Living in the Shadow of My Cousin

Two of his fingers were slightly scraped.

Clara got scared and quickly helped him leave.

"Hurry, let's get to the hospital!"

My mom was still upset and suddenly pushed my daughter to the ground.

"Stop crying already! Are you trying to cry someone into dying?"

I crawled over and picked up my daughter, my heart ached so much.

"Mom, I'm your son and she's your granddaughter! How can you be so harsh to us?"

"I have one question for you. Back then, when you increased the bride price and made Jeane break off the engagement with me, forcing me to marry Clara … what do you have to say about that?"

My mom's face darkened and she slapped me hard.

"What's there to explain? You're my son, so you have to obey me!"

"I'm warning you, if anything happens to Victor, I won't let you off!"

My mom turned and went to the living room to pick up Nathan, then hurried off to catch up with Clara and the others.

I started coughing worse and spat up blood several times. The surgery site probably tore again.

My daughter got scared, so I had to pick her up and rush to catch a taxi to the hospital.

As soon as the doctor finished treating my wound, my mom and Clara showed up.

"Are you just going to lie there playing dead? You need to get up and apologize to Victor now!"

"His hand is injured; he can't play piano these days. Do you know how much you've set him back?"

I'd just had stitches and really couldn't get up. My daughter was already asleep on another hospital bed.

My mom grabbed me and pulled me up, but I immediately fell to the floor.

A nurse saw this and quickly stepped in to stop her.

"The patient just had stitches. You need to be gentle."

Clara froze for a moment, then snapped back to her senses.

"What are you pretending? You're perfectly fine! Now you're faking an illness because of your lungs?"

My mom slapped me again and my ears started ringing.

"You're so pathetic, making a fool of yourself!"

Just then, my mom's phone rang, showing "My Dear Victor" on the screen.

She immediately softened her tone.

"Oh, you want porridge? Okay, I'll go get it right away."

"Where's Nathan? I'm going to buy some fried chicken drumsticks, so wait for me."

My mom shot me a fierce glare and then walked away.

Clara hurried to follow her but suddenly stopped and glanced back at me.

"Victor is with the kids and his hand is injured. It's hard for him to manage over there, so I need to check on him."

She felt sorry for Victor but never thought about how her own husband and daughter were also left without care. After all this time being busy, we still hadn't had a single bite to eat.

It didn't matter anymore. These days, I didn't expect anything.

I called my good friend Louis.

About an hour later, he showed up with the printed documents.

"Come on … stay at my place!" he said.

Tears filled my eyes as I nodded.

After a long struggle and making sure with the doctors that everything was all right, they were finally ready to leave the hospital. But then a nurse came running after them.

"Your husband left something behind for you."

Clara took the papers and looked them over.

"A divorce agreement? And a document terminating parental rights?"