Chapter 213 History
“Yes!” Jonathan nodded before looking at Josephine doubtfully. “You know her?”
“Of course I do!” Josephine answered enthusiastically. “Back when I was little, I used to admire her so much. In fact, my room was full of her posters. Unfortunately, she retired from the entertainment industry right after she got married. I haven’t heard any of her new songs ever since!”
In her heyday, it was almost impossible to get a ticket for Elizabeth’s concerts.
Not only were the tickets limited, but a ticket to her concert would often cost up to eighty thousand each.
As for her fans from foreign countries, they would fly to wherever a concert of hers was being held.
Unfortunately, she stopped touring after she got married. Even worse, she died in a fatal car accident a few years after her retirement.
The news of her death took the whole of Chanaea by shock. Everyone was extremely saddened by her passing.
“Who would’ve thought you were one of her fans!” Jonathan stroked Josephine’s head affectionately. “When she and my dad got into that accident, I was only ten. I remember I was still at school when I received the news. Someone barged into my classroom and told me that my parents were involved in a car accident. At that moment, I was stupefied by what I heard. When I got to the hospital, they had already sent their bodies into the morgue. So I didn’t even get to see them one last time.” As soon as Jonathan was done telling the story, his face turned solemn. Regardless of what he had gone through the past ten years, he would still feel incredibly sad every time he was reminded of them.
“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought this up.” Having noticed Jonathan’s expression, Josephine felt bad.
“It’s fine. It has already been ten years.” Jonathan smiled. However, his smile seemed bitter. “Anyway, what happened next was even more unthinkable. A day after their passings, I was chased out of the Goldstein family and away from Yaleview. They even warned me to never come back to Yaleview and address myself as a member of the Yaleview’s Goldstein family.”
“Why?” Josephine’s stared at him in bewilderment. He was chased away when he was only ten! Worse still, after their passings, that was when he needed emotional support the most! They had even forbidden him from addressing himself as a member of the Goldstein family? I could only imagine what sort of pain and suffering he must’ve gone through!
“No particular reason, I guess. It’s just because my parents passed away.” Jonathan let out a self-mocking laugh and continued, “Before my dad died, he was the next in line to inherit all the Goldstein family’s assets. In fact, he was the only person eligible. But after his passing, all the inheritance went to my uncle, Tommy Goldstein. Uncle Tommy, my dad’s little brother, chased me out of the family because he was worried that I could one day challenge his eligibility for the inheritance. He even got help from the other family members of the Goldstein family to execute his cruel plan.”
“What? How could they do that? How could they be so heartless?” Upon hearing Jonathan’s story, Josephine was trembling with rage. Although it had been ten years, she couldn’t believe how cruel his family had treated him.
How could such a cruel uncle exist in the world? Not only did his parents just die, but he was only a ten-year-old boy! How could they do that to a young boy?
“Because of money, of course. Compared to how much money was at stake, a then ten-year-old boy like me was worth nothing.” Jonathan shook his head and smiled wryly. Over the years, he had encountered countless similar betrayals. He had seen what family members could do to each other for monetary gain.
“What… What about your grandparents?” Josephine couldn’t help but ask. “Didn’t they do anything to help you?”
“What about them?” Jonathan paused for a moment and smiled coldly. “In their eyes, all that mattered was the Goldstein family as a whole. I wasn’t their priority. Not only did they not stop Tommy, but they also haven’t looked for me since I was chased out of the family. Hence, I haven’t seen them ever since my parents died.”
“What? How could they do that to their grandson?” Josephine was so livid that her face flushed bright red. She couldn’t believe how much of a hardship Jonathan had gone through when he was only ten.
“Why do you look even angrier I am?” Jonathan asked her while touching her nose affectionately.
“How could I not be angry?” Her teeth were grinding so hard that her jaw was aching. “How could they be so cold-blooded? Aren’t they afraid of karma?”
“They didn’t care about karma as much as monetary gain.” Jonathan burst into laughter. “Otherwise, why did you think they’ve come looking for me again all of a sudden? It’s all because Tommy’s son was involved in a car accident. Hence, they want me to return and be the Goldstein family’s puppet.”
“Puppet?” Josephine was puzzled. “What do you mean by that?”
“In order to inherit the assets, one must be of the Goldstein family’s bloodline. I am exactly the person they need.” Suddenly, Jonathan couldn’t help but scoff. “However, they’re not planning to let me inherit anything at all. They just want me there to be a puppet for my wimpy little brother.”
“Oh, my God! They’re pure monsters!” Josephine bit her lips and gazed at Jonathan. She was anguished on his behalf.
It was actually her first encounter with a prominent family. Before this, she had often envied the lavish lifestyles of the people in such a family.
However, that was no longer the case upon hearing Jonathan’s life story.
In fact, she felt disgusted by what they would do to their own family members all for the sake of monetary gain. There was no sense of family values among those people. Furthermore, relationships between them were as brittle as glass.
“What happened next?” Josephine continued asking.
“After that, I was treated like a piece of trash. They threw me out of the family and out of Yaleview. In the blink of an eye, I’ve gone from being the heir of the Goldstein family to being a homeless beggar. In order to make ends meet, I’ve even worked as a construction worker, a restaurant server, and also a trash picker. Then, in my first business venture, I got set up and owed a lot of people a big amount of money as a result. When the debt collectors were coming for me, that’s when I met you. I guess my life would have been a sad tragedy if I haven’t met you.”
At this point, Jonathan was so overwhelmed by emotions that he couldn’t help but pull Josephine into his embrace.
