My Family's Favorite Joke: I'm a Thief

I bring my girlfriend, Madeline Conway, back to my village hometown to meet my parents and discuss marriage plans. Mom and Dad grin slyly as they say, "You're going to have to be careful with your belongings after marrying Jasper, Maddie." My younger brother, Justin Norman, bursts out in laughter. He scoffs and says, "You probably don't know this, Maddie, but Jasper stole Mom's gold necklace when he was little. Dad locked him up in the storeroom all day and night and still couldn't get a confession out of him." The moment he says that, Mom and Dad smack the table and burst into laughter. My grip on my fork tightens as I fight to contain my anger and anguish. "I said I never stole it." Mom wipes away the tears in the corner of her eyes and says, "We're all just joking here. Isn't it better to tell Maddie your true colors so that she can know you better anyway?" Then, she straightens her collar, purposely showing off the gold necklace on her collarbone. "I found the necklace under the bed a long time ago. But we still had to teach you a lesson." She continues nonchalantly, "You've always been dishonest and nippy with your hands since young. I bet you stole it and then only returned it because you were afraid you'd get beaten up if you didn't." My face turns dark. I feel a wave of humiliation wash over me. So, she found the necklace a long time ago, but she still hid it from me for 20 years. For that reason, people in my hometown called me Swiper Norman for 20 years. I subconsciously look at Madeline next to me, thinking that she will stand up for me. However, she just grins and looks at me, saying, "The last time you had some trouble at the company, I realized that one of my gold bracelets went missing from my dressing table too. You took it, didn't you?" I feel a huge lump stuck in my throat. I look at the four of them laughing and joking happily with one another and suddenly realize that I should have severed ties with this family a long time ago. Chapter 1 Jasper's POV With my girlfriend, Madeline Conway, chiming in like this, Mom, Dad, and my younger brother, Justin Norman, perked up at once and got along like a house on fire. Justin slapped his thigh and pointed at me, exclaiming loudly, "That's right! It was definitely Jasper who stole it from you! Next time, if you run into something like this, just drag him over to the police station, and he'll definitely confess then!" Everyone laughed the moment he said that. However, I was the only one with a pale look on my face. Mom and Dad had indeed dragged me to the police station when I was little because of the gold necklace incident. I could still remember how helpless and terrified I'd felt back then. Ever since coming back from the police station, everyone in the village began calling me "Swiper Norman" instead of my name, Jasper Norman. When I walked on the streets, they would recognize me at once and point a finger at me, laugh in my face, and run off. If anyone lost anything at home, they would immediately come knocking on the door and accuse me of stealing it. No matter how much I tried to explain things, nobody would ever believe me. "Justin is right, Jasper. Maybe we should stop by the police station on our way home later," Madeline joked as she looked at me. "It won't be a big deal if you never did anything wrong, right?" It was obviously meant to be a joke, but it felt more like a knife stabbing into my heart. Justin saw how pale I'd turned and cocked an eyebrow. He then said, "Don't say it like that, Maddie. He's always been an extremely petty and vengeful person. He still keeps bringing up the past and holding it against us. "But you're about to marry him, so be careful. He might use this against you in the future." I felt the anger surging in my chest and finally couldn't hold back any longer. I slapped my hand on the table. Even the dishes clinked and rattled from the force of it. "Justin Norman! Are you done spouting nonsense?" This was the first time I'd ever yelled at him. Meanwhile, Dad, who'd remained silent this whole time, immediately slapped me in the face without another word. My ears rang loudly, and even my vision blacked out for a moment. I swore I could see stars. "How dare you raise your voice at us like that? Who do you think you're trying to intimidate?" Mom looked like she was already used to it and just continued eating. Justin scoffed and made a face at me. The tension hit the roof. Mom was the first to break the silence. "Maddie, why are you already wearing a ring when you haven't even married Jasper yet?" Madeline was stunned for a moment. She then subconsciously hid her hand behind her back. However, her actions made my eyes suddenly sting with tears. She had never taken off the ring ever since we dated. I had told her about my family's biases against me before, and she confidently said that she would always take my side. However, this was the first time she was meeting my parents, and yet she was already siding with them and making fun of me. "Maddie, we all like you very much, but you're not a good match for Jasper. We don't want you to waste your time either, so maybe if you'll just consider Justin…" I whipped my head up at once and glared at Mom. My lips trembled as I exclaimed, "Mom! What do you mean by that?" Mom exchanged a look with Dad and didn't say another word. I turned to look at Madeline, but she pretended not to have heard anything, just letting it pass. That made me even more disappointed than anything else. Since young, Mom and Dad had always told me that I had to yield to Justin simply because he was my younger brother. So, I did everything as they said and gave him