Chapter 6
Sure enough…
I sat on the sofa, watching Mrs. Shields cry, her plaintive complaints filling my ears: “I never thought that after raising her for over a decade, she’d still turn out this way! Where have I wronged her, that she would stab me in the heart like this! “As a mother, I’ve tried my best to treat both Julie and Clara equally! I can say with a clear conscience that I’ve done right by everyone. How could Julie… how could
she! Clara is my own flesh and blood!”
Mrs. Shields sobbed for a while without receiving any comfort from me. She opened her swollen eyes and said to me, “Clara, why… why aren’t you saying anything? You resent Mom too, don’t you?”
“Of course! Isn’t it normal to resent you?”
Not getting the answer she wanted, Mrs. Shields looked stunned and said in
disbelief, “Resent me? You resent me too?”
After such a long day, I didn’t have the energy to act out the ‘everything’s fine‘
charade with Mrs. Shields.
I decided to speak plainly: “Treating us equally? Treating us equally is the greatest injustice! Why was I switched at birth in the first place? You and Dad should bear some responsibility, shouldn’t you? Your negligence caused me over a decade of suffering, and in the end, I’m treated the same as the daughter of kidnappers who
stole my place? You must be joking!
“What did I say on my first day in the Shields house? I said I could never call Julie my sister, but you didn’t listen at all, treating my words like they meant nothing. “I’m a very practical person. You either give me a lot of money to compensate for the pain I’ve suffered, or you give me a lot of love to make up for the lack of family affection. You’re not willing to part with money, stopping Dad from giving me shares in Shields Corp. And your so–called love means making me and Julie beg like dogs in front of you, pleading for scraps of maternal affection.”
“What gives you the right? And what gives me any reason to do so? Am I some kind of worthless person?”
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06
Quick and decisive, I finished speaking and went upstairs, leaving behind a room full of silence.
The next day, Mr. Shields came to me, his words sincere, expressing his willingness to give me more shares in Shields Corp.
It was clearly compensation for me, and I had no reason not to accept. After signing the papers, I went out and ran into Mrs. Shields, whose eyes were flickering with hesitation. She stammered, hoping I could give her another chance. This time, I calmly met her gaze: “I can interact with you normally, but I can’t give you scenes of filial piety. They say it’s hard to mend a broken mirror in love, and I think the same applies to family relationships.”
As I strode forward, I heard Mrs. Shields‘ regretful sobs behind me…
Hadn’t I ever hoped for maternal love?
I had hoped for it, but the moment I witnessed Mrs. Shields‘ muddled behavior, my
heart died.
Without Julie, that ticking time bomb, summer vacation life was incredibly pleasant.
Soon after, Julie’s sentence was announced: fifteen years in prison, just in time to keep her birth mother company during her twenty–year sentence.
On August 30th, I bid farewell to the Shields family, and pushing my suitcase, I boarded a plane to the capital to begin a new chapter in my life.
Now, my path ahead is smooth, and all my wishes can come true.
As I gazed out the window lost in thought, a familiar voice sounded in my ear once again: “What a coincidence, future classmate…
(The End)
