Love is the Sunshine novel Chapter 77

From the look on Sean's face, Carla could easily tell that he was about to cry. She sat beside him and gently rubbed his back to comfort him. Of course, she knew he wouldn't be able to accept it so easily once he found out, but it was still hard for Carla to see his brother looking so down. She then asked him, "You heard from Rainer that Terence is about to get engaged to another woman, right?"

In an instant, Sean raised his head and stared at Carla. Looking quite surprised, he blurted out, "Wait, what? You knew about it? When did you find out?!"

Sean's nose was stuffed up and a little runny so he sniffed and explained to her, "Rainer wasn't really planning to tell me about it, but I overheard some people in the background having a conversation about Terence's engagement with someone. So, when I asked Rainer, he had no other choice but to tell me the truth.

Rainier knew that I might let it slip so that he asked me to try not to think about it too much. And, he also asked me to make sure not to tell you..."

Sean had always pictured Terence as his future brother-in-law from the time they had been together. How could he possibly remain calm knowing that Terence was bound to married someone other than his own sister? After all, he was still a child and a child would never lie. So Sean decided to be honest and tell Carla about the news. He thought there must have been some mistakes.

Carla had been contemplating the news an awful lot. However, she thought that everything just went off so smoothly without as much as a hitch that it almost seemed like all of it had been carefully planned out by someone. It was particularly because she had just recently come to accept Terence in her life to see where it might lead them to. For that reason, her hunch was telling her something was up.

'It was just a simple fender bender, so Terence got off with just a few minor injuries. Then, this woman from the Hua family just happened to coincidentally pass him by exactly when the accident took place. Shouldn't she be somewhere fancy sipping tea with her besties?' Carla's thoughts went out of control.

Even though Terence had not yet recovered then, news of the engagement had already been made public. Carla wasn't able to string it all together until

she recalled that Rainer had admitted it to Sean himself that the news about the engagement was actually real.

'I can think of only one sole possibility, ' Carla thought as she squinted her eyes.

She had some suspicions that Terence's father was somehow able to find out that he had still not given up on her. That was probably the reason why he staged an accident on his own and brought another woman into the picture in order to come Carla and Terence them and break their trust.

It didn't take too long for Carla to put together all of the puzzle pieces and figure out who was behind all those series of events.

Carla got the gist of his father's plan. It appeared that he went through such great lengths just to make sure that a girl from such a lower class wouldn't be able to get into their family.

That was also the reason why Carla wasn't really so surprised when she talked to Terence over the phone. She just wanted to let him know that she was aware of things like this would eventually happen someday. For as long as he didn't try to hide it from her, she would be just fine. A single word from him was much greater than all of the gossip roaming around. Carla would let go if Terence would marry another woman. She just wanted him to be honest with her when that day came.

"Hey, Carla, why aren't you saying anything? Are you alright? It's okay if you're feeling sad about it." Sean was deeply concerned about his sister. Even though he was only ten, he understood that Terence was special to Carla. As he was asking Carla, he tried to steel his resolve by patting his own shoulder and said to her, failing to mask his trembling voice, "'Don't keep it all in. There's no need for you to hold back, Carla. You can go ahead and cry if you want to. My shoulder is all yours to lean on!"

As Carla's mind was still wandering all over the place, Sean's voice brought her back to reality. Sean's thoughtful gesture made her smile, so she followed his suggestion. Leaning onto the thin shoulder of that little brother of hers, she mumbled to him, "Try not to worry about me too much, okay? Even if Terence has gotten engaged to another woman, that doesn't matter. Because, I still have you! You are the most important person in the whole world to me. As long as you are here by my side, who cares about some random guy? Is that clear?"

Sean could tell how disappointed Carla was. He himself was so disappointed as well. However, he simply patted her back like an adult, trying to act as if everything was going to be okay. He then asked, "Carla, why did he have to leave us? Is it because we're poor? Yesterday, Jeremy told me that our background was way too different from Terence's. Is that the reason why Terence left you?"

Tears started streaming down Sean's face as he was talking to Carla. Looking at Sean's sullen face, Carla's heart was in so much pain. Seeing her brother sulking like that, she began feeling a sense of betrayal herself. She pulled him a little bit closer and held him tightly.

She then proceeded to say, "Hey. Listen close. Does it really matter if we have money or not? If I'm being honest, I've never really considered marrying Terence. Not even once. I've been telling you that ever since, remember? And it's not that I don't like him. In fact, I wasn't really that into him. So, why should I feel sad about his engagement? Don't worry. I didn't feel anything when I heard the news. I really didn't.

She might have lied to Sean, but even worse, she lied to herself. All she wanted was to help herself get over him faster by pretending that she was not interested in him at all. She took a deep breath and held in a sigh. "It's a good thing that I haven't fallen too deeply just yet, ' she closed her eyes and pondered. Though it might take a while before she could get rid of her feelings and forget all about him, she knew that, at least, for the time being, everything would just go back to how they used to be.

"Is that what you honestly think, Carla?" The truth suddenly hit Sean in the face. He was finally able to understand why Carla had been so reluctant to let him call Terence his brother-in-law. She knew fully well that the day would surely come when awful things like this would befall them.

Little did he know, she wasn't telling the truth. It was completely far from it.

"Carla, if you really think so, then I am totally on your side! I wish I can grow up sooner so that I can get to work my ass off and earn tons of money! By the time all of it finally comes true, I'll make sure to give you the perfect wedding, so we can prove to everyone who doubted us that they are less worthy of us than they make themselves out to be!"

That resentful speech was made by a ten-year-old Sean. In his heart, he promised himself that one day, he would come on top and become the strongest sword and shield for his sister. 'No one should dare looking down upon us anymore!' he yelled with conviction from within his distant dream, his thoughts running wild.

Carla was surprised upon hearing those words from him. All she could think about right now was how grateful she was for having such a brother who would never ever leave her alone. Filled with so much warmth and delight, Carla had to give the best of her strength to try not to cry. Instead, she smiled at Sean as she stretched out her arm toward his head and gently planted a kiss on his forehead.