Chapter 762 - 758: No, You Can’t Go

At noon, Connor Sterling got himself all spruced up and took his mother out for steamed dumplings on his electric scooter.

"Mom, this old clunker of a scooter needs to be replaced. What do you say we get a car?" Connor asked suddenly as he drove.

His mother’s hearing wasn’t very good, and with the wind in her face, she only vaguely heard him. "Get a cart?"

"Not a cart, a car!" Connor raised his voice, shouting at the top of his lungs. "Buy me a car!"

"Doesn’t your older brother have one?"

"I wouldn’t be caught dead driving that old VW. Besides, that’s what my brother uses for his commute. It’s not like I’d ever get a turn."

His mother understood what her younger son was getting at. She snorted and said, "You just got a few hundred thousand from your sister. That’s for you to start a business. Don’t you dare use it to buy a car."

"You even signed an IOU for it. Your sister could ask for it back any day now."

The mention of this made Connor fume. ’Her own flesh-and-blood brother asks for a little money, and she makes him sign an IOU. She wouldn’t have given it to me otherwise.’

’Anyway, I signed the IOU to get the money,’ he thought, ’but there’s no way in hell I’m ever paying it back.’

"If you can actually make something of yourself this time, you can buy whatever car you want once you’ve earned the money. I won’t interfere. But don’t just go making a mess of things, you hear me?"

Connor definitely didn’t hear her, because his mind was already plotting something else.

They arrived at the steamed dumpling shop. It was the peak of the lunch rush, and business was booming. The owner, a friend of Connor’s, immediately found them a table and brought over a complimentary plate of cold appetizers.

Connor ordered steamed dumplings and lamb soup. "Mom, the lamb soup here is great. You have to eat lamb when it’s cold out."

It was a rare treat to eat out with her younger son, so the old lady was in a good mood. She looked around the shop and said in a low voice, "Business is so good. They must make a decent amount each day."

"If you ask me, it would be nice for you and Sylvain Webb to open a small shop like this. It would be more than enough to get by in our town."

Connor scoffed at her words. "Who’d want a crappy little shop like this?"

"You’ve got such lofty ambitions for someone who’s almost forty and hasn’t saved a dime. You rely completely on Sylvain Webb for everything."

"Mom, there you go again, always finding fault with me. Isn’t it just that I’ve had bad luck?"

His mother shook her head, exasperated. "If you were half as capable as your older brother, I wouldn’t have to say a thing."

"Heh," Connor sneered. "What’s so capable about being an official at the town tax bureau? My brother makes pennies a month!"

"He’s still a respectable official!" His mother wouldn’t stand for her younger son talking about her eldest that way. "It doesn’t matter how much your brother earns. Out in town, is there anyone who doesn’t show him respect?"

"Yes, yes, yes..."

Connor nodded quickly, not wanting to make his mother angry.

’She wasn’t wrong,’ he thought. ’In this backwater town, my brother’s status is more than enough. He really does get face wherever he goes.’

His mother knew when to stop, too. Just then, the steamed dumplings arrived. She picked up her chopsticks and said, "Let’s eat. With Mindy gone, the house has been a total mess. It’s a rare treat to get some peace and quiet out with you."

"You can say that again. I bet my sister-in-law is overwhelmed, too. Her three sons, plus my brother and you... it’s all fallen on her shoulders."

Connor went along with what his mother was saying, using it as an opportunity to bring up the other matter he’d been plotting. "Mom, where do you think Mindy could have run off to?"

His mother shook her head. "They say she went to Lorcain, but your sister never met up with her. I suspect it was just a diversion. She probably never went to Lorcain at all."

"It’s also possible she went and just missed my sister," Connor said. "Lorcain is a huge city, with people everywhere. It would be perfectly normal for them not to run into each other."

"Well, there’s nothing to be done about it. She called your sister-in-law yesterday, said she’d found a job."

At the mention of Mindy, the old lady’s anger flared. "We found such a good match for her, and she threw it away! If she’d married Mr. Bowman, half his fortune would’ve been hers! Then she could have helped out her brothers in the future."

"Now, not only is the engagement off, but she’s run away without a word. How could she be so selfish!"

"She’s nothing like your sisters. Back then, your two older sisters went off to work, and all the money they earned paid for your and your brother’s tuition and living expenses. That’s the only reason you two were able to finish college."

Connor said coaxingly, "How can you even compare them? My sisters are your own flesh and blood. How could Mindy possibly measure up?"

His mother loved to hear that. Although her daughters, Jasmine and Yvonne, rarely came back to visit, they had never once stopped sending her money for living expenses over all these years. They transferred it on time every month, and there were always extra cash gifts for holidays and her birthday.

As far as the old lady was concerned, she didn’t need her daughters by her side. Two sons were enough. More importantly, she had four grandsons. To her, this was the perfect recipe for a happy retirement.

"Mom, what if... I take a trip to Lorcain?"

Seizing the moment while his mother was happy, Connor finally brought up what had been on his mind.

His mother, in the middle of chewing a dumpling, glared at him. "Go to Lorcain? What on earth would you go to Lorcain for?"

"To find Mindy and bring her back for you, of course," Connor said with a look of utter seriousness. "You said yourself the house has been a mess since she left. My brother and sister-in-law both have proper jobs, so they can’t get away. And you’re certainly too old to go. So if we want her back, it’s up to me to go find her."

"So, what? Are you just going to hope she comes back on her own?"

His mother put down her chopsticks, looked at her younger son, and snorted. "Don’t take me for a senile old fool. You think you’re going to Lorcain to find Mindy? I bet you’re just going to find your sister."

"Tsk, listen to you," Connor said, feigning indignation. "Of course I’m going for Mindy! But you tell me, would it be right for me to go all the way to Lorcain and *not* see my sister?"

"Besides, she knows Lorcain way better than I do. If I’m going to find someone there, I’ll definitely need her to help me. How could I possibly do it by myself?"

"No," his mother said, shutting him down immediately. "You are not going to Lorcain."

"Why not, Mom? Don’t you want Mindy to come back?"

"Of course I want her to come back. But I want you to leave even less," his mother said, picking up her chopsticks to eat again. "In any case, you’re not going."

After saying that, she refused to utter another word. No matter what Connor said, she wouldn’t respond.

The reason she was so dead set against her younger son going to Lorcain was fear. The two sons from the Woods Family on the east side of town had taken one trip to Kyden and ended up finding jobs and settling down there. Now they only came back once a year for the holidays.

’And what was Lorcain? A big city. Everyone wants to move to a big city.’

She was afraid that if her younger son actually went, he wouldn’t want to come back.

’That would never do. My son has to stay by my side.’

His goal unachieved, a frustrated Connor stormed off on his little electric scooter after the meal without even paying the bill. In the end, his mother was the one who paid, and she had to take the bus home by herself.