I knocked on Dwight's door, "It's me, Alana."

"Come in."

I stepped into the room, shutting the door behind me. I didn't like the idea of staying behind a closed door with Rowan's brother in his own house, but I guess the circumstances didn't leave me any better choices.

Dwight's room was the total opposite of Rowan's, the walls in Rowan's room were painted beige, sort of cream in color, while Dwight's room was painted in dark contrast vibrant colors that totally struck the eyes. A color blind might as well start seeing colors. No Shit! Though the room was similar in size, everything sat in their right places, the furniture, elegant, yet humongous in the room, all too bright. I liked simple and Rowan's room was just that. Simple, yet unique in its own way.

Dwight remained seated behind his wide cherry Oak desk, beaming at me, "Good Morning."

He gestured for me to sit in one of the couches near the large sliding glass doors; he inserted a bookmark in a huge sized book, strode over and took the couch opposite mine. His dark hair was ruffled and he wore a white polo shirt tucked neatly into tailored trousers. Clearly, I had barged onto his golf plans. He looked so much like Rowan; Dwight's eyes were a lighter shade, a stark contrast to Rowan's intense broody eyes.

"Would you care for some coffee, tea or.." he offered.

"Thanks for offering, but I had breakfast downstairs." the offer of coffee looked anything but tempting. I needed more caffeine in my system, even though I had downed almost three cups downstairs.

"Right." He scanned his phone and placed it back on the coffee table, giving me his full attention, "So what brings you here?"

"Firstly, I want you to stop harassing my boyfriend."

The smile turned into a knowing grin, "Done deal. Anything else, ma'am?"

"That also includes no cocky comments."

"That's my nature, Alana; I'll see what I can do about the cocky comments."

A photo frame right under my line of sight caught my eye. I pointed at a picture near, "Is that you?"

Dwight spun his head around, "No, that's my twin brother, Andrew."

"Drew is your twin brother?" another Master family shocker.

"Was." He corrected me with a bitter face, "Great guy, the only one who could deal with the Psycho brother."

"Stop calling him that." I snapped at him.

Dwight narrowed his eyes at me, "How long has it been since you've known Rowan?"

"Two months."

"I've known Rowan for as long as he's been born, and I'm still trying to figure him out but let's not go there, shall we; tell me what you want to know."

"Anything that might put some light over his past. Some background over his..." the word madness was stuck in my throat, but I settled with the word, "nature."

Dwight remained impassive, "Rowan has been very impulsive from the beginning. You would think I'm kidding if I said it was progress yesterday. We've watched a side of him that could have chased you across the globe to a different planet. The door's right there if you want out now."

"I'd rather stay and listen." It did sound insane and I wanted to chicken out so bad. I was rooting for a natural calamity.

"Rowan was home schooled at ten after he almost killed a boy in his class for bullying his friend. He pounded the boy's head on the wall."

Point to be noted aggressive childhood.

"Then what happened?" I asked him.

"So, as he grew older, his habits began to magnify and he became more aggressive by every passing day. At sixteen, Rowan used to be heavy on drinks as well as drugs and spent most of his time behind closed doors—loneliness being his closest friend. He downed a bottle in an hour, Alana, that's major for a sixteen year old." I nodded, urging him to continue further, "And there was this incident that happened with Mom, that no one can forget. Rowan was on his usual self-destructive mode when he couldn't find a single bottle of alcohol in the house. Drew and I made sure we kept them hidden. Rowan wrecked everything that was glass in the house, went to his room, trashed around some more and tried to off himself, all because we weren't giving him what he wanted."

I remained tape-lipped; I mean this was a side of Rowan that I would never want to encounter; it sounded BIZZARE with caps on.

"When Rowan didn't open the door, we had to break in and I still remember it so clearly even though it's been more than ten years. Mom stood on the staircase and gave him out, he flipped and pushed mom down the staircase. She had a fractured arm and a leg for weeks. He never meant to hurt her Alana, I know that, he spent a lot of time making up to her, but it's how he reacts at some point that you can never expect what he's going to do the next minute."

