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4.56% The Bloodstained Affair / Chapter 19: James' Secret

Chương 19: James' Secret

Aiden wondered if it was the bad lighting that caused James to look a little pale on the face.

Exhaustion was visible in his eyes, almost as if the young man had gotten older by a few years within a single night.

When Aiden came in, Grandma Thompson was in the middle of persuading James to drink some warm tea and eat some freshly baked pineapple cookies.

James' younger siblings required neither coercion nor persuasion. They happily ate their cookies while sitting in front of the television in the living room.

After putting out another plate of cookies for her grandson, Grandma Thompson went to sit with the children.

Aiden and James decided to sit on the verandah to enjoy the last rays of the afternoon sun before sunset.

"Where did you go?" James asked while munching a warm pineapple cookie.

"Oh, um. The hospital," Aiden answered with a lowered voice. Although he said nothing about the biopsy result, James could see the strain on Aiden's face.

James looked around to make sure that no one, especially not Grandma Thompson, was around to hear their conversation. The collected laughter from the living room convinced him that it was the case.

"So... have you gotten any solution for the money problem?"

Aiden forced himself to smile.

Yes and no.

Yes, because he did get a part-time job.

No, because now that he had to magically conjure five years' worth of living expenses out of nowhere to pay for his grandmother's treatment fee over at White Chapel hospital, the little money from the part-time job was not going to cut it.

Aiden shook his head. He lowered his gaze and sighed.

"I need a lot of money, James," he openly said. "A lot of money."

James nodded in apprehension. He had been wanting to share something with Aiden for a while, but he was afraid to be judged. On the other side, Aiden needed a lot of money desperately and James had a quick solution for that.

"Aiden, umm, if you are open to some unconventional ways of earning money, I... I might have something for you."

"What do you mean, James?"

James swallowed hard.

It was not something pleasant to talk about, but it was the beginning of everything.

"When my parents died, we were allocated to different homes. I am sure you know that already."

"Yes, I do."

"Princessa was only a year old then, and she was quickly adopted by a nice old couple who had no children of their own. The rest of us were too old for adoption. Now,"

At this junction, James swallowed again.

"Around a month after Princessa was adopted, she got sick. Aiden, she got really, really sick. Her adoptive parents could not afford the hospital treatment. Both of them were covered under occupational health insurance, but the treatment that Princessa needed required her to go to a vampire hospital. You know that no insurance covers that."

James drew a deep breath.

"So the nice couple knew that Princessa still had older siblings, and asked us all to come to stay until..."

"Oh James..."

Aiden softly whispered. When all that happened, James was only a fifteen-year-old boy. He had just lost his parents. Aiden could not imagine the pain that he had to go through when he found out that he was about to lose his youngest sister.

James blinked away the tears that built in his eyes before he continued.

"... until she passed on. Now, I am her eldest brother. Of course, I could not just stand around waiting for her to die. Kneeling by her bedside and crying my eyes out ain't my thing, so I went to the recommended vampire hospital to ask if there is anything I can do to help."

Aiden widened his eyes in shock. James did what...?

James stretched out his left arm and rolled his sleeve up slowly.


next chapter

Chương 20: James' Sacrifice

There was a circular bandage on the inside of his elbow. He pulled a grimace when he tore the bandage off to let Aiden see the thing beneath it.

There was a tiny, but visible hole on the lighter skin area. A thin metal ring surrounded the hole, looking a lot like a body-piercing accessory. Only that it was not.

James' eyes were locked on Aiden's face the whole time. There was relief in his heart when he detected neither disgust nor judgment coming from Aiden.

Aiden lifted his gaze from the tiny hole and looked straight into James' eyes.

"James, what is this?"

James' Adam's Apple bobbed up and down nervously. He put the bandage back in place and lowered his sleeve.

"This is a hole made for regular blood collection. I sold my blood to the vampire hospital in the past to get enough money for Princessa's treatment. Ever since then, I... I sold my blood again a few more times when I was short of money."

A look of understanding appeared on Aiden's face when he recalled the mysterious black car that picked James up the previous night from his house.

"Yesterday, you sold your blood again," Aiden softly whispered.

James nodded.

"They contacted me and offered a lot of money. You don't know how it is with money. One day what you have is enough, on the other day it is far from enough."

Ashamed, James kept his head down while rubbing the inside of his elbow through the fabric.

It was the first time that he told anyone about this. Truthfully, it was an illegal activity.

He was only fifteen when the vampire hospital staff approached him, the human boy who was desperate for money, with an offer that he could not refuse.

Blood selling was considered legal only above the age of twenty.

For every blood drawing session, the human being who donated blood must sign an agreement of consent, in which it was clearly stated that the blood was not taken forcefully and was given voluntarily in exchange for some money.

The Law of Three Races had even set a fixed rate for blood-selling transactions to make sure that human beings were properly compensated for losing blood.

While a lot of human beings sold their blood for easy money through vampire hospitals, it was known that the better-off vampires preferred their blood source to be younger and fresher.

Illegal as it might be, poor human beings existed everywhere. There were even some families who brought their underage children to the vampire hospitals to exchange the premium blood for some big bucks.

Aiden hugged himself as that thought crossed his mind.

How brutal.

How horrible.

"Aiden, I hope this doesn't change anything between us. I plan to get a good part-time job, and after graduation, I want to be a decent man who is part of the legal workforce. I will never again sell a drop of blood in my life if I can help it."

Aiden shook his head and patted James' back. Then he grabbed James' shoulder, looked straight into his friend's eyes, and said, "James, you have done a lot for your siblings. If you are looking for criticism, you are not getting it from me."

James' lips trembled from the surge of emotion in his heart. Ever since his parents passed away, no one had ever even once complimented him that he had done a good job in taking care of his siblings.

He received a lot of the "Poor boy, he suffers a lot" but no one had ever recognized the hard work that he put in to take care of his younger siblings.

Tears dropped from James' eyes and he quickly wiped them off out of fear that one of his siblings would come suddenly and see him crying. How disgraceful would that be?

"Anyway," he quickly said with a hoarse voice. "Aiden, I am not going to ask about your current situation. The reason I am telling you this is because I sense the same kind of desperation that I once had three years ago.

If, just if, you ever consider this source of income, you can contact this vampire. I have been selling my blood through her for three years now. She is not a shady salesman that tramples over human beings. I can honestly recommend her to you."

James carefully took out a black card in the shape of a coffin from his pocket. On top of it, only a phone number was written in white letters.

"You can call her Nick. If she ever asks, just tell her that you got her number from me."


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