Doted by Many: I became the Top-Tier Celebrity!-Chapter 541 - 535: Counting Brothers 5
Chapter 535
Maxim Ford looked at her gently: "That was during the SARS outbreak in 2003 when we adopted the tenth child."
After SARS emerged, the parents of the tenth child fled the infected area with two children. Sadly, they caught SARS due to their weak immunity.
In order to prevent the two children from being infected, they had no choice but to abandon them, leaving all their savings with the ten-year-old. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
His sister, a year younger than him, was infected with SARS after much hardship. She died in the hospital before seeing the beauty of the world, turning him into an orphan.
Every day was spent amid the illness and the departure of loved ones until Graham Ford and his wife donated to the hospital and visited those children, and thus, met the tenth child.
He carried a photo of his sister, feeling very down.
His illness was not severe and he had the possibility of being cured. Rouge Jarvis approached him and softly asked, "Child, are you afraid of being isolated?"
He shook his head, looking at her somewhat confused.
"Don’t be afraid, this illness can be cured, and you will get better."
The tenth child’s eyes reddened, yet he held back tears: "Can Poppy still be saved? She is only nine..."
The same age and even the same nickname as her long-lost daughter.
She was moved and observed this child’s every move for the next few days, touched by his longing for his sister and parents.
When SARS was completely eliminated, she went to the orphanage, found him, and adopted him.
Tiana Thorne listened to her brother recount the past and was a bit stunned: "My nickname was Poppy?"
"Yes."
Tiana Thorne smiled gently, revealing two shallow dimples: "Such a cute name, and mom chose it well because I really love eating grapes."
Also, because when she was a little fox, her reddish-brown fur was disliked by her kin, making her an outlier. Back then, she heard from the elders that, during the stage of becoming human, eating grapes would make one’s eyes large and round, their pupils dark and glowing.
Initially, she ate grapes for the beauty it promised in human form, but later, it was entirely because of the great sweet and sour taste.
Maxim Ford watched her smile, subconsciously remembering her words.
Tiana Thorne withdrew her thoughts and asked, "Brother, did Tenth Brother ever come out of the shadow of losing family?"
"This kind of pain doesn’t just go away." Maxim Ford said.
Tiana Thorne roughly understood, feeling emotional, knowing that the loss of family is hard to accept, so all these years, their mother must have been struggling inside...
"This is your Eleventh Brother’s study."
Tiana Thorne refocused, blinking her pretty eyes, softly asking: "Why was Eleventh Brother adopted by our parents by chance?"
"During that SARS outbreak, his parents were quarantined after contracting SARS and never came back. Checking with the hospital, both parents didn’t make it. He and the tenth child were sent to the orphanage and became good friends. Mother feared that the tenth child would feel lonely without his good buddy, so they completed the adoption procedures together."
As expected, this is the kind of operation affluent people would undertake.
"Are Tenth Brother and Eleventh Brother close to mom and dad?"
Maxim Ford replied: "Very."
Tiana Thorne smiled: "Then tell me about Twelfth Brother."