I found my voice after a while. "Is there some source for the kind of behavior, something traumatic in early childhood?"

Dwight stared into space for a while before answering, like he was trying to figure out the answer to that question himself, "This problem isn't since childhood, Alana, you don't get it. He had serious anger issues back then, the issues, the emotions are all being taken to a higher notch at this point. We had no idea the problem was so big. Okay, let's say it has something to do with trying to get some attention. Drew and I had always been the older brothers, so Rowan being second in line, was being compared in every aspect but that doesn't give him a reason to turn out like that. I should be the one envying him not the other way round."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I don't quite follow."

"Did you know that Rowan's a Stanford honor student?"

Another jaw drop moment. "Nope."

"He has a Masters degree in Economics, he reads the kind of books I can't even pronounce the titles." Dwight chuckled, "And what about my qualifications? I'm just a high school graduate. I don't have a choice in the matter, Alana, I have to look after my father's company, no questions asked. I've had my dreams too, I'm forced into this and it's been more stressful since Drew's death. Rowan has everything in his plate which he clearly wants to throw away because of some psycho chemical in his brain."

A Grey Persian cat, more like a grey colored tiger cub, hopped off the bed, yawned and made its way towards me. The cat eyed me warily, and meowed. "That's Grey." I quickly picked him up and sat him on my lap. He meowed and began to claw me; I dropped him on the floor at once.

"He doesn't like to play much."

Grey moved gracefully and lied down on a plush rug. The cat was a good distraction from reality.

"Did any of you try to stop it?"

"Drew began a therapy at home which was anything but easy; we were tired of designing and re-designing Rowan's room. All I can say is that, Drew helped in taming the beast that lived inside Rowan. He said things to Rowan which would calm him down for days, become cheerful again, not touch a single bottle and then there was one trigger and we were back to square one. Rowan respected Drew a lot. He was the brother he looked up to, and I can see you're playing that part now."

I smiled. "What did Drew talk about?"

"He took that to the grave with him, but I'm sure Rowan can answer that question."

"And, Rowan was admitted in the psychiatric hospital?" I was beginning to sound like a psychiatrist now.

"At one point of time, yeah, when he was beyond any hope or repair, we had to admit him. That was the only way." I think I watched Dwight's eyes catch a sense of sorrow, "Alana, he was admitted for a six month program, and I just went there one day because Drew insisted I go with him. Rowan was like an animal, not the brother I knew. He was being tied to the bed, sedated most of the time because he kept trying to get out of it. There were dark rope marks around his wrists; you might still find a slight scar. It definitely wasn't pretty."

It was clear that Dwight cared for his brother and I had miserably failed to see through all that venom.

"I'm not going to blame Rowan here, that guy is naive and stupid. He'd gladly jump off the cliff if you told him to. He gets attached to every damn thing and that's where Lauren comes into the picture. That woman, Alana, she created the remaining mess."

"What did she do?" I never mentioned that I had indeed acquired a little info about her from Rowan himself. I was just checking if Dwight had some other story. The guy probably worked in an investigation agency; he sensed the trap at once and saved himself from falling head first.

"That's not my story to tell so I will suggest you speak with Rowan regarding Lauren." Dwight said apologetically.

I just nodded; I didn't want to force him to tell me something he didn't want to.

"We warned Rowan about her, but he kept doing what he wanted and that obviously made the situations worse."

"So how the hell did you not warn Rowan about me, but her?"

Dwight looked dubious, like someone just stepped on his crying cat, "For Fucks sake, there is a wide difference between you and Lauren-- that one was a calculating skank of the worst kind. You need to maximize your bitch level a hundred times to stoop at her level." He continued, "I can clearly see why Rowan loves you so much and I know a bitch when I see one."

I blushed; damn all these Masters were starting to have that same effect on me.

