”Well, her birthday is coming up soon. She saw her father’s post on Facebook and figured the might be planning something for her. I wanted to work with them and plan something big for her, and so that they could talk,” Liam explained as he glanced at the woman. To his confusion, they glanced at each other with a shake of their heads. He didn’t understand what was going on.

”Yeah my brother posted that because we’re unveiling a new property to put on the market that day. It’ll be our biggest yet,”the woman replied.

Liam felt his heart sink into his stomach, not expecting to hear that from her. He could’ve sworn the post had something to do with Ying Sheng since it was talking about the day that her birthday landed on.

He didn’t think they’d care about anything else happening that day, much less plan anything on that day besides something for her birthday. Maybe they were worse than he had originally thought. Maybe Ying Sheng was right to leave them behind. They only seemed to care about themselves.

”So, they’re not going to do anything for her birthday? Not even reach out to her? What happened between them…..it really hurt her,” Liam told them as a frown crossed his face. He wished that they could realize how much they had hurt Ying Sheng because of how they treated her. It was a big part of her sadness that she consistently battled with, and they probably had no idea.

”Yes, we know. Unfortunately our brother is too stupid to care about his own daughter” The woman scoffed with a shake of her head.

Liam kept his eyes from narrowing, from the woman’s tone he could see that she was disappointed with her brother.

”All she wants is their support and care.” Liam replied, unable to help his slightly sharp tone. He understood they had a rocky relationship, but that didn’t mean it was right for them to just dismiss their own child like that. “You have no business talking to us about our family, okay? I don’t know what you thought you would accomplish coming here,” The man muttered as he glared at Liam.

Maybe it wasn’t his place, but Liam cared about Ying Sheng He had wanted to help bridge a divide, but one side didn’t want to cooperate. They didn’t care about their daughter at all. Their one duty as parents was to take care of their daughter, and they hadn’t even done that.

They might have kept a roof over her head and kept her fed while she was growing up, but that wasn’t parenting. That was the bare minimum. They didn’t let her express her feelings and fears. They didn’t encourage her to follow her dreams or show her any support. They weren’t there for her, even if they lived in the same house for years.

Seeing the determined look on Liam’s face, the man sighed.

”Look, I appreciate what you’re trying to do for Ying Sheng. But her parents are currently not available.”

Liam scrunched his brows at the man’s words.

”What do you mean?” Liam questioned.

”Don’t worry, once my brother comes back , he will make up with his daughter and atone for his sins.”

The woman nodded in agreement.

”I don’t know who you are but my niece is lucky to have you by her side. Please take care of her. We will send her a birthday gift.”

************

”Liam really thought that he could change things for her, that he could help her, but he had failed. Her parents weren’t even around and she had no idea. He wished that today had a better outcome because now he had no idea what to do for her birthday.

He had put all of his hopes on this encounter, and he was left with nothing. He probably should’ve known better, but he was an optimist. It was his biggest blessing and his biggest curse all at the same time. It tricked him into thinking that people were better than they actually were, which cost him time and effort.

Now, he had to start from scratch and figure out something great to do for Ying Sheng’s birthday to make up for the fact that her parents wouldn’t be there to try to mend the divide between them. He could do something small and intimate or something grand and wild. However, the more that he thought about it, the more that he realized that it probably wouldn’t matter what he did. She would feel the same.

She would wake up on her birthday, wait by her phone, and her parents would never call her. She would be devastated, and there was nothing that he could do to make her feel better about her parents’ lack of contact. She would wonder what happened, and he would be faced with the decision to either tell her or not.

If he told her that they had a property reveal, she would find out that he had gone to see them. He wasn’t sure how she would feel about that. However, if he didn’t say anything, it would make him feel guilty, like he was hiding a secret from her. He didn’t want to lie to her, but he also didn’t want to upset her more.

Liam sighed and steadily lowered his forehead down to the steering wheel, wondering what he had gotten himself into. He didn’t think that this would happen, so he didn’t know how to recover from this. Ying Sheng would get hurt either way, and he had to help her through the aftermath.

He just wished this didn’t happen now. He could tell that she had been feeling so much better lately. She was lively and motivated, riding off of the hope that she had for her birthday. Now, he knew that it would all be ruined, and they would be back where they started.