Chapter 44 The Big Sister He Once Loved
“I didn’t! I didn’t dare to look! Wendy, about Joshua, he…” Shirley hesitated, her voice trailing off.
“Take a look for yourself, then tell me!” Wendy replied firmly, her tone brooking no argument.
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“Wait! Don’t hang up yet!” Shirley quickly interjected, her words rushed and anxious. “Mom wants you to come home right away.”
“I got it.” Without another word, Wendy ended the call.
Joshua was still missing. No one had any idea where he had run off to. The uncertainty pressed heavily on Wendy, leaving her feeling utterly adrift.
She sniffled, took out her phone, and checked the records again.
A post appeared on it, with many albums and photos. It was from Joshua’s Facebook account.
The post read: “Wendy took me on a trip!”
The words struck her as unfamiliar. She didn’t remember him sharing anything like this before.
Each photo had its own caption, like an earnest record of his joy.
“Wendy took me to the park!”
“Wendy said she’s too scared to ride the roller coaster!”
“Wendy bought me ice cream!”
“Wendy…”
“Wendy…”
Wendy vividly remembered that one moment with the ice cream.
At the time, she had been trying to be fair, striving to keep the balance between Frankie and Joshua. She worried that favoritism, no matter how unintentional, might sow resentment in Frankie’s heart. So, she had planned an outing for all three of them.
Initially, the ice cream was meant for Frankie. Wendy had bought it for him specifically, but just as she handed it over, he declined with a sudden disinterest. Without thinking much of it, she passed it to Joshua instead.
She remembered that before he took the ice cream, he even wiped the sweat from his palms onto his shirt in a hurried gesture of anticipation. At that time, she had wrinkled her nose at the sight and felt that he was unhygienic and a little gross.
And yet, none of that mattered to him. He held the ice cream as though it was the most precious gift he had ever received.
Most of those images either featured her or places tied to her. She could still recall how the trip had ended
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Chapter 44 The Big Sister He Once Loved
Finished
abruptly. Frankic, appearing bored and uninterested, had decided to leave halfway through. Claiming work as her excuse, she had also left, leaving Joshua to take a cab back by himself.
At the time, she had thought little of it. But looking back now, something tightened painfully in her chest. The weight of guilt and regret pressed down, constricting her breath.
“Young entrepreneur representative speaking soon. Wendy will be taking the stage! I’ll be watching.”
As she continued scrolling, she stumbled upon another post, one that was also about her.
“Beautiful and intelligent!”
“A woman of unmatched elegance, always exceptional and always stunning!”
“The sister I admire most in my heart!”
Wendy’s eyes reddened again. She squatted on the ground, hands clasped tightly over her mouth. and tried desperately to stifle the sobs that shook her chest.
She remembered that day, standing on a stage at a small–town meeting. It was an open–air gathering, welcoming anyone interested to attend.
The speakers were a group of young entrepreneurs.
Because of the Fraser Family and their family business, Wendy was invited to attend, where she shook hands with some business owners and officials before delivering a speech about her entrepreneurial experiences and management stories.
Logically speaking, such an event should have been inaccessible to someone like Joshua. Yet, somehow. inexplicably, he had been there. She had no idea how he managed it, but he had attended that meeting and, more astonishingly, had captured numerous photos of her during her speech. He had never mentioned it, not a word.
She had once been the source of his pride, the person he admired and looked up to the most.
Just one trip together had been enough to fill him with uncontainable joy.
She used to be the brightest light in his life, the sister he chased after with every ounce of his being, the person he idolized and held in the highest regard.
And yet, what had she done in return?
“Wendy, you’ll face the consequences of your actions!”
The words rang in her ears like a curse, relentless and unforgiving.
Her control broke. A muffled sob escaped her lips, quickly growing louder as she crumpled under the weight of her emotions.
She wept, unable to hold back the flood of tears that streamed down her face.
The price hikes for bananas and longans had become strikingly apparent. The investigation report was
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In the Pasasi coastal regions, vast banana plantations had completely fallen. The extent of the destruction was staggering, and the subsequent rise in banana prices became a stark reality.
Fear of theft weighed heavily on their minds. The four of them, Joshua, Tom, and their two companions, decided to take no chances. Each took a day off from work to guard the warehouse, unwilling to leave it unattended even for a moment.
As orphans, they were all too familiar with the risks of theft. Experience had taught them hard lessons, and they were determined not to make such a basic mistake.
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Promise to Punish My Ridiculous Family
