I Cared for My Brother’s Wife and Child, Only to Be Rejected—Then They Begged Me Not to Leave!

The night before I registered my marriage with Jenna, I went to the hospital and got a vasectomy. From then on, Lucas would be my only child. Every year on my brother’s death anniversary, I would take a bottle of good liquor to his grave and sit with him for a while, telling him how Lucas had changed over the year. Jenna caught me there and frowned. “Ethan, your brother is dead. You still keep talking about things that don’t belong to you. Aren’t you afraid of disturbing his peace? Let me tell you, I only agreed to marry you for Lucas!” I slowly lifted my head and looked at the disgust on her face. The words stuck in my throat and I forced them back down. After saying that, she even kicked me once with her foot. “Hurry up and leave. Stop embarrassing yourself here.” Seeing that I still didn’t move, she shouted in anger, “My word doesn’t count anymore, is that it? Fine. If you want to stay at the graveyard, then don’t come back tonight.” My mom stood nearby, wanting to say something but stopping herself, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. It was only after she saw Jenna leave completely that she finally spoke. “Even if our family owes their mother and son, why didn’t you explain it clearly?” I opened the bottle, poured a cup for my brother, and gave a bitter smile. We had lived together for seven years, and Jenna had never once known what was in my heart. She didn’t trust me, so what difference would it make whether I said anything or not? Over the years, I had taken care of Lucas with everything I had, and I could honestly say I had done nothing wrong by Jenna either. Even if I knew she didn’t love me, I thought at the very least she had the most basic respect for me. Besides, the graveyard was up in the mountains. The temperature difference between day and night was huge. How could anyone stay there all night? My mom reached out and patted my shoulder. “Go home early so you don’t freeze. Don’t go against your own body.” Just as I was about to get up, Lucas suddenly walked over. He was my brother’s child, and I had raised him myself. He really looked a lot like Jenna, from his temper to his appearance, even down to the way he treated me. “You—” Before I could even speak, Lucas cut me off. “Ethan, you’re just a useless freeloader living off my mom. You took care of me for my dad, so how can you be so shameless and dream of replacing him? You’re way too greedy!” I wanted to explain, but she glared at me with disgust. “It serves you right that Mom won’t let you come home to kneel in front of Dad’s grave and repent.” Looking at her expression and hearing what she said, my heart felt like it was being cut apart by knives. “Lucas, I raised you myself. I changed your diapers, did laundry, cooked, handled everything with my own hands. How can you say that about me?” “Stop trying to make yourself look good. If my dad hadn’t left the company to my mom to run so well, I would’ve been out on the street already! You say you took care of me, but really you were just after my family’s money. Ethan, you’re disgusting. You can’t even compare to one finger of my dad’s.” He shouted, and the second he turned around, he raised his foot and stomped hard on the back of my hand before running off. I gritted my teeth against the pain and staggered to my feet. The fog at the top of the mountain was getting thicker, and a fine rain had already started to fall. Just as I reached the entrance, I saw Lucas holding another guy’s hand and trying to help him into the car. “Lucas, what’s going on?” Jenna ran over too to check the situation. “It’s raining and the mountain road is too slippery. Uncle Paul fell while coming to pick me up and twisted his foot.” Paul, Jenna’s childhood friend, now worked as her special assistant at her company. I had heard that Jenna was originally supposed to marry him, but for some reason, by some twist of fate, she ended up marrying my brother instead. The moment Lucas finished speaking, Jenna jogged over to him and checked Paul’s condition. “How is it? Are you okay?” The nervous look on her face was like a sharp blade stabbing deep into my heart. Paul smiled and said he was fine. Just like that, Jenna and Lucas helped him into the car from both sides. When he sat down, he even asked, “What about Mr. Lin? Is it not a little inappropriate for me to sit in the passenger seat?” Jenna lifted her eyes and finally looked at me in the distance. She said casually, “Don’t mind him. He brought it on himself.” I watched her car drive off, as if the happy family of three sitting inside it were the real family. The rain got heavier and heavier. Every step I took felt heavier than the last, and by the time I reached home, the sky was already bright. The villa was quiet. They probably hadn’t come back last night. When I pushed open the door, the maid’s face was full of mockery. “Mr. Ethan, it’s one thing if you don’t do any work at home, but can you please have a little pity on us servants and stop making trouble for