Chapter 193
After the confrontation with Thomas, I desperately needed some fresh air.
My mind was filled with conflicting emotions–gratitude toward Henry for stopping Thomas, disgust at discovering Thomas’s true intentions, and shock from the entire situation.
I walked out of the building into the hospital garden, hoping the fresh air would help clear my head. Just as I began to calm down, I spotted the last person I wanted to see–my mother, Scarlett.
I realized she had been stalking me for days. The moment she saw me, she quickened her pace, her face breaking into a practiced smile.
“Sophia, darling! It’s your mother! Aren’t you going to say hello?” Her voice dripped with fake sweetness as she approached.
I met her gaze with ice in my eyes. “I don’t have a mother. Mine died years ago.”
Scarlett’s appearance had pushed my mood from bad to unbearable.
I stared at this woman who shared my blood but nothing else, wondering how there could be such mothers in the world.
Her face crumpled into a hurt expression, and tears appeared in her eyes right on cue. “How can you say such a thing? No matter what, I’ll always be your mother. I carried you for nine months, suffered through labor to bring you into this world. How can you be so ungrateful?”
Her voice had strategically risen, and I noticed several patients and visitors in the garden beginning to take notice of our exchange.
Feeling their eyes on us, Scarlett grew more confident, her performance becoming more dramatic.
“I raised her for so many years,‘ she lamented to the growing audience. “I worked hard to put her through college. Now that she has a good job, I just asked for a little financial help, and she not only refuses but pretends I don’t exist! Have you ever seen such an ungrateful child?”
Her hypocritical performance had the desired effect, with murmurs of disapproval starting to ripple through the crowd.
“How could you treat your mother like that?”
“Ungrateful daughter! Do you know how hard it is to raise a child?”
“You’re working now–what’s wrong with giving your mother some money?”
Someone recognized my hospital uniform. “She works here at the hospital! We should report her behavior to management. They shouldn’t employ someone with so little filial piety!*
I’d had enough!
Years of suppressed anger finally boiled over.
“Yes, she’s right about one thing–she is my biological mother!” I shouted, my voice cutting through the garden. “But from the age of six, I’ve taken care of myself! She abandoned me to marry her current husband, and after her wedding, she never once came back to check on me!”
My voice grew stronger as I continued. “About raising/me, she never showed me an ounce of love or spent a single dollar on me. During college, I worked multiple jobs while studying. I did it all myself–she had nothing to do with it!”
I looked directly at the crowd, my voice unwavering despite my anger. “Now that I’m finally making money, suddenly she remembers she has a daughter. Don’t you find that funny?”
My argument silenced the critics.
The atmosphere in the garden began to change, and public opinion started to reverse.
‘Just look at her–what kind of mother creates a scene at her daughter’s workplace? That alone proves she doesn’t care about her daughter at all.”
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Chapter 193
You’re right! If there’s a family problem, why not discuss it privately? Why make such a public spectacle?”
“This mother is terrible!”
Let’s go, folks. This is a family matter–let them handle it themselves.”
A kind–faced elderly woman caught my eye. “You’re doing great, dear. Don’t mind what others think. Stay strong!”
Seeing the crowd dispersing without taking her side, Scarlett gave up her performance. Once we were relatively alone, I got straight to the point.
“You’re here for money, aren’t you? Well, my hospital salary is nowhere near enough for your son’s wedding expenses, so you’re wasting your time.”
As I turned to leave, Scarlett desperately grabbed my arm. “Sophia, you can’t be so heartless! He’s your half–brother! Once he’s married, he’ll help you too. We just need a little financial support from you right now. Not much–just four hundred thousand dollars!”
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