Just as Clarence reached the garden, he heard someone calling out to him from his rear, “Clare.”
He turned around and saw Justin, who was wheelchair-bound, sitting not too far from him quietly.
Clarence walked towards him and asked softly, “You heard everything just now?”
Justin nodded in response before adding, “I did. You’re not at fault here. I would’ve done the same if I
were you.”
Clarence replied, “You could’ve chosen to steer clear of this mess.”
Justin gave out a helpless smile, “All I can say is that it can’t be helped.”
He belonged to the Conrad family, after all, his mother had done horrible things to Stella, he could not
just look away and pretend that nothing happened.
Since he knew that it had gotten out of control, the least he could do was delay the inevitable.
Clarence sat on a bench, looked at the sun and said, “If you could be asked, I’ll find you a place that’s
more suitable for living after everything is concluded.”
“What about my mother?”
Clarence replied in a deeper tone, “She had done horrible things, she must pay for them.”
Justin sighed and said, “Clare, I know that after what she’s done, she’s irredeemable. I am also terribly
sorry for what happened to you and Stella. But what can I do? She’s my mother after all, everything
she’s done is for my good. I can constantly feel her desperation and pain in the past twenty or so years,
but look at me, I can’t even be a good son for her.”
Clarence shifted his gaze and said, “I won’t do anything to her, all I want is just her to get the
punishment that she deserves.”
“If possible, I hope that I can at least lighten her punishment myself.”
Clarence did not say anything in response to that.
Justin thought to himself for some time, before saying, “Clare, just do whatever you want, don’t worry
about me, I’ll be alright. If you really succeed in taking them down, I’ll be free at the very least.”
He finished his last sentence in a relieved tone.
It was as if he had been waiting to say that for a very long time.
Clarence looked towards him as his eyebrows furrowed.
Twenty years ago, when he was just brought back to the Conrad family, Dempsey and Joanna had a
fierce argument. Joanna acted as if she had nuclear bombs for breakfast that day, spitting out vulgar
words including but not limited to “bastard”, “disgusting”, and “lowly” left right and centre.
Dempsey’s words had a willy-nilly tone to them, since if it was not for that accident, and the fact that
someone must be able to inherit the Conrad family’s assets, or else he would not had batted an eye
even if that illegitimate child died on the streets.
Clarence stood at the doorway, looking at his parents fighting each other.
It was Justin who went towards him in his wheelchair, held his hand, and said in a warm tone, “You
name is Clarence, right? My name is Justin, and I am your elder brother.”
Clarence turned and looked at him, his young face still showing hostility towards him.
Back then, Justin had been discharged from the hospital recently, he was still not used to moving
around in a wheelchair, and for that he constantly smashed his face onto the floor.
With his face full of bruises and wounds, he smiled at Clarence, “Come on now, don’t just stand there.
I’ll bring you to your room.”
Since then, every time Joanna picked at Clarence, Justin had always shielded him from her. When
Joanna instructed the maids not to give Clarence food, Justin had sneakily gave him supper at night.
When Clarence was old enough to leave for further studies, Justin was afraid that the pitiful amount of
allowance was insufficient for Clarence to survive off of, so he hid a bank card in his bag.
When Clarence started managing the Conrad Group and revealed his outstanding talent, only then did
Joanna stop picking on him.
In the whole family, only Justin treated him as a human, a family member, a younger brother.
Sadly, his mother was Joanna.
Justin could not find a balance between both sides of the coin as he struggled to find relief.
The same applied to Clarence.
After some time, Justin said out of the blue, “Is Stella alright? I figure that she must’ve been quite
terrified at what happened that night.”
“She’s alright, she isn’t that big of a scaredy-cat.”
Justin smiled, “I see that she’s been looking better lately, you must’ve been treating her well, then. You
should’ve done this earlier.”
Clarence lifted his brows and said, “I’ve already told you, I love her.”
“In this kind of situations, usually the bystanders can see the whole thing more clearly than the ones in
it.”
Clarence looked at him and replied, “It’s true, people in the thick of it often find it hard to get out of it.
But there are millions of ways to solve problems, so we don’t necessarily had to get on the path of no
return.”
Justin’s smiled stiffened, “Clare…”
“Death is not a relief, it’s merely avoiding the truth.”
He looked downwards, not saying a thing.
Clarence got up and said, “I’m leaving.”
Justin nodded in response, “Take care.”
Looking at Clarence leaving, Justin placed his hands on his senseless knees for a while before he
looked away at something else.
Yeah, death is not a relief.
It’s just an excuse that weak and useless people use for themselves.
…
Stella went for lunch with Sherry, she then worked on miscellaneous things around the workshop.
When she had settled everything, it was around three to four in the afternoon.
It was quite early, there was still much time.
Stella gave Clarence a call, but to her surprise, he did not answer the call.
That was weird.
Logically speaking, he went to the Conrad family in the morning, and there was no way that he was
going to stay there for lunch, so he should had left there already.
Stella made another call, but to no avail as well.
She had a bad feeling about this, which lead her to pack her stuff hurriedly and rushed out from the
workshop. When she saw the Rolls-Royce that was parked on the side of the road, her anxiousness
vanished in an instant.
She was so worried that something had happened to Clarence in the Conrad family.
Stella walked next to the Rolls-Royce, and stood there facing Clarence.
He was smoking a cigarette, and looked as if he was staring into nothingness and spacing out.
He did not even notice Stella, who had walked within earshot of him.
She had never seen Clarence this despondent before.
She waved her hand in front of him while saying, “Just broken up, handsome?”
Clarence did not say anything.
He turned and saw her, as he got rid of the cigarette and said with a raspy voice, “Everything’s done?”
Stella replied, “Mhmm, it was done a while ago. Why aren’t you picking up the phone?”
Clarence instinctively reached for his phone, checked it and said in a softer tone, “I’m sorry, my phone’s
on silent, I didn’t hear it.”
Stella leaned on the car window, looked at him with her attractive black eyes and asked, “What’s
wrong? Are you feeling down?”
Clarence gave her a smile, “No.”
“You have ‘something’s wrong’ written all over your face, sir. Don’t even try to deny it,” said Stella as
she set eyes on the ashtray in the car, frowned and added, “Just how many did you smoke?”
Clarence replied, “Not that much.”
“Can you at least try to answer my questions sincerely? I’m not blind, you know.”
As she said that, she opened the driver seat’s door and said, “Get out of here and get in my car. Yours
smell like nothing but cigarette smoke.”
Clarence obediently got out of his car. After he shut the car door, he reached out and hugged Stella.
Before Stella got to say anything, Clarence added with his raspy voice, “Stay still, let me hug you for a
while.”
She placed her hands on his waist, as she could probably tell why he would behave as he did.
She whispered, “Did you see your brother?”
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda