Chapter 3 Five Years Later
Five years later, Chicago.
There was sound that a kid was crying for mercy from the old building.
"Mom, I know I made a mistake!"
In the living room, there was a little and cute boy who was grabbing his ear and pouting poorly.
Jessica was frowning and holding an examination paper in her hand.
"Jason Wilson, look at you English examination paper! What a bad score you got! Are you going to make me angry on purpose?" "Mom..." The boy squeezed his face looking so upset.
"Look at the answer you wrote, here you should write 'there is a boy' but you wrote 'there are a boy'!"
"Mom..." He was saying that in a soft and sweat tone so as to appease his mom.
"And this one: three people not three person."
"Mom..."
"Don't pretend that you are wronged. How could you make such stupid mistakes?"
"..." Jason was scared and kept crying.
"Look, how could you write 'goes' but not 'go'?"
Jessica pursed her lips and actually she didn't want to be that strict to her boy, but his English grammars were too bad.
Just then, Jessica's mom Martha Owen was coming out from the kitchen, and chuckled,
"Did Jason do so badly in exam? Come, let grandma have a look at it."
Then Martha wore her glasses and took the paper from Jessica and glanced at the answers then she laughed.
"Jason is still so young but he could answer such difficult questions, I think he is so talented."
"Only grandma can understand me..." Jason came over to Martha and acted cute.
"Mom, you are speaking for him!" Jessica stared at his son.
"Jessica, Jason was raised in Korea and we were just back to Chicago for half a year. It's so normal that his English grammars are not that good. Don't push him too much." Martha was holding Jason tightly in her arms. In fact, she wasn't spoiling him. She understood that they went through so many difficulties in these few years.
"Fine, it's understandable that his English is not that good. But how about his Math?"
American-Chinese-not-enough
Jessica was taking out another exam paper while she was taking. "Five times six is thirty but he wrote twenty five!"
"Mom, you said he was raised in Korea, but how could that affect his Math? He is going to piss me of"
Jason was pouting his lips and was hugging Martha tightly.
Jessica saw the answer for the other question, she became angrier and she grinned:
"Look, the answer of eight times five was forty five! Jason, you are brilliant! How could you write forty five?"
"It was just a Math exam, but he is so cute." Martha laughed when she heard what Jason wrote on his paper. "Jessica, he is still a small kid. You need to teach him slowly."
"A small kid? He is already five years old! He is old enough to study in a preschool class next year! But his English is so bad. I am so worried that he would learn nothing from the school..." "It's all my fault. If I wasn't that sick, you didn't need to find a doctor for me in Korea..."
Martha knew that Jessica had done a lot for her.
Though Jessica insisted to not to tell her where the money came from.
She even didn't mention who was the father of Jason.
But Martha knew that Jessica suffered a lot these years.
"Mom, now you are healthy. I don't want to mention the past."
That year, she gave birth to a Jason in Seoul and her mother was treated for her disease. Over the years, she already spent five millions dollars.
But she thought everything was worthwhile when she saw that her mom was healthy now.
Seeing that Jason was growing up but his English was getting worse and worse and often mixed with Korean. She felt that she wanted to move back to Chicago. Luckily, they had been back there for half a year, and helped Jason improve his English a lot.
So that he could now speak English fluently.
"OK, I won't talk about it. I just hope that you and Jason will be happy every day and waited for the day that your dad is released from prison."
Every time Martha mentioned Jessica's dad, she would cry.
"Grandma, don't cry... I will promise you that I will be good a boy..."
Jason reached out his hand and wiped the tears of Martha.
Jessica choked with sobs and held the exam paper in hand firmly.
She knew deep down that she should work harder to earn more money so that she could give Jason a better future.
And she would not regret that she hide her second son from them...
At night.
"Jessica, the cocktail party is going to start, where are you?"
"Phillip, I am already downstairs. I will be there soon."
"OK. Then you just get to the third floor. I will wait for you."
Jessica hanged up the phone and gazed at the luxurious building in front of her.
There were a few words come into sight.
The Empire Hotel.
The Empire Hotel was the landmark of Chicago.
And it was the hotel that she heard the most from her colleagues since her back to here.
She didn't expect that Philip would ask her to have a social meeting in this hotel.
Thinking of the generous bonus, she became energetic right away.
In order let her mom and Jason have a better life, she must earn more money.
She held her purse firmly and when she passed by a black car which stopped by the road,
She paused and had a look at herself on the window glass of the car to make sure she was decent.
She tied her long and black hair in to a bun.
Besides, she was wearing a light make-up, which was nearly perfect.
However, her black shoulder cutting evening dress didn't look good enough.
So she adjusted a bit her dress in front of the window glass of the car.
Then she looked at herself from the window glass and looked satisfied.
Generous and decent.
OK, done!
She took a deep breath and at the moment she was looking at the mirror and trying to force herself a smile to encourage herself, The window glass was sliding down slowly...0000000