Chapter 7 7
Chapter 7
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My brother was stunned. This was the first time in twenty years that I had defied him. The first time I had talked back to him. The intense surge of emotions left me gasping for breath, my hands trembling uncontrollably.
Soon, my brother snapped out of it and stepped forward, delivering a heavy slap across my face.
“Caitlin, watch your tone! Because of you, we lost our mother!”
“What right do you have to say such things? Next time you say that, don’t blame me
for what I’ll do!”
I looked at the blood trickling from the corner of my mouth and laughed, shouting loudly.
“Do you think I wanted Mom to die?! Do you think I had a choice in being born?!”
“Mom’s death hurts me a thousand times, a million times more than it hurts you!!! She was your mom, but she was my mom too!”
Then I sneered.
“Aren’t you the president of Nash Group, the all–powerful one? Then go beg the
heavens to take my life back!”
My brother’s hands trembled with rage, his eyes bloodshot. I would never forget the
look of hatred in his eyes, as if he wanted to tear me apart. But in the end, he said
nothing and turned away. After that, he never came to the hospital to see me again. It
was as if I were dead to him.
From that moment on, I knew. My relationship with my brother was over. After that argument, he treated me like I was invisible. We barely spoke once a week. Even Irene was strictly forbidden by my brother from talking to me. So she didn’t dare to bully me anymore. Sometimes, I thought this was actually quite good. I no longer wanted to chase after that impossible family love. Living quietly like this was just fine. Once I saved enough money, I would move out of this house and stay far away from them. We
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Chapter 77
wouldn’t interfere with each other. Maybe I was meant to have weak family ties and live my life alone.
But even so, sometimes when I passed by my brother’s room and heard him laughing and chatting with Dad, my heart still felt like it was being stabbed with needles. Whenever that happened, I would wipe away my tears and tell myself it was okay.
Caitlin, it’s okay, it’s okay. I can live well on my own. Without my brother, without my dad, I can still live well. You’re great, you really are.
But I missed Mom. Mom, I really miss you. If you were still here, would we be a happy family again?
Three months passed like this. One day, while I was working as a waitress, I overheard a conversation between Irene and her friend. It turned out she never truly wanted to be with my brother. She was after our family’s project secrets. Her family was a small company on the brink of bankruptcy. By clinging to our family, once she married my brother, he would naturally inject capital into her family, saving the struggling Gibson
Group.
When she first got together with my brother, I had suspected as much. But I hadn’t expected her ambitions to be so vast. She wanted to take over, she wanted the entire Nash Group. Originally, she planned to win me over and use me to get into the company. But she didn’t expect my brother to despise me so much that he never intended for me to get involved in the company’s affairs. So she was forced to abandon her original plan. She hated me, believing it was my fault that she had to give up a perfect path. All her plans had to start over, be rethought. Everything was my fault. So she naturally took her anger out on me.
I had been trying to convince myself that this wasn’t my problem. Why should I meddle in other people’s business?!
After a day of inner turmoil, I realized I still couldn’t let go of this family. I couldn’t let a schemer take it over. I had to catch Irene’s wrongdoing and make my brother see that she was a bad woman trying to take over Nash Group.
Twisted Hearts
