I always remembered what Marcella said in the basement: My brother was so nice to you the first time he saw you, even got into a fight for you! My mom just took one look at you and said you looked like her.
Matthew said he had seen me, but I probably didn’t notice him.
That year he went to the school to see Marcella. On the tree-lined path at school, I walked in front of them. Not far ahead, a few street punks were making rude comments about me. He hadn’t planned to get involved-it had nothing to do with him. But when I turned my head, he suddenly got emotional and yelled at those punks, then started fighting with them. I didn’t know what the fight was about. Even though I looked back, it was no different from looking at a random passerby.
Matthew got hurt and went to the school nurse. Marcella kept complaining, saying I was bad luck. Matthew just smiled. To him, it was just doing the right thing, maybe a bit impulsive.
Ryan and Cathy joked a bit, Did you fall for some girl? Are you looking for a girlfriend? Matthew said no. Actually, even he didn’t know where that sudden feeling and urge to protect came from.
This thing blew over pretty fast. Until the end of that semester, Cathy and Matthew Marcella together to go home. Downstairs at the dorm, they saw me. “Mom, that’s the
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A TI0usan inccuits for LUVU
troublemaker. Because of her, I’m not the prettiest girl at school anymore, and she even got
Matthew hurt!”
Cathy looked at me, kind of spaced out.
“Matt, did you think she looked kind of familiar?”
“It was a bit.”
Cathy didn’t say it straight out. They had been looking for their real daughter for years and had gone through too many times of hope and disappointment. At that moment, they felt nervous about finally being so close to home. But Marcella slowly figured it out, found a chance to pull my hair, and compared my DNA with Cathy’s.
At this point, Matthew stopped.
He looked at me, his eyes almost eager, and the words “you’re my real sister” rolled around on his lips over and over.
I had already guessed this relationship, but even now I didn’t dare to say it out loud. This wasn’t just about me, it was about two families. My mom didn’t want it, and I couldn’t hurt my
mom.
So I said slowly, “So Marcella was the first to know?”
“Yes,” Matthew said, “we only found out a few days ago too… Sorry, we didn’t take good care of you and let Marcella hurt you instead.”
“Where is she now?” I asked.
3 E
“Her parents kicked her out, she probably went to Jacob’s place.” Matthew paused, “But… it’s been days, she hasn’t shown up around Jacob, and we’ve been looking for her too.”
I just said “yeah,” and had a feeling things wouldn’t end well for her.
That guy Jacob, he could do anything for her, but once he found out she wasn’t what he wanted, he would make her life a living hell.
“The kid?”
“Not Jacob’s, and didn’t have leukemia.”
I have to say, Matthew was really thoughtful. Basically, whenever I wanted to ask something, as soon as I started, he just told me everything.
I smiled and said “thanks.”
He hesitated for a moment and said, “My mom made some chicken broth, it smells really good, do you want to try it?”
I didn’t hesitate: “Sure, thank Mrs. Simpson for me. If you don’t mind, I’d like lan to try it too.” I stayed in the hospital for three whole months.
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Thousand Needles for Love
During this time, I saw Jacob once more. It had been a month since I last saw him, which was when he smashed his own shoulder.
He was in the hospital this time. He did it to himself, swallowed a needle at home. It was his assistant who couldn’t find him and broke in with some people. Empty bottles were all over the floor, the whole place reeked of booze.
Jacob slumped against the sofa, sitting on the floor. Dark red blood sprayed out, splattering all over the living room floor. There were a few shiny silver needles scattered in the blood.
The assistant was scared to death and rushed him to the hospital. At the same time, they called Dorothy. The hospital did emergency surgery and took more than ten embroidery needles out of his esophagus and stomach.
Dorothy stood at the door of the operating room for a while, then came to find me.
“Belle, Jake, he…” The old man’s cloudy eyes were full of pleading.
“Madam Thornton, since you couldn’t offer protection when you had Belle as your granddaughter-in-law, why bother now?” lan turned her down for me right away.
Dorothy left in a huff. When she left, she said a few things about Jacob: first, the CEO of the Thornton Group had changed; second, after Jacob hurt his shoulder last time, he refused to see a doctor, and now his bone was out of place; third, he was drinking like crazy, had stomach bleeding many times, and this time he was really pushing himself to the limit.
After lan sent the people away, he turned to me and asked, “Is there any saying about swallowing needles?”
“Anyone who let down someone’s true feelings had to swallow ten thousand silver needles.”
“Then he was still short by more than 9,900 needles, lan laughed, “Also, these silver needles were way longer than regular ones.”
I laughed along.
I liked to watch lan smile.
lan’s smile had a kind of easygoing vibe, with a sunny feel to it. It could flow from the corners of his eyes right into your heart. It was totally different from Jacob’s businessman style.
He sat down by the bed and brought a spoonful of chicken broth to my mouth: “This one was made by Mom today, come on, open your mouth.”
“I could do it myself.” I reached out for the spoon.
lan dodged nimbly, and the chicken broth was brought to my mouth again: “What do you mean do it yourself, your hand’s not better yet.”
I looked at him, silently accusing him. I wasn’t useless, it’s not like I couldn’t even eat
He was helpless and put the chicken broth on the small table. I used my good hand
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spoon and drank it slowly.
“Chicken broth wasn’t made by Mom, right?” “Did you think I was too bossy?”
We spoke at the same time.
“Grandma liked to put herbs in chicken broth, but my mom thought it tasted like medicine and never put any in. Your chicken broth had several kinds of herbs, the herbal taste almost covered up the meat flavor.”
lan hurriedly held the soup bowl with both hands: “Then don’t drink it, I’ll make a new one later.”
I looked at him and smiled, “No, it’s good. It’s the best chicken broth I’ve ever had.”
lan looked skeptical and leaned over to take a sip from my spoon. When his warm lips brushed the edge of the spoon, I heard my heart skip a beat.
“Is it really that good?” His eyes were really bright.
I
“Yeah.” I nodded hard, just like when I was a kid, “I like it, it smells like you, I like you the most!”
lan smiled and rubbed my head, and every bit of light in his eyes was restraint.
“I liked Belle the most, too.”
My eyes flicked over a spot on his neck-there was a new mark there, probably from getting hurt during the mission yesterday.
“lan.”
“Huh?”
“Mrs. Simpson brought soup every day, and if I couldn’t finish it, it just went to waste. Instead of spending time making soup, you should’ve just slept more.”
“Okay…” he hesitated, “Oh right, Jacob was in 605.”
I instantly understood what he meant by bossy.
He was the one who slapped the “divorce papers” on Jacob. He was the one who turned down Dorothy’s plea for me… Now he told me Jacob’s room number, which put the ball back in my
court.
S
+ A
”
4
t
k
I wanted to tell him, I actually didn’t care about Jacob anymore.
But I really had to go.
***
Inpatient Department 605.
Jacob had already had the surgery. He was lying in the hospital bed, and the people taking care of him were the hospital caregivers and the Thornton family’s nanny.
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When I walked to the bedside, his unfocused eyes suddenly lit up. He struggled to sit up, ariu