us?” I looked down at the mud on my shoes and stayed silent for a long time. Did I really want to spend the rest of my life and my dignity on people who didn’t care about me at all? I had spent seven years fulfilling my brother’s dying wish, and I could honestly say I had no regrets. Now, I knew very clearly that I did not want to be their mother and son’s accessory anymore!The next day, I still made breakfast like I always did. Just as I was about to bring the milk to Lucas’s room, the door happened to open, and the milk spilled all over him. I reached out to wipe it off, but he dodged me. I was a little surprised. When had Paul come over last night? Just as my thoughts drifted away, Jenna suddenly ran over, shoved me aside, and rushed forward to check on Paul. Her voice was full of concern. “Did you get burned?” Lucas somehow ran over too, and with both hands flailing without any sense of order, he slapped at me randomly. “Ethan, you’re so bad. Uncle Paul is already hurt, and you still set him up!” I looked at the worried expressions on their faces and felt a sudden ache in my chest. “I didn’t mean to—” “Stop making excuses!” The moment Lucas finished speaking, Paul smiled and touched his hair. “It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt.” Jenna frowned, her voice cold and harsh. “Paul, don’t defend him. I know exactly what kind of person he is!” I poured the remaining half cup of milk in my hand onto the floor and looked coldly at my child and my partner. They treated me like an enemy and blamed me just to protect an outsider. “Jenna, when I suggested we get together so I could better take care of Lucas, you didn’t refuse. These seven years, I’ve taken care of you and Lucas with all my heart, and I know I’ve done nothing wrong. Why do you have to humiliate me like this just for an outsider?” After saying that, I looked down at Lucas. “I took care of you because you’re my brother’s child, because half your blood is from my family. I personally handled everything in your life just to make up for the fatherly love you lacked in childhood, but what about you? How did you treat me?” By then, tears were already streaming down my face. I thought they would at least react a little, but Jenna’s face stayed blank as she said in disgust, “Ethan, you’re a grown man. Stop embarrassing yourself in front of Paul.” Paul looked a little awkward. After hesitating for a moment, he still tried to persuade me. “Jenna and I are completely innocent. Mr. Ethan, please don’t misunderstand.” The second Lucas heard that, he immediately stepped in front of Paul, furious. “You still have the nerve to say that? Do you know that because of you, I get mocked at school every day for having a stay-at-home dad? They say you’re a coward, that you’re living off a woman, and that I’ll end up as some useless pretty boy too!” Lucas—I had held him in my arms since the day he was born. For all these years, he had never once called me Dad. He was just like his mother and called me by my full name. I had just come out of the graveyard the day before yesterday, had a fever all day yesterday, and this morning I still forced myself to make breakfast for them while sick. My body was exhausted right now, but all they cared about was Paul, and no one even asked me a single question. Looking at the scene before me, I felt completely hopeless. After sending Paul off, I watched the two of them sit at the dining table eating breakfast, and I thought, this should be the last time I ever make food for them. I stood at the door for a long while before finally gathering my courage to speak. “Jenna, I’m planning to leave.” She looked at me coldly. “Leave? Go where? What about Mom? And what are we supposed to tell the relatives? Ethan, how can you be so selfish? If you wanted to leave, why did you beg me to stay with you seven years ago? And now you say you’re leaving? Your brother is dead, and now you’re abandoning me too? How do you expect others to see me after this?” Thud. I dropped straight to my knees. I bowed my head and knocked one hard kowtow on the floor. “I’m sorry. This first kneel is because my brother was incredibly good to me. I promised him I would take care of you and your son, and now I’ve gone back on that promise!” “This second kneel is because, as your husband, I failed to take care of you and instead made you look bad, even letting Lucas get mocked at school. I’m useless!” “This third kneel is my wish that you will take care of yourselves. As for us, let’s part peacefully and go our separate ways!” After saying that, I got up and was about to leave. “Stop right there!” Jenna’s angry voice came from behind me. “Ethan, you’re thirty today, not three. Are you trying to pull some dramatic cut-ties-and-run-away-from-home act?” “Enough. If you dare take one step out of this house today, then even if you beg me later, I’ll never let you come back!” Jenna looked completely confident, as if she was certain I would never leave, certain I couldn’t bear to leave Lucas. And she definitely didn’t believe I would give up my current life of luxury.