The raise of Maureen Smith and her Good Luck System
Chapter 104: Her eyes started to go red

Chapter 104: Her eyes started to go red

Maureen had no idea that the Smith family had actually come over while she was celebrating her birthday with Liam, Josephine, and Drake.

The Smith family felt complicated about Maureen’s birthday.

They couldn’t fathom that their relationship had deteriorated to such an extent, and were uncertain about how to reconcile and mend their relationship with Maureen.

It was their duty to celebrate her birthday, but they doubted if she would even want them to.

On the day of Maureen’s birthday, the atmosphere at the breakfast table in the Smith household was extremely tense.

Everyone knew it was Maureen’s birthday, but seeing the empty seat at the dining table, everyone remained silent, mechanically stirring the porridge in their bowls, at a loss for words and unsure of what to do.

Previously, Chris had chosen to stay at the hotel for more than half a month, refusing to return home.

However, because Bianca had gone for a training camp and would not return for about 10 days, he was partly forced and partly enticed to come home by Oliver.

There was no way the Smith family would allow a teenager of fifteen-sixteen to stay outside for too long.

However, the very first condition Chris set for agreeing to come home was that he wanted to keep a stray cat that he found near the hotel.

Bianca was allergic to cat fur, which would lead to skin itching and eczema.

Even though Bianca had recently caused a mishap leading to losses for Mr. Smith’s company, Mrs. Smith, Mike, and Oliver would not risk Bianca’s health out of anger.

Hence, Mrs. Smith and father privately planned to agree to Chris’s request, letting him keep the cat for about ten days, and then take the cat away when he wasn’t paying attention after Bianca’s return.

This was a compromise of sorts.

There was no way for Chris to know about this, as the family’s main intention was to coax him to return home by any means possible.

Believing that they genuinely allowed him to keep the cat, he excitedly took his friends to pet stores to buy a litter box, high-end automatic water dispensers, and an automatic feeder.

He set up a den for his new pet, on the third floor of the villa. With this new activity, he had remained at the top of the villa for the past couple of days.

When he came down for breakfast in the morning, covered in cat fur, he stared at the empty seat across from him, feeling a sudden wave of melancholy.

Even though he now had a cat, the person who once shared the exciting and joyful sentiment of secretly raising a cat was no longer there.

Maureen would no longer serve him dishes or accompany him to play games late into the night.

Feeling an intense sense of loneliness, Chris realized that not only had he lost a sister, but also a significant playmate.

Chris abruptly began counting the days, only to realize that Maureen had not been home for more than two months.

In terms of years, that would be a quarter of a year.

Time had passed so quickly that everyone in the family had finally acknowledged that Maureen was unlikely to return anytime soon.

Even though Chris did not want to accept it, he could only face this harsh reality.

These past few days, he has adopted a cat, thinking that it would divert his attention and erase those memories.

However, little did he expect that although Maureen had only been with them for two years, traces of her were everywhere around their home - including the light blue cushion on her chair.

Seeing the vacant chair with no one sitting on the light blue cushion and the place at the table once occupied by her now void of cutlery, a feeling of unease overcame Chris.

Chris remained silent.

Lately, Mrs. Smith hasn’t been eating or sleeping well, and she seemed to have aged drastically.

She also didn’t feel like talking.

Mike wasn’t home. While eating his meal with an air of despondency, Oliver knew he had to rush to the company afterwards to deal with the mess from before.

Only Mr. Smith, who was reading the newspaper and glancing at the empty seat that once belonged to Maureen, spoke with a heavy heart,

"If I’m not mistaken, today should be Maureen’s birthday, do any of you have any plans?"

"She denies us, refuses to come home, how can we celebrate her birthday?"

Mrs. Smith said in a languid voice, seeming as if she would pass out at any moment,

"I’m probably the one she detests the most now, right?"

Thinking about it, she indeed failed as a mother - Chris didn’t like her, and Maureen despised her.

It seemed only Bianca was close to her - but this realization pierced her heart even more.

