Divorced My Scum Husband, Married His Evil brother

"Vincent?!"

Vernon put his index over his lips and looked at the kids, telling Dorothea to shut up, or these boys might wake up.

Dorothea covered her mouth instantly but still couldn't hide her shock. She stared at Vernon with disbelief. She shook her head a few times and then murmured, "H—How could that be? Is he that cruel?"

"He is, you can ask Chloe about this. I got it from her, and she got this information from the Officer when she got called to the police department this evening," Vernon informed. He peered at his mother, who seemed to be in too much shock that her brain short-circuited on the spot. "Why are you surprised anyway? Do you not realize what a terrible monster he is?"

"I know he is terrible. I know he's abusive as well. It's the reason why I decided to come to you and Chloe, because I realize he is just as bad as your father…." Dorothea lamented. "But I never knew that he could be so cruel to target kids."

"He will do anything to get some reactions from Chloe," Vernon said. He remembered that moment when Chloe got beaten up in the Headmaster's office. He saw how hard Chloe tried to mask her pain so Vernon wouldn't overreact. But every time Vernon was reminded of that moment, his blood would boil to the point that he wanted to go to Vincent's house right now and crush that bastard's head.

Dorothea noticed that Vernon had already clenched his hands until his veins were showing. She quickly patted her son's arm to wake him up, "Vernon, take a deep breath. You know that Chloe wouldn't want you to make a rash judgment."

Vernon took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then continued, "Well, now you know, these boys have nobody in this world except for Chloe, and knowing that Vincent will not tolerate any failure in his plan. He might actually start hunting these boys just to perfect his plan to get reactions from Chloe."

"Then how about Judith…" Dorothea asked. "Does Chloe know about her mother's death? Chloe told me they're estranged now, but I think she will still be sad, right? Did you comfort her?"

Vernon's heartbeat skipped for a second, and then he lowered his head, "I was so caught up with these boys' problems that I argued with Chloe all night about this. I simply ignored her loss. But she also didn't mention her mother at all, so I thought she's not that affected."

"Oh boy, of course she is affected," Dorothea said. "Chloe is a highly empathic person, Vernon. You can't put him in the same shoes as you and I."

"I know, I was so angry at her for bringing these boys…."

"Then you should apologize to her about this later, okay?" Dorothea lectured. "Now, let's focus on these boys. What are you going to do with them?"

"I was thinking about sending them to foster care before. But I changed my mind," Vernon said. "I don't want Chloe to be sad, so I'll have to figure out how to handle this problem."

"The first problem is the Child Protection Service. They will eventually check the boys' condition after at least a week. So I'm planning to rent a small apartment under someone's name and let Chloe and these boys pretend they're living there. Chloe will show that the boys are well taken care of, and there is nothing to worry."

"Second, we need someone to watch over them, and we absolutely cannot allow someone from outside to do that. I don't want to risk getting discovered by Vincent from an external source," Vernon said. He stared at his mother and added, "Dorothea, I want you to be the one who takes care of them."

Dorothea already guessed it would eventually lead to this. She went silent after that, not rejecting the idea nor accepting it.

She turned her head toward the boys and asked, "Do you really believe that I can take care of these boys?"

"Frankly, I don't," Vernon replied curtly. "You have a bad track record, Dorothea. You beat me up when I was a kid and you neglected me to the point that I have no more familial love for you by the time I am seven years old."

Dorothea's heart ached when she heard that.

She knew it was all true, but she still felt sad whenever she had to face her past sins.

She wanted to fix things between them, but it seemed that Vernon would never give her one. So she would be forever branded as the terrible mother, the monster in Vernon's life.

And she deserved it. She knew she deserved all of it.

Sensing that Dorothea was sad by his statement, Vernon added, "But, Chloe told me that I should try to at least tolerate you, and that I did. So I decided to give you one more chance, Dorothea."

"Take care of these boys, watch over them and treat them like how you want to fix things with me," Vernon said. "Treat them as your sons, how you want your sons to actually grow up to become good men. Then I will… I will perhaps forgive you for all the horrible things you did to me back then."

…

Dorothea stared at the boys for a while and slowly leaned to wipe the sweat on their foreheads. All of them seemed to have collective nightmares, maybe because of what happened tonight, and Dorothea felt an absurd amount of guilt knowing their misfortune was caused by her son.

Dorothea felt indirectly responsible for the damage she had caused by spoiling Vincent rotten until he became just like his late father.

She carefully tucked the blanket until it reached half of their body. After making sure they were comfortable in their sleep, she kissed them on the forehead one by one.

Vernon watched how Dorothea took care of the boy and couldn't help to feel a bit jealous because he had never been treated that kindly by his own mother.