Chapter 492: Abandoning Addie for Sunny
Chapter 492: Chapter 492: Abandoning Addie for Sunny
Addie Sutton was stunned by the slap from her grandmother. Her cheek stung, and her mind went blank with a loud BUZZ.
"What’s wrong?" Felix Sutton’s voice called out.
Addie snapped back to reality. With her eyes red-rimmed, she scrambled to get dressed.
"Felix, you need to deal with this damn girl!" her grandmother yelled. "She’s already learned how to steal money at such a young age!"
Addie retorted, her voice choked with tears, "Grandma, I didn’t steal any money."
Hearing this, her grandmother pointed at her nose and roared, "You didn’t steal it? Then did the money in my room grow wings and fly away?"
Felix stood in the doorway, looking helpless. "Mom, keep it down. We have guests. At least let Addie keep some dignity."
Addie looked at him and sobbed, "Dad, I didn’t steal Grandma’s money. It really wasn’t me."
"You damn girl, are you saying I’m falsely accusing you?" Her grandmother grabbed her by the ear. "You money pit, how dare you talk back!"
Felix frowned and quickly stopped his mother from getting physical. "Mom, don’t talk to Addie like that. Are you sure you’re not just misremembering?"
"I’m not misremembering!" her grandmother said with absolute certainty. "I always keep it there, and now it’s suddenly gone!"
"I really didn’t take it," Addie insisted, feeling utterly wronged.
"You’re the most suspicious one in this house!" her grandmother glared at her, her eyes especially vicious. "Your parents earn their own money, and Sunny doesn’t need to spend any. You’re the only one who has no income but still needs to spend money!"
Addie opened her mouth to say something more, but Felix stopped her. "Alright, Addie, don’t talk back to your grandmother. We have guests. Both of you, just say less."
Her grandmother shot her a glare and turned to walk out of the bedroom.
Felix sighed and left as well.
Addie watched his retreating back as tears welled up in her eyes. An unspeakable sadness and bitterness surged in her heart.
She hugged Ducky and sat dazedly on the floor, murmuring, "Dad... I don’t think he believes that I didn’t steal Grandma’s money."
Ducky sighed. "QUACK~ After that happened, Dee smiled less and less! There was another time when Sunny called Dee a thief!"
Addie came home from school, and the moment she opened the door, she heard Sunny shouting, "The thief is here! The thief is here!"
She was furious. She grabbed Sunny and demanded, "Who are you calling a thief?"
Sunny grinned cheekily. "You’re the thief! Grandma said you’re a thief!"
"I’m not a thief, don’t talk nonsense!" Addie’s voice rose as she warned him, "If you call me a thief again, believe it or not, I’ll hit you."
But as soon as the words left her mouth, Sunny burst into a loud, wailing cry. "WAAAAH—"
Hearing the crying, her mother, who was in her room, and her grandmother, who was in the kitchen, rushed out with concerned expressions.
"Why is Sunny crying?"
"Oh, Grandma’s precious boy, what’s wrong?"
Sunny pointed at Addie. "Sister hit me, waaaah..."
Addie frowned and tried to explain, "Where did I hit you? I didn’t hit you at all. I was just saying that if you called me a thief again..."
"You damn girl, who told you to bully my precious grandson?" Her grandmother shoved her forcefully to the ground, her face full of rage. "Sunny wasn’t wrong! You are a thief!"
Addie fell to the floor, tears instantly bursting from her eyes. She cried, "I’m not a thief! I didn’t steal any money..."
"Still talking back!" her grandmother kicked her angrily. "You money pit!"
Addie’s elbow hit the hard, cold floor, sending a piercing pain through her. Her heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a giant, invisible hand. A dull ache spread through her veins, making even her fingertips tingle with numbness.
"Money pit!" Sunny mimicked his grandmother and even went up and kicked her twice.
Catching sight of her impassive mother out of the corner of her eye, Addie trembled uncontrollably.
She locked herself in her bedroom. When it was time for dinner, no one came to call for her.
In the dark, unlit bedroom, the girl pressed her ear tightly against the cold wood of the door. The sounds of laughter and joy from the living room pierced her ears like honey-laced needles, and tears rolled down her cheeks like a broken string of pearls.
She slowly crouched down, hugging her knees helplessly.
Ducky waddled over, its butt in the air as it clumsily kept its balance. Its feet went PATTER, PATTER as it approached Addie and nuzzled her with its snow-white head.
"QUACK~ Ducky really wanted to comfort Dee and tell her not to be sad, but unfortunately, Dee couldn’t understand Ducky!" Ducky looked at Renee Jennings and lamented, "If only we had met you sooner, you could have helped Ducky tell Dee!"
Renee’s slender brows knitted together. She murmured, "Just because they had a second child, they stopped loving their own daughter? That’s ridiculous."
"QUACK~ No~" Ducky said. "Ducky heard Dee say it herself. She said, ’So I’m not Mom and Dad’s real child. So that’s how it is!’"
One afternoon, Addie came home early from school because of a stomachache.
The front door wasn’t shut properly. As she stood in the entryway changing her shoes, she heard voices coming from the living room.
"If I had known you two could have a child of your own, you never should have adopted Addie in the first place. Look at what she’s become—stealing money and daring to hit Sunny," the grandmother grumbled unhappily.
"Mom, don’t talk about Addie like that," Felix said in a flat tone. "Didn’t you find your money anyway?"
Felix’s wife, Helen Lockwood, added, "That’s right. And she didn’t really hit Sunny."
Addie’s eyelashes trembled. She froze on the spot, feeling as if the blood in her veins was flowing backward. Her already pale face instantly lost all its color.
’Adopted...’
"I don’t care," the grandmother snorted coldly. "Back when you didn’t have your own, I could tolerate her. Now that I have my own biological grandson, I can’t stand the sight of her."
Tears welled up in Addie’s eyes, falling PLIP, PLOP onto her shoes.
"Well, there’s nothing we can do about it," Felix sighed. "We can’t just abandon Addie now that we have Sunny."
Helen Lockwood nodded. "That’s right. We did raise Addie with our own hard work, after all. She’s my daughter, too."
Felix: "Besides, Addie is already a senior in high school. After a few years of college, she can get a job and help support Sunny."
Helen: "Yes, that would be a benefit to our family."
"Now that’s more like it," the grandmother said in a harsh tone. "From now on, when that money pit goes out and earns money, she’d better hand over every single cent."
Addie felt a chill run through her entire body, as if an icy draft was seeping out from the cracks in her bones. She felt like she’d been thrown into a bottomless, frozen sea, making it difficult to even breathe.
’This hurts so much. It really, really hurts.’
Addie crouched by the side of the road like a stray puppy, staring at the passing pedestrians with her red, swollen eyes.
She never would have dreamed that she wasn’t her parents’ biological child.
’Adopted.’
’So I was adopted.’
’So they knew everything all along. They knew I hadn’t stolen the money and I hadn’t hit Sunny. They knew it all, yet they let Grandma humiliate me with those awful words.’
’Just because I was adopted.’
’And they now had a child of their own.’