Chapter 37 What Is He to Us?
+8 Pearls
“Don’t you understand? Or is it that you simply don’t want to understand?” Wendy asked bitterly, her voice choked with emotion, a cold smile tugging at her lips. “For the past four years, Joshua has been treated worse than at the orphanage, probably. Do you understand now?”
“What?” Shirley responded, stunned.
“Shirley, what was it like when Joshua first met you? Has he ever visited your school?” Wendy pressed.
Shirley hesitated, recalling the past. “He came a few times, specifically taking the bus to my school to find me. Once, he even snuck into my classroom, trying to listen to my lecture, but some other students saw him and kicked him out!”
Wendy could barely contain her fury. “Did they hit him?”
“Yes, I think there was one time!” Shirley recalled. “It was the students at school who hit him, but it wasn’t serious–just a quick slap on the head before they kicked him out. Wendy, you don’t know how embarrassing it was. He secretly tried to sneak into my class, and everyone at school thought he was my boyfriend. It was terrifying!”
Wendy shuddered, struggling to believe Shirley had faced such humiliation as well.
“Luckily, it didn’t cause much of a stir that time! The students just kicked him out, and that was the end of it. After that, he didn’t dare come to my school again!” Shirley added.
She looked at Wendy with concern. “Wendy, why are you asking about all this? Isn’t this something you already knew?”
Wendy fell silent, a deep sense of sorrow settling in her chest.
Desperately wiping away her tears, she felt the weight of the situation pressing down on her. She quickly grabbed a tissue to continue wiping her eyes.
“Joshua is selling live crabs at the market. He must be out of money and trying to earn a bit of pocket change!” Wendy sniffled.
“What?” Shirley said, shocked.
“You won’t give him money! I won’t either, Maddy, Judy, and Indy definitely won’t! Mom won’t, and Dad’s too busy with work, so he won’t either!” Wendy took a deep breath. “So, what is Joshua to us? Why is he
even here?”
“This…”
“You just said that Mom and Dad have done DNA tests several times and confirmed that he’s our biological brother. But what does that actually mean for us?”
Shirley’s eyes widened, her mind racing to grasp the situation.
“Has he ever gone to Mom’s room to rest or sleep? Haven’t we all done that? Haven’t Maddy, Judy, Indy, Cassidy, and Frankie all done that?”
7:18 pm.
Chapter 37 What Is He to Us?
+8 Pearls
“Why, when he goes, do you all feel disgusted? Why, when he goes, do Mom and Dad feel disgusted? Is he even considered a person in this family? What is he to us?”
Shirley’s face blanched in panic, unsure how to respond to Wendy’s piercing question.
In truth, even as adults, they sometimes still sought comfort from their mom, begging to sleep with her for reassurance.
Especially their youngest sister, Cassidy Fraser, who, still in college, would often return home and sleep with Maggie during the holidays.
Yet Joshua was even younger–only 18 now, and when he was first found, he was just 14.
“I went to see the head of the Eastview Orphanage. Some of the children there were abandoned by their parents, others were orphaned and had never known a mom’s love, never even seen their parents. Joshua should consider himself fortunate to have been found at 14! But he’s also incredibly unlucky. You and me? We have never treated him like a person! Not even our parents have treated him as a person! Why. Shirley? Why is this happening? Isn’t he our biological brother?”
Joshua swiftly completed dozens of test papers.
Having lived as a spiritual entity for twenty years in his previous life, his memory remained sharp. Now. he could effortlessly recall a vast array of knowledge.
The next day, he resumed selling live crabs and fresh shrimp, just like Tom and the others.
Compared to the first day, the second day saw even better sales.
By the second day, the storm had fully passed, and most people had resumed their normal activities. Armed with the experience from the previous day, he and Tom, along with the others, sold off all the live crabs and shrimp they had stockpiled.
It wasn’t much–just over a hundred pounds–but they sold it all within a few hours.
“Let’s go! We’re heading to the wholesale market to buy longan, lychees, and bananas! Bananas, in particular, are set to rise from a dollar per pound to two and a half dollars per pound! We can rent a small warehouse at the market and stock up with 3,000 pounds!”
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7:18 pm ff
Promise to Punish My Ridiculous Family
