming back.
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