Chapter 1
The year my mom remarried, she took me, just ten years old, to the local records office.
"Your new dad already has a son and a daughter. It's not easy for me to remarry, so I didn't tell him I had a son," she said.
I looked up at her, bewildered. "Mom, what about me?"
When the new household registration booklet arrived, Mom gestured for me to open it.
On the booklet, my grandparents were now listed as my parents, and Mom was legally listed as my sister.
"From now on, you should call your grandma 'Mom,'" she said as she put the booklet away.
"Take the bus back to your grandparents' house later. I need to pick up my new son from school," she added.
I clutched the booklet, head down. I knew I was no longer her son.
Ever since then, I never saw my mom again.
When I was a junior in college, my grandparents passed away.
After being gone for eleven years, Mom suddenly showed up at my grandparents' house, with a real estate agent in tow.
"I'm their only daughter, so whatever belonged to them is mine now. I have the right to sell this house," she said.
I stepped forward and pulled out the family record.
"Sis, you're not the only child here. You've got a brother."
*****
The real estate agent grabbed the booklet, gave it a quick look, then jabbed a finger at Mom and exploded.
"What are you playing at? You said you were an only child, and now a brother pops up out of nowhere? You've wasted half my day. If this deal tanks, that's on you!
"I've already got a buyer lined up, they're literally driving over right now. How am I supposed to explain this mess?"
Still pissed, the agent shot me a nasty glare, then turned to call the buyer, suddenly all polite and apologetic.
Mom turned to glare at me. "Paul Wilson, what the hell are you trying to pull?"
I held up the booklet and shrugged, not giving a damn. "It means I own this place now."
"For the past two years, while Grandpa and Grandma were bedridden, I was the one cleaning up after them, feeding them medicine, washing them, every single day, it was me by their side. And you? Where were you when they needed you?"
Mom shot back, desperate to defend herself. "I was busy!
"I had to look after my new family, make sure your stepbrother and stepsister did well in school and life. How could I possibly have time to come here? Anyway, this house was always meant to be mine, I'm their real daughter, after all!"
"Their real daughter?" I scoffed. "You vanished for eleven years.
"You didn't step foot in this house for eleven years, not a single meal cooked, not even a glass of water for Grandpa and Grandma.
"Now, the moment they're gone, you show up with a real estate agent to sell the place? Do you even deserve to call yourself their daughter?"
Mom's face went from red to pale, then to a shade of green. She leaned in, lowering her voice.
This was nothing anyone would want to admit to.
"Paul, how can you fight your own mother for a house? On the family record we're just siblings, but you're my real son, the one I carried for nine months!"
Real son...
When I was ten, the first New Year after Mom got remarried, I went to visit her at her new place.
On the way, I kept thinking about how Mom would react.
Would she say sorry? Would she wish me a happy New Year?
But when Mom saw me, she just turned and hugged a boy a little taller than me, straightening his new coat.
The boy glanced at me, curious. "Mom, who is he?"
Mom said, "Just some poor distant relative, not really close."
I stood there, shivering in the cold wind, wanting to call out "Mom," but the cold look she gave me made the words die in my throat.
That day, I stood outside her building for a whole hour, my heart frozen solid.
After I got back from Mom's place, I caught a cold and ended up with a 104-degree fever. I was delirious, calling out for Mom over and over.
Grandma, heartbroken, called Mom.
I heard Mom say just one thing.
"I'm watching cartoons with my son. I don't have time to look after outsiders."
With that, she hurriedly hung up.
Turns out, in her eyes, I was nothing but a stranger.
From that moment on, she stopped being my mom to me.
Ever since then, night after night, I'd tell myself, "Paul, you don't have a mom anymore."
Those memories hit me, and I looked up.
"I'm not your son," I said.
"From the day you turned me into your brother on paper, from the day you put me on a bus back to Grandpa's while you went to pick up your new son from school, that's the day I lost my mom."
Mom was left speechless, but before she could say anything, footsteps and laughter drifted in from the hallway.