The Son They Never Wanted Became the One They Needed Chapter 02

The Son They Never Wanted Became the One They Needed Chapter 02

I looked down at the pile of fruit peels in my hands.

Then I laughed.

I tossed them into the trash, pulled out my phone, and booked an intercity train ticket to Ashford City for three days later.

I really didn’t like Disneyland.

Not because it was too noisy.

Because that was where my family had once abandoned me.

I was seven the first time Mom took us there.

Before we went in, she reminded us over and over to stay close to the adults.

I listened.

I held tightly to her hand.

But the moment we entered the park, Logan spotted a parade float.

He squealed with excitement and ran straight into the crowd.

Mom rushed after him.

I was jerked forward and stumbled a couple of steps, and the instant our hands separated, the sea of people swallowed me whole.

I sat on the ground and cried until I couldn’t breathe.

Eventually, a park employee carried me to the guest services office.

They made announcement after announcement over the loudspeakers.

No one came.

It wasn’t until evening that Mom finally showed up with Logan.

The employee frowned.

“We’ve been paging for hours. Why didn’t you come pick up your son?”

Mom smiled apologetically.

“I have three kids. They’re just too energetic. I couldn’t keep up with all of them.”

“Besides, he was safe here. You had air conditioning and staff watching him.”

On the drive home, she bought me an ice cream to make up for it.

Vanessa and Logan chatted excitedly about all the rides they’d gone on.

I stared out the car window as fireworks exploded across the sky.

The ice cream in my mouth tasted bitter and salty

“Mom, do these look good on me?”

Logan’s voice pulled me back to the present.

He had on a pair of fashionable glasses that made his features look even sharper.

The sales associates gathered around him, showering him with compliments.

Mom couldn’t stop smiling.

She bought the four-hundred-dollar frames without blinking.

Even though Logan didn’t need glasses.

Then she turned to me.

Her smile disappeared.

“Ethan Carter, I told you not to pick such expensive frames.”

My hand paused.

Quietly, I put them back.

I grabbed a cheap plastic pair from the budget display instead.

Natalie Brooks frowned.

“Why’d you pick those? They’re bulky and ugly. Try another pair.”

I pressed my lips together.

Ever since we’d walked into the store, every pair I picked had something wrong with it.

The same frames looked “great” on Logan.

On me, they suddenly became awkward and unattractive.

The saleswoman stood beside us with a tray in her hands.

Her polite smile looked increasingly uncomfortable.

Finally, Logan yawned and leaned against my sister’s shoulder.

“Hey, Ethan. Are you done yet? I’m exhausted.”

My sister checked the time on her phone.

“We’ve been here three hours. We should head home.”

Mom took the receipt, slipped an arm around Logan, and walked toward the exit without looking back.

“Your brother’s tired. I’ll transfer you the money for your glasses when we get home. Just buy them yourself before school starts.”

“Okay,” I said calmly.

But I already knew that transfer probably wasn’t coming.

Too many things that were supposed to be bought for me had ended the same way.

I’ll send you the money later.

And then…

Nothing.

Fortunately, I only had one day left at my summer job at the bubble tea café.

If I wanted something, I could buy it myself.

The next day, I went to work as usual.

It was summer break, and customers kept streaming through the door.

During my lunch break, I’d barely taken two bites of a bread roll before another order came in.

“Welcome to—”

I looked up.

My eyes met Logan’s.

He looked surprised.

“Ethan? You work here?”

He blinked before smiling.

“Did Mom’s allowance run out again?”

That one word—

Again.

It stung.

The last time Mom had given me spending money was three months earlier.

Less than three hundred dollars.

Even if I lived on bread rolls and pickles every day, it wasn’t enough.

When I finally got so hungry that I asked Mom for more money, she snapped at me.

“Why can’t you be more like Logan? You both get the same allowance, and he’s never complained once.”

Of course Logan never complained.

Mom visited him every week.

She took him out for nice meals and bought him new clothes.

My sister sent him money whenever she felt like it, terrified he’d go hungry.

But no one had ever bothered to calculate what my meals actually cost.

Even the cheapest food in the school cafeteria was around twenty dollars a day.

How was three hundred dollars supposed to last three months?

If it hadn’t been for my part-time job and my scholarship, I probably would’ve starved.

Seeing my expression, one of my coworkers quietly stepped in to take the order.

I stayed in the corner.

Logan and a group of his classmates were chatting about this year’s SAT results.

“I heard this year’s state valedictorian is from Brookhaven High School,” one of them said.

“And it’s a guy. Logan, doesn’t your brother go to Brookhaven too? Does he know him?”

Logan glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

His expression didn’t change.

“He didn’t even meet the SAT score requirement.”

“There’s no way he’d know the state valedictorian.”