My "brother's headphones" aren't his.

If this finds its way around I'm screwed, but I just can't hold it in anymore.

I (17) lost my brother (22) almost three years ago now. At the time he was in the Army and got into a bad crash, which messed up the whole trajectory of my family's life. A year ago we finally got his stuff back, and it was hard to say the least; my mom struggled the worst of it all, and we all still struggle to this day. He had two pairs of headphones and a few earbuds which my parents said I could use, and I finally took them up on that offer in early 2024.

Here's where the problem starts.

They were under the impression that all the headphones belonged to my brother, but when I went to set them up, I didn't recognize the name... it was either a friend's or a roommate's. How did I know this? They were labelled "____'s headphones." Not even CLOSE to my brother's name. Still, I used them anyways, and now I use them almost every single day.

I feel really terrible for having someone else's headphones, but my brother didn't live alone in the barracks and we didn't know who he was roomed with; there was no way of returning any of his friends' lost stuff. My parents still believe the headphones belong to him, and I don't have the heart to tell them that they're someone else's. I feel like it'd make them greatly upset.

I just don't know how to cope with it. I'm not planning to come clean nor do I want advice, it's just nice to get that weight off my chest.