Chapter 6: Blood Ties

Early the next morning, I went to the hospital.

My brother, Alex, lay quietly in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

He’d been a math prodigy, winning trophies in middle school, until the accident that changed everything.

But on the way to a competition, a car accident killed our parents. He was lucky to survive, but became a vegetable.

Later, a new drug from abroad miraculously woke him, but the medicine was expensive, costing over a hundred thousand a year.

But it was hope, after all.

Grandpa, at an age when he should have retired, supported me and returned to practice, traveling all over the country day and night to cover the high medical bills.

After the accident, I couldn’t handle the blow and dropped out of school, once feeling life was hopeless.

But Grandpa told me in his weathered voice:

"The world is complex and varied, and life shouldn’t have just one definition. Even if you don’t go to school, you can still study on your own. Grandpa always said, 'I’ll stick around long enough to see you walk down the aisle and Alex out of that bed.'"

In fact, Derek was the husband Grandpa had carefully chosen for me.

He said he owed Richard Lawson a great debt, and if I married into the Lawson family, father and son would treat me well.

Twenty-five years ago, on a snowy night, the starving and freezing Richard collapsed at Grandpa’s clinic.

After being saved, he knelt before Grandpa, begging for a way to survive.

Richard studied herbal medicine under Grandpa for five years, working hard and humbly. Every Christmas, Richard would drive through the snow just to thank Grandpa in person, no matter how busy he was.

Eight years ago, he brought his wife and children back to Maple Heights. By then, Grandpa was president of the Maple Heights Herbalist Association. With Grandpa’s endorsement, Richard invested to found Lawson Pharmaceuticals.

Soon after, Richard brought lavish gifts to arrange my marriage to Derek with Grandpa.

But in my third year of marriage,

Grandpa died of a heart attack in the kitchen.

One day, I went to the study to ask Derek for my brother’s medical expenses, and accidentally overheard his conversation with Richard:

"Her grandpa’s been dead so long—why are we still supporting her and that useless brother?"

"Derek, you forget, the most important thing is appearances. The old man was very kind to me."

"But Lillian has endured so much for so long. Back then, to let me marry Aubrey, she had to go abroad pregnant to give birth to Ryan. Now Ryan is five—shouldn’t the real grandson be recognized by the family?"

"Of course, the Lawson blood must be recognized, but things can’t be rushed. The old man helped a lot of powerful people over the years. Otherwise, how could your uncle’s whole family have their jobs so easily solved?"

"Dad, you can’t always be so soft. Back then, her grandpa wouldn’t approve the new product. If I hadn’t taken the medicine the day he had his heart attack, would Lawson Pharmaceuticals have what it does today?"

Richard sighed heavily.

"That day, I watched the old man struggle on the ground, and my heart felt like it was being sliced apart..."