Chapter 9
Edward Quan ·
Mom waited for a month.
Every day, whenever someone walked by, she asked if her son had come.
Gradually, the nursing-home staff stopped answering her.
She started telling everyone that my brother was hiring a helper and would come get her once the house was ready.
But my brother never showed up again.
His phone was always off, too.
At last, the caregiver had no choice but to call me.
When I arrived at the nursing home, Mom was clutching a wrinkled piece of paper.
She pressed it into my hand.
It was my brother's new address.
“Go find Kang Wei.”
“Tell him to come take me home.”
I put the address back on her bedside table.
“This is between you and your son.”
Mom grew anxious and kept pounding the bed frame with her hand.
“He has 3.8 million yuan. How can he refuse to look after me?”
“You chose to give him the money and the house.”
She stared at me for a long time.
The anger on her face slowly disappeared, leaving only fear.
Only then did she realize that what she'd given away wasn't just her property.
It was also her last way out.
That evening, my sister-in-law posted on social media.
She and my brother sat in their new house, a home purchase agreement on the table.
Her status read only: “Finally transferred all the money. Tomorrow, a new life begins.”
The next day, my brother waited outside the Civil Affairs Bureau for three hours.
My sister-in-law never showed.
She took their daughter and moved away, leaving him only a divorce agreement.
The house near the school was in her name.
The new house was in her name, too.
She'd used most of the 3.8 million yuan to buy property and pay off her family's debts.
Unable to find his wife, the first thing my brother did was rush into the nursing home.
He wasn't there to take Mom home.
He came to vent his anger.
He stormed into her room and grabbed her by the collar.
“This is all your fault!”
“If you weren't paralyzed, why would Xiao Ya hate this family?”
The caregiver hurried over to stop him.
Mom curled up in her wheelchair, a bloody scratch across her face from his nails.
She didn't hit him back or even scold him.
She only stared blankly at the son she'd loved all her life.
But my brother's words grew crueler and crueler.
“Why did you have to get sick right now?”
“If you could still cook and watch the kid, would Xiao Ya have left?”
“You gave me the money, but I couldn't even keep the house. What good are you?”
Mom slowly raised the hand she could still move.
It was as though she still wanted to soothe him by patting his head, the way she had when he was little.
My brother slapped her hand away.
Before leaving, he even demanded that the nursing home refund the remaining balance.
The director brought out the account statement.
There was no money to refund. My brother owed more than sixty thousand yuan.
He didn't even look at it.
“Whoever brought her here can pay.”
“I don't have any money. Go find my sister.”
The next day, Mom contacted legal aid for the first time.
She wanted to revoke the gift transfers she'd made to my brother.
After hearing the whole story, the lawyer told her that the gifts had been completed long ago and the properties had already been retitled. It would be difficult to recover everything.
But my brother had signed an agreement with a caregiving clause, and now he was refusing to honor it. She could demand that he cover the expenses and, depending on the circumstances, seek other remedies.
On the day of the hearing, Mom came in a wheelchair.
When the judge asked about the asset transfers, she no longer covered for my brother as she had before.
“I gave my son the two houses, eight hundred thousand yuan, and the shop.”
When asked about his abandonment of her, she also admitted that he'd left her outside my home.
My brother suddenly sprang to his feet.
“Mom, are you crazy?”
Mom shrank back in fear.
By instinct, she looked at her son, the same deference she'd shown him for years still in her eyes.
But this time, she didn't change her testimony.
“Kang Wei, I gave you everything.”
She looked at her son, tears falling.
“Why wouldn't you even give me a bed?”
My brother ground his teeth.
Long crushed by debt, divorce, and lawsuits, he finally let out everything he'd been holding inside.
“Because you favored me!”
The courtroom fell silent.
Mom froze, too.
My brother pointed at her.
“You knew Sis had married well, and you still gave me everything.”
“Since I was little, you told me that whatever belonged to my sister belonged to me, too.”
“You taught me that all I had to do was hold out my hand and someone would give me money. Now that you're out of money, you want to come back and be my burden.”
His voice grew louder and louder.
“I'm like this because you spoiled me!”
Mom trembled.
The son she'd loved all her life had finally told her to her face.
Her favoritism hadn't earned her filial devotion.
It had only raised a son who would never be satisfied.
The court ruled that my brother had to pay the outstanding expenses and continue to take primary responsibility for Mom's care under the agreement.