The Walker family and the onlookers were all stunned.
My mom, shivering from the cold and looking like a drowned rat, pointed at me and cursed, “You bitch! What are you doing? I’m your birth mother! Your conscience must have been eaten by dogs! You’ll die a terrible death!”
I went to fetch another basin of water and stood in front of my mom: “You can beat me and curse me all you want, but don’t you dare insult Lachlan’s family!”
“You, you, you! You white eyed wolf! I raised you for so many years, if not for the effort, at least for the hardship, and now you’re siding with outsiders! Your surname is Summers! Not Walker! You little bitch, you have no conscience!”
My mom had little education, so her curses were always the same few words.
“Rosemary, what are you making a fuss about again?” The mayor came rushing over after hearing the news. Seeing my mom looking like a drowned rat, he scolded her, “How dare you insult Mr. Walker’s family? You’ve even come to their doorstep. Go home quickly! Don’t cause
trouble!”
My mom sat down on the ground with a thud: “You’re all bullying me, a woman! This is outrageous! Lachlan only gave our family two thousand dollars! Now the whole village is saying I received five thousand dollars! I’m here to set the record straight!”
Mr. Walker went along with her words: “Yes, yes, Lachlan only gave you two thousand dollars. You didn’t receive five thousand dollars.”
My mom immediately got up from the ground: “Everyone heard that clearly, right? I didn’t receive five thousand dollars!”
11
My mom refused to leave, crying and making a scene, insisting that Lachlan make up the remaining three thousand, otherwise she would hang herself at the Walker family’s gate.
Knowing my mom valued her life too much, I went to the kitchen and found a hemp rope, throwing it in front of her.
My mom cursed me again for being a white–eyed wolf, eating her food and drinking her water, and now wanting her to die, saying I had no conscience.
Mr. Walker took out the paper that my whole family had signed and fingerprinted yesterday, showing it to the neighbors and reading it aloud again.
Rosemary’s heart is so cruel, even selling her own daughter! Who would dare marry their daughter to her eldest son? Isn’t that jumping into a fire pit?”
8:02 AM
<
fire pit?”
“That’s right, it’s written so clearly in black and white, the money was given, the signatures were made, and now she turns around and curses people.”
“I think they were given five thousand dollars! Mr. Walker is just taking pity on her, saying it was only two thousand! He’s just afraid she’ll keep making a scene.”
Everyone was discussing, and my mom’s face grew increasingly twisted, shouting that it was only two thousand dollars, but unfortunately, no one believed her.
“Brynn Summers! If you don’t make up the remaining three thousand dollars, I’ll come and make a scene every day! I’ll make sure you can’t live in peace!”
I turned around and threw the rooster and the big black dog from the yard at my mom.
The black dog had been raised by Lachlan since it was a puppy. It liked whoever Lachlan liked and disliked whoever Lachlan disliked.
It barked furiously at my mom, scaring her so much that she fell to the ground. The rooster, also frightened, flew over my mom’s face, pecking her nose until it bled before jumping off her body and returning to the yard.
My mom was scared away. The rooster and the black dog had done well, so Lachlan gave them extra food.
12
I couldn’t sleep that night. Hearing the black dog bark twice, I went out to see flames shooting up from next door. I quickly woke up Lachlan.
Lachlan took a megaphone and kept shouting. The neighbors who heard rushed to help put out the fire. In the end, they managed to save one room of the neighbor’s house, preventing it from spreading to the Walker’s house.
I remembered that in my past life, someone’s house in town had caught fire. At that time, I was immersed in the pain of Lachlan’s death and didn’t pay attention to whose house it was. I only heard others mention that one person had burned to death.
“Brynn! Amazing!” Lachlan was still holding the megaphone, pointing at me excitedly and repeatedly shouting “amazing.”
Old Wang from next door had narrowly escaped death and was almost on his knees thanking the Walker family. He said he had lit a candle at night, fell asleep because he was too tired, and forgot to close the window, The candle was blown over by the wind and set the house on fire.
Mr. Walker helped clean up the aftermath, while Mrs. Walker led me and Lachlan back to the house. There we saw the black dog lying motionless. When we approached, we realized it was dead.
I picked up a lucky charm nearby with the character “Summers” written on it.
There were quite a few people with the surname Summers in our village, but not many had these charms. One look and I knew the lucky charm belonged to my younger brother, Jake Summers.
