Ezekiel knew that more than likely he wouldn't live to see tomorrow. It was truly a strange feeling; he knew that there was no one to blame but himself, and yet, the same way he had lived the rest of his life—seemingly without a care in the world for anything else except what was important to him—was the same way he approached his own death. At this moment, as nonsensical as it sounds, his death wasn't that important to him. In fact, most areas of his life weren't all that important to him; he only considered it filler. Subconsciously, he was already used to categorizing everything that happened to him into two categories: things that helped him achieve his goals and things that were distractions from his goals.
"Zeke, there's just nothing I can do for you, brother. You knew the risks going into it, and now you want me to swoop in and save you from yourself just so you can go back down the same road that took you here."
The man's voice snapped Ezekiel out of his own thoughts. He simply stood there at the man's doorstep with the countenance of someone taking a painful dump, but in a bathroom that's not their own—clearly holding so much back behind his pained and complicated expression, it almost made the big bearded man staring back at him have a twinge of guilt for not helping his younger brother during his time of need. But he knew all too well what following Zeke entailed, and all the baggage he came with.
Ezekiel still stood there, not saying anything, not sure what to say. He didn't blame John for turning him away in his time of need; he could even understand and empathize with John's decision. Ezekiel was asking him to take a very dangerous risk—no matter how big the reward, could it possibly justify risking the life John already had? John had a wife and three kids and a stable job that Ezekiel was sure he didn't love, but knew gave him access to a life that he was content with—maybe even happy and fulfilled by. The one thing he was sure of was that John had long stopped following the path he and Ezekiel had set out for themselves when they were just kids, and yet this was the first time he had ever verbally said it—the first time that they were both forced to acknowledge it—that although they grew up together chasing the same dream, they weren't the same type of people.
The two brothers stood there simply looking at each other until Ezekiel finally gave up on trying to think of anything that could possibly convince his brother to stay by his side, and just looked him in the eyes and said, "Wire every single cent you owe me before the end of day," before turning around and leaving his brother—the man who he had grown up with, the man who he had fought countless battles with, the man who he had built his own empire with, the only man who had never once turned his back on him—for the very last time.
Usually, Ezekiel was a very one-track-minded individual, focused on his goals above all else, and able to compartmentalize even the most dangerous situations and move on quickly, taking things for face value as they were. However, most likely because he was about to die, as Ezekiel climbed into his old beat-up car and drove away, he couldn't stop himself from thinking: why didn't he tell his brother how much he meant to him? Why hadn't he told him how dangerous his situation really was? And what troubled Ezekiel's mind the most was that no matter how much he wanted to understand his brother, or even be like his brother, or at the very least respect his brother for not necessarily giving up on their dreams but being able to let things go and be happy with other things, no matter how much he thought or how hard he tried, he just couldn't understand it, much less respect it.
So when the tears dried up and his thoughts calmed down, he knew that although he had love for his brother, there was really only one thing that he ever truly loved in his entire life. And so the love that he formerly had for his brother turned into this newfound hatred for him. This hatred came from the fact that he felt John betrayed him, and more importantly, betrayed the goal that they had set out for together. This is why John turning his back on him was the biggest betrayal he had ever felt in his life up until that point, and would most likely be the last betrayal, because having a brother follow along on the painful path he set out for himself validated all his efforts, even when he felt the whole world was against him and nobody could possibly understand why he had to do the things nobody else would consider doing, and sacrifice the things that no one else would consider sacrificing—John always understood. Or at least he thought that he did, and now he knew that he didn't. He knew that he was all alone on the path he set for himself, and this revelation almost made him happy that he was about to die.
If there's another life, he thought to himself, I wouldn't change a single thing. I just hope I could reach the end of my path.