Resurrecting the Genius Within
Chapter 401 She Love Him
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Joshua remained expressionless and said, “I don’t have a family. To me, they are just strangers with a biological connection.”
“And the mother you’ve cared for all this time? Was she just a stranger with a blood connection, too?” Isabelle’s words made Joshua, the impostor, recall the frail, pain–ridden face of the woman he had been pretending to care for.
Isabelle’s words made the impostor think of that gaunt face–the woman who was so thin that her cheekbones jutted out, tormented by illness.
That frail, sickly woman.
Even though life had tormented her, her gaze on him was always filled with tenderness, guilt, and hope.
She must have been beautiful when she was young.
Deborah was weak. She couldn’t protect her children or resist Gideon. But she wasn’t selfish; she had repeatedly urged him to leave the city to escape Gideon.
She had lost two sons but was willing to endure the pain of separation again.
Deborah hoped he could have a better life.
She didn’t plan to leave with him because Gideon wouldn’t stop hunting them until he found them.
Deborah wanted to stay in that wretched home, hoping one day her lost sons would return.
Talking was hard for her, making others irritated to listen to her.
When she spoke to him, it was always gentle and kind. She would become a fierce shrew, yelling at Gideon to protect him when he lashed out.
That woman would hold his hand, smile at him, ask about his health, and cry over the wounds on his face and hands.
There wasn’t much food at home, but she would save whatever little she had for him. She wanted to feed him, even though it wasn’t much.
Every night, pain tormented her and prevented her from sleeping, but she remained silent to avoid disturbing his rest.
Even getting out of bed was difficult for her, yet she would drag herself to intervene whenever he fought with Gideon.
She would lie in bed all day, staring at the mottled ceiling, waiting for him to come home.
Hurt by the husband closest to her, she found all her hope in her son.
Her son was her only reason to keep living.
She would give up her life without hesitation in order to avoid burdening her son.
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Chapter 401 She Love Him
But she was unaware that the son she had loved for more than ten years had a replacement.
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And she never knew that the one who harmed her child was the very son she had been waiting for all these
years.
No, she knew. That woman knew he wasn’t Joshua.
On her deathbed, she looked at him for a long time and then said, “You’ve grown so much, child.”
Had she realised?
Joshua’s face tightened. His breath was unsteady as he clutched his broken ribs. He questioned, “You think I’d believe you?”
He remembered the drawing Jim had made of two little boys. Those weren’t Storm Shadow and Joshua, but him and Joshua.
Isabelle challenged him, “Are you scared?”
Back in Jim’s clinic, all the suffering and hardships he had described were actually what Joshua had through!
gone
The real Joshua, who had grown up under the harshness of life at just eighteen years old, had recently taken his college entrance exams.
His own brother, whom he had never met, killed him on a cold street after work, despite everything he had endured.
One could imagine the skinny Joshua, perhaps on a cold winter night, wearing thin clothes, braving the cold wind, numbly walking home, with the city’s prosperity all around him, yet far from his reach.
He had struggled at the bottom of society for years.
Joshua had never received any warmth, and there was none in his future.
He tried to live, but ultimately died in a cold corner of the city.
Nobody knew him, and no one saved him.
The real Joshua never understood why life was so unfair to him. There was no happy ending, no sweetness after bitterness.
The impostor before her had committed far worse crimes.
Isabelle stepped forward, her gaze icy. She questioned, “Do you feel guilty? Do you regret it? You were responsible for your mother’s death.”
Her words destroyed fake Joshua’s composed façade.
For years, Deborah had survived, helped later by Isabelle’s support, Magnus, and Arlo.
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