Chapter 264: You Can’t Wake Someone Pretending to Sleep
Most importantly, he didn’t think for a second that his aging mother was suffering by living in a storage room. A wealthy family’s storage room was far more spacious than the cramped, dilapidated flat his own family of four had been squeezed into before.
’Since his mother could endure so much hardship in the past to raise him, what’s a little more suffering now for the sake of his future and career?’
Such a thought process seems absurd, but some people are perfectly capable of this kind of self-serving rationalization, feeling utterly justified. It has much to do with the values their parents instill in them from a young age. Suffice to say, in the cultivation of this bitter fruit, Mrs. Kohl’s own contribution was indispensable.
"And that’s to say nothing of your third son. Thanks to a loan from his eldest brother, he was able to attend university and find a relatively decent job after graduation. But being saddled with debt before even starting his career—a debt owed to his own family, no less—was something your third son found impossible to accept. Because of this, he grew to hate his eldest brother for not funding him for free. And he hated you, the mother who remained silent through it all, even more."
"In his eyes, your silence was ironclad proof that you favored his eldest brother. ’When Big Brother went to college,’ he thinks, ’he paid his tuition with the blood, sweat, and tears Second Brother earned from his labor. How come no one ever saw Big Brother pay that money back? But now it’s my turn, and not only do I have to pay it back, I have to pay interest? What kind of double standard is that?’"
As the saying goes, it is not scarcity but inequality that breeds discontent. The third son was blind to the suffering of his second brother and fourth sister; he was solely focused on comparing himself to his eldest brother. Believing Mrs. Kohl treated him worse than the firstborn, his heart filled with resentment and indignation. In his anger, he forgot all the kindness Mrs. Kohl had shown him over the years, fixating only on this single perceived slight.
"Do you think your third son only started finding you unbearable because his wife egged him on? That he made you live in a dog kennel and eat spoiled food because she provoked him?"
"He actually made his own mother live in a dog kennel?" Before anyone else could react, an auntie who had somehow made her way over to Arabella Donovan gasped in shock.
Mrs. Kohl’s expression faltered, but she stubbornly stuck her neck out. "That’s right! My children have been smart, kind, and sensible since they were little. If it weren’t for those bitches deliberately turning them against me, how could they possibly treat me this way?"
’So she’s even blaming her eldest daughter-in-law for her eldest son’s cold indifference and self-preservation?’
The onlookers were rendered speechless. ’This woman,’ they thought, ’is truly beyond saving.’
"I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed, then. Your third daughter-in-law has nothing against you; at most, she just doesn’t respect you. Making you live in a kennel, abusing and humiliating you—that was all your third son’s idea. She’s just been taking the fall for him."
"That’s impossible! I don’t believe it!" Mrs. Kohl could no longer contain herself and shrieked, her eyes glaring viciously at Arabella Donovan as if she wanted to tear her limb from limb.
The auntie in the yellow dress had known her for some time; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been chatting with her and Mrs. Shelby earlier. Seeing this side of Mrs. Kohl, so completely different from her usual self, the auntie’s heart sank. ’My husband was right after all,’ she lamented internally.
’My judgment of character has always been terrible, except for that one time I inexplicably hit the jackpot and picked my husband on a blind date!’
"You’re lying! My sons could never treat me like this! They’ve only become this way because they were deceived by those bitches! When they come to their senses, they’ll turn back into the good boys they used to be. Everything you’re saying is fake, all of it!"
You can never wake a person who is only pretending to be asleep. And more importantly, there seemed to be no reason to even try.
After hearing about the Kohl Family’s situation, Mrs. Donovan felt that Mrs. Kohl’s eldest and third sons were nothing but a pair of ungrateful wretches. In contrast, the second son and fourth daughter—the victims who were oppressed and exploited—seemed to have been less influenced by Mrs. Kohl’s true nature and might actually be decent people.
As was just mentioned, the fourth daughter had already found a happy life for herself after escaping that predatory family.
Once she was settled, she only kept in contact with her second brother, a fellow victim and the only one who had ever offered her a helping hand.
"So what about her second son... How is he doing now?"
"Her second son..." Arabella Donovan subconsciously glanced over at Mrs. Kohl.
A flicker of panic crossed Mrs. Kohl’s face, quickly replaced by resentment. "Don’t mention that unfilial boy. I don’t have such a selfish, ungrateful son."
Had Mrs. Kohl kept quiet, it would have been one thing, but her outburst piqued everyone’s curiosity.
After all, she didn’t consider her other sons—the ones who watched coldly as she was made to work like a nanny, live in a storage room, and sleep in a kennel—unfilial. In fact, she often defended them.
This second son, based on Arabella Donovan’s description, had saved his sister from being sold to some scumbag by their own mother, allowing her to escape that miserable family. His character was clearly better than that of his two brothers.
So how, in this woman’s telling, had he become the "selfish, ungrateful son"?
’Did he really do something terrible, or... was there more to the story?’
"Selfish? Ungrateful?" Arabella Donovan’s gaze turned icy as she sneered at Mrs. Kohl. "How else was he supposed to show his devotion? By giving you his life?"
Mrs. Kohl’s second son, like her fourth daughter, was at the bottom of the family’s pecking order, persecuted and oppressed. In fact, he was even more pitiable than his younger sister.
As the middle son, with a brilliant and capable older brother and a sweet-talking, favored younger brother, he was practically invisible in the family.
Good fortune never fell to him, but he was always first in line for misfortune.
When his older brother was headed to university, the second son was forced to drop out of school to save up money for the tuition. He worked multiple manual labor jobs, which left his body riddled with injuries.
Later, when the third son was ready for university, Mrs. Kohl hatched a vicious plan to sell her daughter. That was when this honest man, who had been timid for most of his life, found his courage and secretly helped his sister escape.
When the family discovered what he had done, the second son was, as one might expect, viciously beaten by his mother and cursed at by his resentful younger brother.
But by then, it was too late for him to earn the tuition money for his brother.
This created the opportunity for the eldest son to lend the money and charge interest. But the second son, branded the "culprit" who had ruined their plans, wasn’t as lucky as his sister. He didn’t escape. Instead, he was pulled into an even more desperate vortex.
The money for the third son’s university was borrowed by Mrs. Kohl from her eldest. The third son spent every last cent of it, yet in the end, it was the second son who was ordered to pay it all back.
The justification was that if the second son hadn’t let his sister go, they would never have needed to borrow the money in the first place. Therefore, he had to take responsibility by helping his younger brother repay the debt. Otherwise, he would be an ungrateful and disloyal son, unworthy of being called human.
The crowd was silent. What terrifying emotional manipulation and moral blackmail. It was absolutely bone-chilling.