Chapter 11
Edward Quan ·
“That’s why I haven’t abandoned you.”
“But you’re no longer my whole life.”
10
In the end, Mom returned to the care home.
She stopped demanding I bring her home, began cooperating with rehabilitation, and learned to manage her own care funds.
The court gradually recovered 1.6 million yuan.
She contacted her lawyer to change her will and leave it all to me.
When my brother heard, he rushed to the home that night.
Kneeling beside her bed, he cried and apologized.
“Mom, Xiaoya deceived me.”
“I have nothing now. Only you.”
Her eyes slowly reddened.
Seeing her soften, he immediately grabbed her hand.
“My sister has a husband, a son, and a job.”
“She has everything. I have nothing.”
Mom had said that to me countless times.
Because he had nothing, I had to yield.
Houses. Money. Opportunities.
In the end, even our parents’ love should go to him.
She lifted the arm she could still move.
He thought she meant to stroke his hair and hurriedly leaned closer.
The next moment, she slapped him.
Her hand trembled.
But she didn’t take back her words.
“What she has, she earned herself.”
“You have nothing because you squandered everything that came to you.”
He covered his face.
For a few seconds, he knelt in blank shock. Then pleading turned to resentment.
“You told me from childhood that everything my sister had was mine!”
“You gave me everything, and now you blame me?”
“You’re responsible for how I turned out too!”
Mom closed her eyes. Tears ran down her cheeks.
“I am responsible.”
She admitted it very slowly.
When she opened her eyes, she no longer defended him as before.
“So from today, I won’t fill another hole for you.”
She rang for security.
As he was dragged out, he still shouted that she favored her daughter.
The door slammed. Mom turned toward me.
She pushed the revised will across, a trace of ingratiating hope on her face.
“I’m giving you all this money.”
“This time, I’ll favor you.”
I didn’t take it.
“I don’t need favoritism.”
Her hand stopped in the air.
“And I don’t need to step on my brother to prove I deserve love more.”
She lowered her head.
The will remained alone on the table.
Six months later, she suffered a second stroke.
When she reached hospital, my brother wouldn’t answer his phone.
I signed the surgery consent and waited outside the emergency room all night.
She remained unconscious for seven days.
On the eighth, she briefly woke.
Seeing me, a tear slowly rolled from the corner of her eye.
I bent close before I could hear her words.
“My daughter.”
“This time, I won’t force you.”
She died before dawn the next morning.
My brother didn’t appear at the funeral until noon.
He stormed into the mourning hall without looking at her portrait or asking when she had died.
“Who gets the 1.6 million?”
The whole hall fell silent.
The lawyer read the will aloud.
Mom admitted that, to protect her son, she had falsely accused her daughter of taking assets and refusing care.
She left the recovered 1.6 million to me while preserving the right to recover care and medical expenses from him.
He sprang up.
“She’s dead, and you still want money from me?”
The lawyer closed the file.
“The relevant debts will be handled according to law.”
My brother turned toward me.
Only then did real fear show on his face.
“Sis, we’re each other’s closest family in the world.”
“You can’t drive me to death.”
I took out the prepared documents.
“I refuse the inheritance.”
Mom’s estate would first pay the medical and nursing costs incurred while she lived.
I decided to donate whatever remained to a nonprofit helping women with family-property appropriation and care disputes.
He lunged for the papers.
Chen Zheng stepped forward and stood in front of me.
My brother struggled, roaring at me over his shoulder.
“Over a million yuan! You’d rather give it to strangers than me?”
“Mom gave you more than enough.”
His eyes were bloodshot.
“I’m the son!”
“This family’s money should be mine!”
The relatives scattered backward.
This time, no one defended him.
Enforcement officers soon arrived.
His loans, unpaid wages, and care arrears would continue to be pursued.
Before they took him away, he still cursed Mom for favoring her daughter at the end.
But he had forgotten.