"You say your aunt-in-law has been very kind to me, but do I crave her kindness? If it weren't for her, my mum wouldn't have divorced my dad, and I would've enjoyed the motherly love I deserved, instead of growing up alongside a stepmother!"
"Also, I should've had a biological younger brother or little sister, not grown up with you, a person of dubious origin, going to school and hanging out together."
The words 'person of dubious origin' nearly knocked Phoebe Smith senseless; her face turned red, then white, then blue in quick succession, looking like a painter's palette.
Joseph Thompson didn't even glance at Phoebe's kaleidoscope of a face; he immediately turned and was about to leave.
Phoebe Smith stood there, her eyes reddening, while in the living room, Susanna Smith had fainted on the ground, thinking that if no one helped, the consequences of something happening to her aunt-in-law were too frightening to imagine.
