Chapter 4My Janitor Mother Is Secretly Wealthy

“Get out, Adam!” Mom screamed. “Stop yelling at him and just get out! Matt is staying with me. You don't get to touch him ever again!”

Adam couldn't explain his real motives without admitting he was selling his children to a socialite. He could only stall. “Fine! But we’re not deciding anything until he’s out of the hospital.”

Mom was too worried about the blood to argue. “Fine.”

Adam stepped outside to "smoke," but I knew he was calling May.

In the hospital, Bennett hovered by Mom’s side, playing the innocent. “Mom, he was just jumping around on the stairs. He tripped over his own feet. You should tell him to be more careful…”

Mom cut him off. “Go sit down, Bennett.”

An hour later, Adam returned, his face a mask of feigned indifference. May had clearly given him new orders.

“Claire, I’ve made my decision. I’m taking Bennett. You keep Matt. And after today, I don't want to hear from either of you unless it’s an absolute emergency.”

“Good,” Mom snapped.

Just like in the previous life, they sold the house. Mom walked away with eighty thousand dollars in cash—a pittance to Adam, but a fortune to her. May must have been footing the bill to make the "problem" go away quickly.

While I was still in the hospital, Adam whisked Bennett away to Chicago for "inspection." I could only imagine the look on May’s face when she saw what she’d bought.

Once I was discharged, Mom moved us to Boston. She wanted a fresh start.

She fell back into the same routine: cleaning offices by day, selling rotisserie chicken and sides from a small stand at night. I didn't care about the grease or the long hours. I did everything I could to help her.

The only "gift" May had given me in my past life was a high-functioning brain. I stopped hiding it. I let my intelligence show, little by little.

By the time I finished middle school, I was the top-ranked student in the district. When I won a ten-thousand-dollar scholarship, Mom cried.

She looked at me, her eyes red and hesitant. “Matt… are you ashamed of what I do? If you keep being this successful, people are going to ask. The reporters will want to know who your mother is. Do you really want to tell them I’m a janitor?”

I took her hands. “I’ll tell them the truth. I’ll tell the whole world that my mother is the strongest woman I know. That without you, I’d be nothing.”

She sobbed and pulled me into her arms. “You’re my pride and joy, Matt.”