“You really take me for a fool.”
Just then, her assistant called.
“Ms. Carter, that one-million-dollar check—Mr. Carter refused it. He said you should handle the funeral yourself.”
“I understand.”
After hanging up, Olivia smirked at me and tossed several more checks in my face.
“Don’t be ungrateful. A million is more than enough for one life. Your brother was useless anyway, couldn’t do a single job right. Dying isn’t a loss.”
“If you think that’s not enough, here’s another five million. Satisfied now?”
I didn’t even look at the checks, only stared at her coldly.
“My brother, useless?”
I was baffled.
My younger brother had just been admitted to MIT, known as a top student far beyond the reach of most.
Her words made no sense.
Olivia flung a report at me.
“See for yourself. This is what your brother produced—an absolute mess. If it weren’t for you pulling strings to sneak him in, I’d have fired him long ago.”
Then I remembered—two months earlier, Daniel had failed his college entrance and couldn’t find a job. Under crushing pressure from family and society, he came to me.
“Brother-in-law, can you let me work at your plant? Please, don’t tell my sister. If she finds out how useless I am, she’ll tear me apart.”
Out of pity, I agreed. I told everyone in the company he was my brother, so they’d look out for him.
Over time, the story spread, and everyone believed he was truly my blood brother.
Olivia sneered again.
“People like you, sneaking family into the company through back doors—if everyone did this, how would I run a business? Now that he’s dead, at least it saved me the trouble of firing him.”
I almost laughed in fury.
It was her brother who had begged me to let him work. If she cared at all, she wouldn’t have gone two whole months without realizing he was there.
And when he died in the mixer, she was busy flirting with Ryan.
I narrowed my eyes. “If you knew the one who died was your own brother, would you still say this?”
Olivia cut me off with a sharp, mocking laugh.
“How could it possibly be my brother? He’s not that stupid. He’s away at college. There’s no way he’d be at my factory. Your little fantasy is impossible.”
Her certainty made me sick.
Daniel had never been admitted anywhere. He lied about going away to school just to avoid her scolding.
With a gambling addict for a mother and a violent sister, he’d been living under threats his whole life. She even told him flat out: if he didn’t make it into college, he should just marry someone and be done.
Daniel didn’t want to lose his freedom so young, so he worked odd jobs while continuing to study.
And yet, on an ordinary day, his own sister had driven him to death.
Standing nearby, Ryan gloated.
“Mr. Carter, why curse Ms. Carter’s brother like that? Not everyone dies so young…”
Before he could finish, I glared at him and slapped him hard.
“Do you think you get a say here?”
