15
Liam walked home, dazed and distraught.
Eleanor and Alex were sitting in the living room. Richard was away or
on a business trip.
His tears dripped onto the floor, drip, drip, drip.
Eleanor jumped, quickly getting up to ask her son, “Liam, what’s wrong?”
Liam kept shaking his head. The boy looked like a helpless child.
Liam kept shaking his head. The boy looked like a helpless child.
“Mom… sister… sister is sick… what do we do?”
Eleanor’s face instantly went pale.
She
he gripped Liam’s arm tightly.
“What did you say? Jessica! What happened to my Jessica?”
Liam’s heart sank with a dull thud, turning numb.
It was at that moment that he truly understood how profoundly ignored his sister was at home.
Why was her first reaction Jessica?
Did Elara truly hold so little weight in their hearts?
He opened his mouth blankly. “It’s our sister, our biological sister! My biological sister is sick.
“Late–stage stomach cancer… the doctor said she can’t be saved…
“Mom? What do we do, sister can’t be saved…
Eleanor stumbled back two steps, collapsing onto the sofa.
Biological sister?
Late–stage stomach cancer…
Can’t be saved?
No, no, no! Impossible…
Alex’s hand, holding his phone, clenched abruptly.
So that was it…
Last time, he hadn’t misjudged.
His sister had spit up blood…
He gritted his teeth, his knuckles white.
Why hadn’t he pressed her for answers last time…?
*Jax said sister has no money for treatment. How can she have no money?”
Liam shook Eleanor’s body, questioning in disbelief.
“Mom? You didn’t give sister money? How could she have no money? Jessica gets ten thousand every month for allowance!”
Eleanor murmured, “When she first came back, Marcus gave her a card.”
“Jessica said that she’d never lived such a luxurious life as a child, and giving her so much at once would make her spoiled, so your father and I didn’t give her ony…
“Right! Marcus gave it to her. I’ll call him and ask how much.”
Eleanor quickly pulled out her phone, dialed Marcus’s number, and asked him.
“Ten thousand, Marcus sald gravely.
Eleanor’s lips trembled. “Why did you give so little?”
“Did she spend it? Is she out of money?”
“Did she ask you for money? Did you give it to her? Why didn’t you give it to her?! Huh?!”
Eleanor started talking to herself.
Marcus frowned, unsure what was happening.
“Mom, calm down. I’ll ask my assistant.”
d his assistant to check the supplementary card given to Elara.
He called his
The assistant said only a few hundred had been spent on that card, and the location was City Hospital One.
The speakerphone’s voice was audible to everyone.
Liam cradled his head, squatting on the floor. Only a few hundred had been spent…
Jax said his sister secretly went to buy painkillers. She only bought painkillers.
Did she simply not want to live anymore….?
“She doesn’t want treatment. It must be because we’ve been so awful to her, she wants to leave us!”
He slapped himself. “Why? Why were we so awful to her?!”