"Alana, it's important you know that dealing with Rowan is not baking a cake. He lives in the kind of darkness, we never want to experience. Being with him means, you'll have to be ready to be dragged into that darkness with him. His anger and his issues get the better of him. Rowan is not possessive, he is obsessive." Dwight swirled a glass pyramid on the coffee table, "Even if you are successful in helping him deal with his demons, his personality will not change because darkness is a part of Rowan."

"I'll help him; I'll bring him on the right track at any cost." I pushed back my hair. Dwight's eyes remained on my hand, than he looked back at me.

"Good luck with that."

"Why does Claire think she's responsible for Drew's death?" I was beginning to sound like a police officer now, making mental points. I wish I had a note pad. "I hope I'm not invading your personal space."

"No. No. It's alright, I guess." Dwight shrugged, "Uh—well, it was Minnie's adoption procedure papers which Claire was supposed to collect from Rowan's apartment, she unfortunately had to fly so she told Drew to do it and that's how he died in a freak accident with his wife."

Adoption?

What the fuck is all this about now?

"Minnie is Drew's biological daughter, right?"

Dwight looked confused, spaced out for a second and smiled ruefully, "Did Rowan tell you that?"

"Yes, he did." I smelled all kinds of Fishy, "Is there something else there to it?"

"No. Minnie is Drew and Stephanie's daughter."

"I have a request."

"Go ahead." The amused expression still remained, which was waving a large Alert red flag.

"Please don't take Minnie away from Rowan."

"Does Rowan portray me worse than Mojojojo?" that brought a smile to my face, "We had discussed about taking Minnie in with us, but that was only to give Rowan some more space. I get it he wants to do everything on his own account, but his impulsive nature scares the living shit out of us sometimes and we definitely don't want another child to pick on his habits."

"I'm begging you, Dwight." I went on, "If you take away Minnie from him, he'll break and I can't see him like that. He loves her so much, he is a great father. I've watched him run around for her. I'll keep an eye on Rowan and Minnie if that's okay."

"Thank you." And I noticed he was genuinely thankful.

Dwight then climbed on his feet, went behind his desk—opened a few drawers and got what he found. He walked back and handed me a card.

It read: Dr Sydney Thompson.

"See if you can give her a visit, she's a great psychologist. It's important you take Rowan with you. At least talk to her, if nothing else."

"Thanks, Dwight." When I put the card safely back in my pocket, my phone vibrated in the other pocket. "I'm sorry for taking your time."

"No problem at all."

"What did you want to do?"

Dwight was scanning some files and seemed taken aback by my question, "What?"

"What was your passion?"

"You sure, you aren't changing your mind and switching brothers?" That had me laughing for a while, he continued. "I wanted to become an interior designer."

I nodded. It explained a lot about his bedroom.

"I really appreciate your concern, Alana, but I'm cool now. I'm fine with handling Dad's stuff. The old man needs my help."

I retrieved the phone out of my pocket; the message was from Clairesaying:

ROWANS COMING' RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

"I need to get going." I started to leave.

"Hey," he caught my hand, thumbed the ring finger and grinned, "What kind of acid are you dropping in my brother's drink?"

I smiled, pulling my hand away from his grasp, "Some voodoo stuff I found the other day in my closet."

"I like you." Dwight declared.

The phone vibrated again.

'I can't keep Rowan busy for too long. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?'

"Just ring me whenever you need to or if Rowan dumps you someday. You'll know where to find me, right? " He kissed my knuckles doing some down-right, flat-out flirting.

"Yeah, right." I said.

My phone gave another vibration, YOU ARE DEAD MEAT.

Just as I stepped out of Dwight's room, I watched Rowan making his way upstairs, Claire right behind him. Rowan's eyes locked with mine, and then travelled towards Dwight and back at me. Rowan's hands balled into fists, as his erratic breathing took pace.

Claire mouthed behind him, 'I'm so sorry.'

"Good Morning, brother." Dwight chimed in, with a coating of mock.

"Rowan..." I started saying.

He pulled out his palm, indicating me to stop whatever I was saying and retreated back downstairs like a raging bull