Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 41: Memories (2)

The man scrolled through an iPad he was holding.

"Anywhere around $240,000," the man replied.

The notepad in Hannah’s hand slipped and fell to the floor.

That day had been the biggest turning point in the lives of this Thompson family.

Anne and her brother, however, remained as invisible as rats.

Money landed onto them, instantly changing their lives.

The family moved to a larger, better-looking home. Their kids transferred to better schools. Mark Thompson used some of the money to start a business.

Anne and her brother, on the other hand, were merely surviving. On the outside, they were treated like pearls; behind closed doors, they were treated with disdain.

Living with her uncle’s family hadn’t been unbearable until two years later when Edward, her cousin who was about three years older than her, began to torture her.

"Crawl to the fountain and get all the coins, unless you want your precious brother to do it," Edward had ordered her one evening.

Anne would never let anyone touch a hair on Kristen’s body. He was so precious to her, and she treated him with gentle care.

The fountain was located within a park behind the place they lived. Edward would often do things like these—taking Kristen places and making him do things he didn’t want to do. Anne had begun insisting she would follow wherever they went afterwards.

The previous day, he’d taken Kristen, who was only thirteen, with him to a back alley where his friends were busy smoking. Had she not arrived at the time she did, they would have forced a cigarette down Kristen’s throat.

But despite her interference, there had been nothing much she could do to help, so she had threatened to show her aunt and uncle the pills Edward kept in a small box under his pillow.

She’d known what those pills were, and she was sure he wouldn’t want his parents finding out he was getting into drugs.

Edward had reluctantly let Kristen go under her threat, but bringing them out again tonight was definitely to get back at her for last night.

She had tried to refuse when Edward had thrown his hand around Kristen’s shoulders, urging him to go out with him again, but her aunt had scolded her for it.

"If Eddy wants to take his cousin out, let him. You just can’t bear to see them bond. You should be grateful Eddy even likes that stupidly quiet brother of yours."

Anne had no choice but to insist she would follow.

Gritting her teeth, she looked at her brother who was smothered against Edward, the latter holding him firmly like a hostage.

She began to go on her knees without a second thought.

What power did she have to defy Edward? He would just go ahead and hurt Kristen again, and she knew if she threatened him a second time with what she had yesterday, he would completely go crazy in a quest to get back at her, and they all knew the only avenue to get to her was by hurting her brother.

In this world, she would take every pain for Kristen without a single complaint. He wasn’t only her responsibility but the only precious person close to her heart who hadn’t been taken away by the harsh claws of death.

"Don’t do it," Kristen, however, suddenly spoke with a determination in his eyes.

She would go on her knees for him without a second thought, she would grit her teeth and endure pain all because of him.

He might still be young, but he saw everything.

In this world, she was his only ally.

"Leave my sister alone, I’ll do it." The boy’s eyes gleamed with something firm and strong.

Kristen went on his knees immediately after that, crawling into the fountain even before she could stop him.

He rummaged through the waters, picking up the coins one after the other.

Anne ran to him, grabbing his hand.

"Kris, let me—"

He swung his hand out of her grip.

"You don’t have to do everything for me, and you don’t have to always protect me. I’ll protect myself, and I’ll protect you!" The young boy spoke with a tone that wasn’t fitting for one so young.

He’d seen her swallow many things just to protect him. Wouldn’t he be the most useless brother in the world if he let his sister constantly go through humiliation for him?

But despite presenting the coins to his hateful cousin, Edward grabbed a fistful of his hair and smacked him on the cheek.

"You’re a big boy now, huh? You want to protect your sister, huh?"

"Let him go!" Anne had felt a burning fury immediately Edward hit Kristen. She tried to get her brother out of the brute’s grip, but the latter, annoyed by her interference, threw the back of his hand to her face.

Anne tasted copper, and the force of Edward’s hand hitting her sent her to the floor.

"Why do you always butt in? You little bitch!" Edward kicked her while she was still on the floor, grabbing a handful of her hair to raise her head up, but before he could slap her again, something swung through the air and hit Edward on the head.

"Argh!!" Edward recoiled on the floor, watching the boy who would usually quietly sit back as they toyed with him now holding a metal pole. Edward’s ears were still ringing from the impact the piece of metal had with his head.

Kristen’s young face was fraught with a mixture of fear, his breathing heavy at what he’d just done. It had been an impulsive movement—seeing this jerk hit his sister, he’d grabbed the closest thing on the floor and whacked it against Edward’s head. He didn’t expect the latter to actually bleed.

However, once he looked towards his sister, noticing how she was struggling to stand due to the pain of being mercilessly hit by this bully of a cousin, every fear dissolved from the boy’s face, replaced by a strong anger.

"You little bastard!!" Edward roared, about to surge to his feet again, but the boy with simmering rage in his young eyes didn’t waste time in swinging the metal he picked up, once again hitting Edward on the head.

"You shouldn’t have hit her! You shouldn’t have hit her!"

The injury caused on Edward’s head sent him to the hospital.

When Hannah discovered her son was rushed into the hospital, her eyes were furious as she rushed to grab Kristen.

"This little devil. Did you plan to kill my son?"

Before the woman could raise her hand to strike the boy, who held an indifferent expression despite having dried drops of blood on his cheek, Anne pushed him behind her.

"Don’t touch him!"

Since her target had been taken from her, Hannah furiously swung her palm against Anne’s face.

"You... you and your devil of a brother plan to kill my children? You little ingrates! I’ll send you out to the streets."

Anne didn’t know where the courage came from, but she smiled sarcastically, the blood at the side of her lips making the smile look eerie.

"That only means you have a lot of debt to pay us."

"What do you mean?"

"If you send Kristen and me to the streets, you’ll have to fish out every single penny you took out of my father’s savings."

Hannah merely looked taken aback for a moment or two before throwing her head back in laughter.

"Hahaha! This little vixen is now eloquent. Let me tell you something, you little squirt, we have nothing to pay you. How else do you think we’ve been feeding you and that devil of a brother you have? Do you think everything was for free? No matter what you do, you’ll never get a penny out of us. Do you think you can sue us for it? We’ll just forge some papers proving all that money was given to my husband by your father before his death. What will you do then?"

...

As Anne felt her phone vibrate inside her bag within the master bedroom of the Black Thorn Manor, she realized she’d drowned in the realm of old memories way too far; her attention to the present had been taken away.

Though all this happened long ago, each moment was still fresh in her mind.

She sighed, shaking off the memories and feeling a sharp tug in her chest at the thought of Kristen.

She missed him so much, but to take her mind off the thoughts, she picked her phone to distract herself.

She noticed she’d missed several calls from Jasmine. She immediately called her back.

The first thing Jasmine did was to ask, "Anne, where are you?"

Anne hesitated from replying for a second before she replied. "I’m at home."

She felt awful for lying, but how could she tell her friend that she was currently in a strange man’s home so he could have sex with her according to a contract she’d signed?

Though Anne wanted to tell Jasmine everything, she wanted to do it physically, but she’d been putting it off since Jasmine returned. That was because after hearing Jasmine’s story, she did everything to only discuss light topics to not put the latter in a bad mood.

She wanted Jasmine to enjoy her stay here back in the city rather than burden her with bad news and the misfortune she was also going through.

"You’re not at home, Anne, because I’m there right now. It’s so late at night, and I’ve been waiting for you for hours. I took your keys from under the flower pot outside."

Anne stiffened, realizing her lie had been exposed. She took a deep breath before finally admitting:

"Jass, I’m sorry for not telling the truth, but... I won’t be coming home tonight."