Life After Prison

“Let’s go in. I’ll cook some more food for us!” Judith said with a smile.

Maurice then went to take a bath.

Severin’s mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts when he entered his old room. It was clean though, and Severin felt a burst of warmth when he saw it.

Sure enough, the people who cared most about him were none other than his parents. It looked as though they came in to clean his room from time to time.

When Severin opened the closet, he discovered several of his old clothes. They had aged through the years but still remained spotless and clean.

Judith walked in some time later and smiled at Severin while explaining, “We clean your room once in a while when you’re not here. Your clothes are probably a little small though, and they must be out of fashion by now. Old folks like us don’t really understand the fashion trends of young people!” As she said that, she approached him and took out 200 dollars, which he stuffed into Severin’s hand. “You should go shopping tomorrow and get some decent clothes!”

“I can’t accept this money, Mom…” Severin stuffed the money back, and said to Judith in a solemn tone, “You don’t need to be so worried about me. I have money, and I’m going to let you and Dad live in a big villa in the future. You’ve suffered your whole life because of me, while I’ve only suffered for a few years. I can’t possibly spend your money like that!”

“Do you really have money on you?” Judith looked at Severin and was still a little skeptical. she believed that the generous person he met in prison would have given him a sum of money, probably in excess of tens of thousands. After all, if Severin had not paid the remaining debt of twenty-six thousand to the six men earlier, there would have been no explanation as to why they would just leave. Both Judith and Maurice had known their characters after almost five years of having to deal with them!

“Of course. Why would I lie to you?” Severin smiled and assured. “Dad’s done in the shower, so it’s about time I take one too. Let’s have a nice meal after that!”

After taking his shower and changing into his old clothes, he sat with his family on the small table and began to eat.

“It’s been a while since you had a drink, right, Dad?” Severin could not help but ask as soon as Maurice took a sip of the wine.

The question stunned Maurice for a moment. He put on a fake smile and said, “N-not at all! You know how fond I am of these drinks. Doing all that physical work is really tiring, so drinking a few sips would help me to sleep better, won’t it?”

“Yes! He drinks all the time!” Judith was afraid that Severin would be worried about them, so she added, “We eat meat almost every day too, don’t we?”

“Yep! It’s pretty much a daily thing here!” Maurice smiled awkwardly.

Severin’s heart ached when he saw his parents’ poor acting skills. Had he not returned that day, he was almost certain that there would neither be any wine nor any stewed meat on the table. At most, there would be shredded potatoes and a plate of yellowed cabbage leaves. The yellowish leaves were a sign that they were probably discarded parts that were picked up from the vegetable market.

“Why are you staring at us? Come on, eat some meat! Did you eat or sleep well when you were inside prison?” When Judith saw Severin’s blank and quiet expression, she scooped two pieces of meat and put them on his plate.

“It was alright. Didn’t I tell you that I had help from someone generous? I wouldn’t have been able to come out so soon otherwise!” Severin immediately put a smile on his face, and scooped some meat for

his parents too. “The two of you should be eating more. You’re both so much thinner than before, and Mom’s hair is all gray now!”

“Your mother’s hair turned gray because she was worrying too much. I never believed that worrying could turn your hair gray, but your mother has proven me wrong!” Maurice laughed in spite of himself but felt extremely bitter in his heart.

“Don’t worry, I’ve learnt a bit of medical knowledge, so I’ll make her hair black again! But whether her hair is black or gray, she’ll always be my beautiful mother!”

Severin clinked glasses with Maurice and took a sip of wine from his glass.

“You’re quite the sweet talker now, I see!” Judith did not place too much of hope on Severin’s statement, but at least she had a smile on her face now that her son had returned. As long as he came back safe and sound, the color of her hair did not matter at all!

“By the way, what’s with that envelope, Mom?” Severin was very curious as to why the woman who was dressed in a food delivery person’s uniform placed an envelope at the door of their house, and why Judith could obtain two hundred dollars from it.

After pondering over it, Severin could not help but ask, “Could a relative of our family be helping us?”

Upon hearing Severin’s question, Maurice smiled bitterly and said, “Tch. Those relatives used to keep in touch with us every now and then, but they didn’t interact that much with us since you were imprisoned!”

Judith also added, “That’s right. After you went to prison and the matrimonial home was sold, everyone avoided us after knowing that we owe the Loughs a hundred and fifty thousand.”

“They did? Even Aunt Marie and Aunt Edwina, or Uncle Paul and Uncle Vincent? Haven’t they helped us at all?” Severin was slightly surprised. “Uncle Paul, especially. Isn’t his family well off?”

Judith then said, “Your two uncles and Aunt Edwina came up with all sorts of excuses just to avoid lending us a single penny, but in reality, they were just afraid that we won’t be able to pay it back. After all, we’re old, and it’s difficult for us to change our lives for the better. Unlike them, Aunt Marie and her family are very poor, yet she was the only one who was willing to help us. We borrowed a total of eight thousand dollars from her, and we’ve made sure to keep a record of each and every cent that she lent us!”

Upon mentioning that, Judith advised him seriously, “You need to remember Aunt Marie’s kindness and do your best to return the money to their family as soon as possible. I know that she has quarreled a lot with your uncle because of what happened, and to makes things worse, she had no money for surgery when she fell sick. In the end, your cousin had to borrow money from all over the place, even to the extent of taking out a high-interest loan just to gather enough money for the surgery!”

Maurice sighed when he heard that. “Your cousin came to our house to ask if we could pay them back, but we didn’t have a choice because we had no money at all. Easton’s minions came to collect our debt every month, and demanded seven hundred every single time. We don’t always manage to save up that much, so there was no way we could pay back what your aunt lent us. Your cousin got really angry at the time, so we gave her all the money we had at the time. It was about fifty or so dollars in total, but she threw it on the ground and left!”

After bringing up that incident, Maurice took a big sip of the wine in his glass. “Don’t blame her for that though. If anyone’s to blame, it’s us. There was nothing we could do, and we’ve let their entire family down.”

“I understand, Dad!” Severin nodded. “Aunt Marie has been kind to us, so I promise I’ll repay her kindness a hundredfold!”

Judith took out the envelope and handed it to Severin, “As for the sender of this envelope, we have no idea who it is. Whoever they are, they send us money every single month. It’s usually a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty, but sometimes it’ll reaches a hundred and fifty! The letter inside says that she’s a friend of yours whom you’ve met only once. There’s also a reassurance that you’re doing fine, and that you had told her to send the money to us!”

“A friend? Whom I’ve met only once?” Severin frowned. He could not believe that a so-called ‘friend whom he had met once’ would help his parents out like that. That said, Severin was at a complete loss as to who the sender was.