Kevin was getting angry, "You're not going to get anything from my sister! Have you forgotten how you treated her when she was alive? After my father died, it was you who drove us out of the house. If it weren't for my sister, we would have starved to death on the streets! Aren't you ashamed to mention my sister's legacy?"
Sophia stepped forward and stared coldly at Linda Barber without speaking.
Linda Barber felt a chill in her body as she looked back at Sophia. She did not know this girl, but for some reason, she felt a little shy when she met her eye.
She turned her head away from Sophia and said to Kevin, "I checked the law of succession. The first in line of succession is spouse, children and parents. But Sophia didn't get married. Naturally, she had no spouse and no children. And then there are siblings.
As a stepmother, even if I have no kinship with her and no inheritance, I do have a son. He and you are half-brothers, and he enjoys equal inheritance rights. He could have at least half of Sophia Green's legacy. She was a famous scientist. She must have lots of money. I will make an application to the court to find out. You're not getting all the money!"
Sophia Green did have some money. With her abilities, it was not difficult for her to make money. She had never actively pursued making money as a primary goal. It was not part of her disposition to live lavishly or crave luxury, and she had not intended to leave too much money to her brother. She always thought that a person had to fight for what they wanted; too much money would only wear away his will and made him unwilling to work hard.
Over the years, she had taken various jobs and made a fair bit of money. It was just for the living expenses of Kevin and herself. But slowly, she saved about 300 thousand dollars. It was not much, but enough to put Kevin through college. She also bought a house years ago. This was all left to Kevin Green to make sure he would not run into trouble or find himself homeless.
The savings were in a bank account, the card of which she left for Kevin. The bank card was opened in her name, and the card was kept at home. Kevin knew the card and its passcode. He usually withdraws money from the card for their daily expenses.
Sophia Green would never agree to give the money to Linda Barber, not even one dollar.
She didn't just dislike Linda, and she hated her very much.
Sophia Green's biological mother died after giving birth to Kevin. Less than half a year later, Mr. Green married Linda Barber. At that time, Mr. Green's thought was simply that he wanted a woman at home to help him take care of his children.
Linda always acted very well in front of Mr. Green. While she didn't treat Sophia and Kevin with any real affection, she, at least, did not treat them too badly. A year later, Linda Barber had a son with Mr. Green. Then she became colder and colder towards them. For the kids' sake, Mr. Green didn't say much but secretly took care of them.
When Kevin Green was two and a half years old, Mr. Green had died. Sophia was fourteen years old at the time.
Mr. Green's estate was not much, only a house and one million and five hundred thousand dollars' bank savings over the past decades.
The first thing Linda Barber did was to entrust Kevin to Sophia to take care of. At that time, Sophia was living in her dorm room at Glinton University. She couldn't even take care of herself and often relied on the help of the dorm administrator. She couldn't bring up a child who was only two years old.
She was young and angrily turned up at the family home to confront Linda. As a result, Linda Barber called Sophia's relatives on her mother's side, blocked her from entering the house, and threw out all the things she and Kevin had at home, saying that they had nothing to do with the family from that point on.
When Sophia had calmed down, she checked the inheritance law. Then she asked Principal Lewis for help, hired a lawyer, and sued Linda Barber.
And she won. The court ruled that half of the estate legally belonged to Sophia and Kevin.
Linda Barber eventually had to give Sophia seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for half of the estate. But she refused to give up the house. She claimed that as half of the house belonged to Sophia and Kevin, they could live there. But she knew that they definitely wouldn't live there as long as she was around.
There was nothing more that could be done. Things dragged on for such a long time, and in the end, they couldn't get the house.
With her father's legacy, Sophia survived through the toughest two years. She rented a house and hired a nanny to take care of little Kevin. Then she slowly made some money and bought a house, and took over raising Kevin.
Kevin Green was a very sweet and clever boy. Once he had grown up a bit, he took the initiative to do the housework, and so now he could help look after her rather than her always worrying about him.
And now Linda Barber was after her legacy. This, in Sophia Green's view, was beyond ridiculous and hateful.
She hadn't asked Linda Barber for the part of her father's house that belonged to her and her brother, and the woman now dared to demand her money from Kevin!
Just then, two boys about the same age as Kevin came running in through the door. Both of them looked a little confused when they saw Sophia standing there, and they both stopped, amazed. "Sophia!"
Sophia recognized them at once: one of them was Bernard Holmes and the other Luis Mendoza. They were two of Kevin's good friends. Sophia had met them several times when they used to come over to study with Kevin at their house.