Chapter 720: You Must Be Good to Your Younger Brother
Chapter 720: Chapter 720: You Must Be Good to Your Younger Brother
Hearing Lucy Summers’ words, Sheryl Sawyer felt an uncontrollable sense of disappointment well up inside.
’If Lucy Summers isn’t Sweetie, then where could Sweetie be...’
She pressed her lips together, suppressing the turbulent emotions in her chest, and said with feigned calm, "It’s okay. I can accept whatever the result is."
"Okay." Lucy Summers nodded. "So, how can I help?"
Renee Jennings said softly, "We’ll need a sample from you for the test. Hair with the follicle, or a used water glass, bowl, or chopsticks—something like that."
"Can I just pull out a couple of hairs, then?" Lucy Summers said, reaching up and plucking a few strands from her head.
She thought for a moment, then pulled a half-empty bottle of mineral water from her bag. "And this? Will this work?"
Renee Jennings: "Yes."
Before parting ways, Renee Jennings and Sheryl Sawyer both added Lucy Summers on WeChat.
They took the five o’clock evening flight back to Zenvia.
As soon as they got off the plane, Sheryl Sawyer was desperate to go get the DNA test done.
But she was too embarrassed to say anything.
Michelle Fuller was there to pick them up, and she said with a grin, "How about we go for some Yamato cuisine?"
Renee Jennings buckled her seatbelt. "Sounds good, but we need to stop by the testing center first, then we’ll eat."
"Alrighty," Michelle Fuller agreed. "Just put on the navigation."
Sheryl Sawyer subconsciously looked up, her gaze landing on Renee Jennings. Her voice was full of gratitude. "Renee, thank you."
"Why so formal? Am I not your friend?" Renee Jennings joked.
"No, no." Sheryl Sawyer explained, flustered. "Renee, don’t get me wrong, that’s not what I meant..."
"I’m just teasing you." Renee Jennings looked back at her, amused. "How come you can’t take a joke?"
"Sheryl, Renee’s bullying you. Let’s not hang out with her," Michelle Fuller said. "Instead of staying at her place tonight, how about you stay at mine?"
She figured if Sheryl Sawyer and Sean Fuller saw each other a few more times, they might start to develop feelings for each other.
After all, seeing each other more often was better than not seeing each other at all.
Renee Jennings laughed. "Michelle," she teased, "your little scheme is so obvious it’s practically smacking me in the face."
"What are you talking about?" Michelle Fuller said reproachfully. "Renee, don’t talk nonsense. What ulterior motives could I possibly have? I just like Sheryl and want to hang out with her more."
Hearing Michelle Fuller’s blunt words, Sheryl Sawyer’s cheeks grew warm, and she felt completely embarrassed.
"I know you’re joking, Michelle," she said quickly. "I won’t misunderstand."
"Good!" Michelle Fuller glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "So, wanna have a sleepover with me tonight?"
Sheryl Sawyer knew she didn’t mean anything by it, but the words still made her ears burn a little.
"How about another time?" she hesitated.
Michelle Fuller readily agreed. "Okay, okay! How about tomorrow then?"
Sheryl Sawyer: "Huh?"
Renee Jennings spoke up, "Sheryl, just ignore her. We’ll talk about it when you have a break."
"A break works too. Just remember to tell me in advance when it is," Michelle Fuller said with a sly laugh.
That night, Sheryl Sawyer lay in bed, her mind wide awake.
’If Lucy Summers is Sweetie,’ she thought, ’then I have to find a way to get her into college.’
’Sweetie is still so young. She should be like other girls, living a life full of youth and vitality on a college campus.’
’I’ll buy her lots of pretty clothes, figurines that young girls like, and all sorts of makeup...’
But as Sheryl Sawyer’s thoughts drifted, she couldn’t help but fall into a state of anxiety and unease.
’What if Lucy Summers isn’t Sweetie?’
That same night, Lucy Summers was also lying awake.
After shopping with a friend, she returned to her hotel. She took a shower and lay down on the bed, her mind drifting back to today’s conversation.
Sheryl Sawyer, Shirley Sawyer.
She turned the two names over and over in her mind.
If Shirley Sawyer hadn’t been taken by human traffickers, they would surely have been very close sisters.
Even their names were so similar.
’Shirley Sawyer... Who are you? Could you be me?’
Lucy Summers couldn’t help but recall her own childhood.
She remembered when she was very, very young, her parents loved her very much.
Every night after dinner, they would take her out to play, strolling down the pedestrian street and eating cotton candy.
Her father would hoist her onto his shoulders for a ride.
Her mother would tie her hair into cute braids and call her "my darling Lulu."
They said her mother had endured a difficult ten-month pregnancy and nearly bled to death to bring her into the world.
Her mother said she was flesh of her flesh, her sweet, caring daughter who warmed her heart.
Lucy Summers thought she would be her parents’ only child.
But one day, her father came home from work, and her mother said something to him. Then, the two of them embraced excitedly.
Her father shouted, ecstatic, "This is wonderful! We’re having another baby!"
Lucy Summers watched them, confused.
Later, her mother’s belly grew bigger and bigger.
And then, she had a little brother.
Her parents told her, "Lulu, this is your little brother. You have to be good to him from now on."
Little Lucy Summers took her parents’ words to heart.
Before, she was the precious daughter who rode on her father’s shoulders.
Afterward, she was the good older sister who carried her little brother on her back.
Lucy Summers always remembered her parents’ words—to be good to her brother.
But somewhere along the way, she forgot to be good to herself.
And she slowly came to realize that her parents seemed to treat her brother better.
One day, her father came home from work and brought a chocolate cake for her brother.
Meanwhile, she was quietly mopping the floor nearby, so quiet it was as if she wasn’t even part of the family.
Lucy Summers told herself that her father must not have had enough money that day, which was why he only brought a chocolate cake for her brother.
But every day after that, her father’s actions repeatedly proved her initial thought wrong.
It wasn’t that he didn’t have enough money that day; it was that her father had never even thought of buying a chocolate cake for her.
She had once mustered the courage to ask her mother.
"Why does Dad never buy cake for me?"
Her mother told her, "Lulu, you’re a good big sister. Your brother is different. He’s still little, and he only listens if he gets chocolate cake."
’So that’s how it was.’
’They only bought chocolate cake for my brother to make him behave.’
Lucy Summers breathed a sigh of relief.
’That’s great. It’s not that Mom and Dad don’t love me.’
But afterward, whenever her parents went out, they still only bought gifts for her brother. Whether it was snacks or toys, there was never anything for her.
Her mother said, "Lulu, I know you feel wronged, but we don’t have enough money to buy things for both of you. Your brother is younger, after all, so just let him have it, okay? When your dad gets paid next, I’ll buy you new clothes and a new backpack, and I’ll take you to KFC."
New clothes, a new backpack, KFC.
Lucy Summers waited expectantly, day after day, but her parents never made good on their promise.
By the year of her college entrance exams, she still hadn’t gotten the new clothes, the new backpack, or the trip to KFC. All she got was a single sentence—
"Lulu, I have some bad news. Your father was laid off. The family probably can’t afford to send both of you to school. Your brother is still young, so could you..."