Chapter 11
Edward Quan ·
The day before Mom was discharged, she asked the caregiver to help her out of bed.
Her right leg wouldn't bend, and she broke into a sweat with every step.
Before I could react, she dropped to her knees.
“Daughter, please.”
She clung to the side of the bed and wouldn't let the caregiver support her.
“Take me home.”
Everyone in the room turned to look at me.
In my previous life, she'd knelt like this outside my home, pressuring me to sell the house near our son's school to pay my brother's debts.
Back then, I thought she had done it because she loved my brother too much.
Only now did I understand that kneeling was just another way to make me give in.
I called the nurse to help her back into bed.
Mom panted, hope returning to her eyes.
“Have you agreed?”
“No.”
She went stiff.
After a moment of shock, she finally broke down.
“I apologized!”
“I even knelt down and begged you. What else do you want me to do?”
I handed the discharge papers to the caregiver.
“Apologizing is what you should have done.”
“It's not something you can use to buy forgiveness.”
Mom clutched the bedsheet.
I made the arrangements for her care going forward clear.
“I'll pay the expenses I'm responsible for. If a family member needs to sign something, I'll come.”
“But I won't quit my job to care for you, and I won't make my husband and son keep paying for the choices you've made.”
Mom's lips trembled.
At last, she managed only one sentence: “But I'm your mother.”
I walked to the door and turned to look at her.
“That's why I won't abandon you.”
“But you're no longer everything to me.”
In the end, Mom returned to the nursing home.
She stopped making a scene and demanding that I take her home. She began cooperating with rehabilitation and learned to manage her pension.
The court recovered 1.6 million yuan, one payment at a time.
She contacted a lawyer to revise her will, intending to leave all of it to me.
When my brother heard, he rushed to the nursing home that same evening.
He knelt beside Mom's bed, crying as he admitted he'd been wrong.
“Mom, Xiao Ya tricked me.”
“Now I have nothing left. I only have you.”
Mom looked at him, her eyes slowly reddening.
Seeing that she was softening, my brother immediately took her hand.
“She's got a husband, a son, and a job.”
“She has everything, while I have nothing.”
Mom had said those same words to me countless times.
Because my brother had nothing, I was supposed to give in.
Give up the house, the money, the opportunities.
In the end, I even had to give him our parents' love.
Mom lifted the hand she could still move.
My brother thought she was going to stroke his hair and leaned closer.
The next second, she slapped him across the face.
Her hand trembled.
But she didn't take back what she said.
“Everything your sister has, she earned herself.”
“You have nothing because you squandered what you were given.”
My brother clutched his face.
He knelt there in a daze for a few seconds. The pleading in his eyes slowly turned into hatred.
“Mom, you were the one who told me from childhood that anything my sister had was mine, too!”
“You gave me everything. Now you're blaming me?”
“You're responsible for the way I've turned out!”
Mom shut her eyes, tears running down her cheeks.
“I am responsible.”
She admitted it slowly.
When she opened her eyes again, she no longer tried to make excuses for her son.
“So from today on, I won't cover any more of your shortfalls.”
She pressed the call button for security.
As they dragged him out, my brother kept cursing her for favoring her daughter.
Once the door closed, Mom looked at me.
She pushed the revised will toward me, her face almost ingratiating.
“I've left all the money to you.”
“This time, let me favor you for once.”
I didn't take it.
“I don't need you to favor me.”
Mom's hand stopped midair.
“You don't have to step on your brother to prove you're more worthy of being loved.”
She lowered her head.
The will stayed on the table.
Half a year later, Mom had another stroke.
My brother's phone was still unanswered when she was brought to the hospital.
I signed the consent forms for surgery and waited outside the emergency room all night.
Mom was unconscious for seven days.
On the eighth day, she woke briefly.
When she saw me, a tear slowly rolled from the corner of her eye.
I leaned closer. Only then could I make out what she was saying.
“Daughter.”
“This time… I won't force you anymore.”
At dawn the next day, she passed away.
At the funeral, my brother didn't show up until noon.
He stormed into the wake. He didn't look at Mom's portrait or ask when she'd died.
“Who got the 1.6 million yuan?”
The entire hall fell silent.
The lawyer read the will aloud.
Mom admitted that while she was alive, she'd falsely accused her daughter of taking assets and refusing to support her, all to protect her son.
She left me the 1.6 million yuan that had been recovered, while preserving the right to seek reimbursement from my brother for the costs of Mom's care and medical treatment.
My brother suddenly jumped to his feet.
“She died and she's still trying to collect money from me?”
The lawyer closed the documents.
“The outstanding claims will be handled according to the law.”