Dakota stared at me in shock.
Shaking my head, I was about to respond. From a distance, a nurse ran over in a hurry.
“Dr. Granger, something serious has happened!”
“Your brother woke up and is having a depressive episode; he is going to jump from the building!”
Camden’s depression always started at very specific moments.
I earned first place in the city’s mock exam and the school planned to praise me.
He had a depressive episode.
I came down with a fever of forty degrees Celsius and barely managed to call home.
He had a depressive episode then, too.
This time, nothing about it caught me off guard.
Inside the ward, he sat beside the window with a fruit knife in his hand.
“Mom and Dad, Dakota, Ophelia, I’m terrified. I dreamt they hurt me again.”
“They forced me to eat dog food and they mistreated me every single day…”
“Why didn’t you come find me sooner?!” Tears fell down his cheeks.
Camden’s helpless crying touched everyone watching.
His father, Dalton, an experienced businessman, had reddened eyes as he tried to soothe him.
“Camden, lower the knife and come to Daddy!”
“You’re home now! Daddy will give you anything you ask for!” His wealthy mother broke down in tears.
“Camden, you’re Mommy’s dear child!”
“Mommy is begging you, please come back down!”
Camden mumbled to himself as the fruit knife moved across his wrist.
“But my brother says he doesn’t like me. He says I don’t deserve to be Mommy and Daddy’s kid, I don’t deserve to stay in this family…”
“Then I might as well die!” Camden shouted, his eyes full of hurt as he stared straight at me.
“Alfred, you truly said that to Camden?!”
“Who gave you the courage?!” Ophelia hit me across the face, yanked my hair and dragged me toward Camden.
“Camden, don’t trust what Alfred said! You are the rightful son in this family!”
“He’s only pretending!”
“That’s right! Alfred isn’t our son, Camden, you are!” Juliette cried out, cutting in quickly.
Camden’s tears finally stopped falling. He lowered the knife and slowly stepped down from the window.
“Camden, be good, hand the knife to Dakota. Don’t hurt yourself.”
Dakota softly tried to comfort Camden as she reached for the knife in his hand.
But out of nowhere, Camden shouted. The knife swung hard in my direction.
A sharp knife sliced from my forehead down to the corner of my mouth.
The burning pain brought me straight back to my second year of high school.
I had fallen during a basketball game and cut my face. My mother rushed to the school with worry in her eyes, gently soothing me.
“It doesn’t hurt, sweetheart, it doesn’t hurt…”
My mother’s soft voice still seemed to echo in my mind.
I held my face and dropped to the ground.
“Ah! I didn’t mean to!”
“Brother, I’m sorry, I lost control…”
Camden cried in distress, then fainted.
Inside the ward, everyone panicked and hurried out with him.
I stayed on the cold floor, my wound throbbing.
“Mom…” I whispered without thinking, tears running down my cheeks.
My tears made the wound burn even harder.
I felt myself lose control and more tears kept running down.
When I first arrived in this life, I had been a tiny newborn.
I had moved carefully and quietly, with my whole mind set on finishing one task, to heal my mother’s illness.
But later on, the Granger Family treated me better and better.
I slowly opened my heart to them, secretly happy, thinking I had gained care from two homes.
But the truth showed me that family affection could appear in many ways.
After lying there for a short while, I set my sadness aside, covered my face and pushed myself up.
