I Got a Second Chance, So I Stopped Saving My Brother Chapter 09

I Got a Second Chance, So I Stopped Saving My Brother Chapter 09

Paige left that night anyway.

She left all the Bennett family jewelry behind and did not take a single bank card.

With only a bag over her shoulder, she ran out of the house without even stopping to change her shoes.

My mother sat on the couch and cried.

She was not crying because Paige had left.

She was crying over what the Bennett family had become.

I poured her a glass of warm water.

“Mom, don’t be upset. You still have me.”

She looked up at me.

For a moment, it was as though she had finally remembered that she still had a biological daughter.

I knew how to play the dutiful daughter.

I went with her to the hospital, helped my father go through the store’s accounts, and ran promotions for the family business.

I had grown up in a remote mountain town with no one to love or protect me. If I wanted enough food to eat, I had to learn how to read people’s moods and stay on their good side.

After returning to the Bennett family, I studied relentlessly and did everything I could to fit in.

They still looked down on me as some backwoods hick and complained that I was not as poised or self-assured as Paige.

Once I stopped trying to earn their love, I found I could handle them with ease.

My father praised me for the first time after I helped him land a new order.

“Willa, you’re far more capable than I expected.”

I smiled.

“As long as you’re willing to teach me, Dad, I’m willing to learn.”

It was exactly what he wanted to hear.

When Mason found out, he spent the entire night smashing things in his room.

The next day, he summoned me inside.

The room reeked.

He refused to let the aide clean up, as though he were deliberately turning himself into a complete wreck.

He stared at me.

“Are you trying to steal what belongs to me?”

I placed his medication on the bedside table and answered gently, “Mason, why would you think that? I’m your sister. I’m only learning the business so I can help you.”

He sneered.

“Help me?”

“Of course.” I lowered my head and poured him a glass of water.

“You’re not well, and Mom and Dad do not know what to do. I’ll keep the family business steady for now. Once you recover, I’ll hand everything back to you.”

Mason studied me for a long time.

He wanted to believe me, but he was afraid to.

I held out his medication.

“Mason, you need to take your medication on time. The sooner you recover, the sooner Mom and Dad can stop worrying.”

He finally took the pills.

I watched him swallow them and felt nothing.

The medication was real.

I had simply found him a few additional “friends.”

When someone had already hit rock bottom, it did not take much to pull him even deeper.

Before long, Mason began sneaking out of the house.

He fell in with a group of gamblers he met through card games.

They praised him for being a stand-up guy, called him boss, and told him that even in a wheelchair, he still commanded respect.

Mason believed them.

He desperately needed to feel admired.

And just like that, he sank into an even deeper hole.