What good did a bond with a child who wasn’t hers biologically do?

What if someday Bianca found her biological parents and decided to leave with them? Wouldn’t all her efforts be in vain then?

After discovering three years ago that Bianca wasn’t her biological child, they didn’t attempt to look for her real parents.

Mr.Smith suggested finding them at the time. He was a traditional person at heart and believed strongly in the importance of blood relations.

If she wasn’t his real daughter, wasn’t he just raising someone else’s child? He was the one who insisted that they must find Maureen.

However, at the time, Mrs. Smith couldn’t bring herself to let Bianca go, so she cried and kicked up a fuss to stop Mr. Smith from searching for Bianca’s biological parents.

After that, the matter was dropped and forgotten.

"Don’t say such pessimistic things." Mr. Smith frowned and said,

"The bond of blood is unbreakable."

Oliver said, "She’s just a little girl, training hard outside.

We have to celebrate her birthday.

She’s grown up now, she’s eighteen, but we’ve only celebrated her birthday twice."

As soon as he finished, the four people at the table fell silent. ...

Had it not been for the reminder, they almost forgot that despite growing up, Maureen had only received two years of birthday blessings. The first year, she had been made cry by Mike.

The second year, when Bianca’s friends came home and had a disagreement with them, it wasn’t a pleasant memory either.

All of a sudden, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Smith, Oliver, and Chris, felt a profound affection for Maureen.

While Bianca grew up carefree, learning piano, painting, horse riding, and various talents, Maureen waited for adoption in a poor place, entrapped by poverty with her grandmother.

While every time Bianca had a fall, there was a bunch of family members to comfort her,

Maureen could only pick herself up in silence.

While each of Bianca’s birthdays were filled with presents from family and friends, gifts piled up to last for days, Maureen probably only had an extra bowl of longevity noodles every year...

Before now, they had seldom thought about all these.

Because when Maureen first came, she seemed to dress decently and didn’t look like she had suffered much.

Her grandmother treated her well, provided her with ample food and clothing.

Even though they felt a bit guilty in their hearts, they were mostly unfamiliar with her.

At first, they had the mentality of making it up to her, but as time went by, they forgot that Maureen was someone they had only found midway through her life.

However, now everyone couldn’t help but think.

Maybe the reason Maureen cared so much about her adoptive grandmother was because they were each other’s only family - even her relatively decent clothes upon arrival might have been bought with the meager earnings she scraped together from her part-time jobs during the holidays.

They dared not dwell on these thoughts. The more they thought about it, the more it left a bitter taste in their hearts.

"I am truly sorry to Maureen."

Chris buried his head, tears falling in big drops.

"During the chemistry competition, I didn’t know that she wanted to participate as well.

I saw her application form on her desk, thinking that she was in regular class and her grades were not good, she won’t need it, so I took it for my sister Bianca."

"Afterwards, Maureen got really mad at me and didn’t play with me anymore. I felt a little guilty, but I was too stubborn to apologize.

I didn’t expect it now —" Now, he did not even have the opportunity to apologize.

Tears started falling from Chris’s eyes as he spoke.

He rushed back to his room after throwing his Spoon on the table.

The dining table fell into a deadly silence.

Chris said he was sorry to Maureen, but could any of them really say they treated Maureen right?

They could all think of a bundle of times they wronged her.

All little things.

But when someone disappears, these little things become like tiny thorns which nick on the heart every now and then, stirring up the thought - could these little things be the straw that broke the camel’s back, forcing her to leave?

Mr. Smith stood up and walked to the window, taking a suppressed puff on his cigarette.

"When Maureen first joined us, one day she and Bianca came home from school and I’d just returned from a business trip.

I subconsciously hugged Bianca.

She must have felt rather upset then."

Oliver spoke with an awkward tone, "I was outrageous in the past too.

I only picked up Bianca every weekend."

As for Mrs. Smith, she was at a loss for words.

She stared at the barely touched breakfast in front of her, unable to swallow.

Her eyes started to go red.