everything. The moment my SAT results were out, I left my hometown and went to a different state that was hundreds of miles away from them. I'd only come home and visit at most once a year. However, every time I came back home, there was no warmth and no welcome from my family—only endless jeering and sarcasm at the dinner table. I tossed my fork onto the table, knowing that I couldn't stomach another bite. I got to my feet and pulled on Madeline's arm, signalling for her to leave with me. However, she refused to budge. She cast me a sidelong glance and said, "You can leave now if you want. It's getting late. I'm not going back with you." Justin burst out in a snigger at that. I froze on the spot for a second. Then, I turned my back to her and scrambled out of the place. Chapter 2 By the time I got home, I was completely drenched. Madeline had the car keys with her, and there was no public transport in the village at night. It was also pouring, and I waited in the rain for a long time before I finally managed to Uber back. Madeline came home the next morning. However, when I opened the door for her, I saw that Justin was also right behind her. I stiffened at once and glared at Justin. "What the hell are you doing here?" Madeline continued hanging up her coat on the rack and interrupted me impatiently. "Justin is your brother. Be nicer to him!" I felt my fingers tingling next to her. I was in a state of shock and disbelief. After all, she had only spent a day with Justin, and she was already taking his side. Justin's lips curled up in a sneer. He looked at me with a challenging gaze and said, "You're about to marry Maddie. Mom and Dad got worried about her, so they told me to tag along." He then shoved me aside and began treating the place as his own, doing whatever he wanted. I felt a sense of helplessness washing over me. I was just about to say something to Madeline when I suddenly noticed that she wasn't wearing the ring on her finger anymore. "Why did you take the ring off?" She replied nonchalantly, "I talked a lot with your parents last night, and they were right. We haven't registered our marriage yet, so it's inappropriate for me to wear a ring right now." The rings were from our first anniversary together. Madeline found someone to make a custom design for us, and she also told me that she would never take it off for as long as she lived. I felt a lump in my throat. Yet, she never noticed the change in expression on my face. Instead, she looked at Justin behind me and said, "Jasper, I just realized how interesting your brother is. You should be more like him. You're a little too dull compared to him." Her lightly spoken words fell upon my ears, and I felt my heart sink into my stomach. Justin rummaged through our things and pulled out a photo of Madeline and me from a drawer. "You have such a great relationship with Jasper, Maddie," he said with a pout. "I want a photo just like this too." Madeline walked past me toward him and said, "Sure. We can go now if you want photos like this." Justin was delighted. He tossed the photo onto the coffee table. Before I even knew what happened, he lunged at Madeline and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. "I knew that you cared about me! You're the best!" They continued laughing and chatting along, completely ignoring my presence. I grabbed him by his shirt collar and punched him right in the face. Madeline got a huge shock and immediately shielded him behind her. "Jasper! Justin just wanted to take photos! How could you punch him in the face for that? How did I never realize what kind of person you were?" My heart thumped wildly in my chest. However, when I saw her glaring at me, I felt my heart slowly freeze over. I had been with her for years, and this was the first time she had ever looked at me like this. Justin held a hand to his face and tugged on Madeline's sleeve in an aggrieved manner. It was how he always behaved in the past. Whenever he was the one who got into trouble, he would immediately pin the blame on me, and Mom and Dad would forever take his side. "Madeline. The person you are marrying is me. Not him," I said in a hoarse voice. However, she paid me no heed and just continued examining Justin's face. She didn't even spare me a glance. "I'm taking Justin to the hospital. Last night, your parents told me to take care of him." They then slammed the front door shut in my face. The apartment went pin-drop silent. The photo of Madeline and me had somehow fallen to the ground, and there was a huge shoe print on it. I tried wiping it off, but it didn't work. Ultimately, I just threw the photo into the trash. Ever since the fight earlier, I'd realized that my body temperature was a little off. After all, I'd gotten heavily rained on last night, so I probably caught a cold. I tried looking for the cold meds at home. Madeline had always been the one putting the meds and supplements away, and I couldn't find them anywhere in the apartment. With no other choice, I called her to ask them where they were, but she never picked up. Then, my phone began buzzing with tons of messages. It was from the family group—Mom, Dad, Justin, and I were in it. Justin had sent an attachment to the group. It was a photo of Madeline holding his hand. "Mom, Dad, Maddie brought me to take some photos today." He then sent another cropped photo of just their hands holding each other. Mom was delighted and replied at once. "I knew that Maddie liked you too! Don't let this opportunity slip away!" Dad immediately sent, "Wait! Jasper's still in this group!" Then, a split second later, I was kicked out of the group chat. So, they actually had another group chat with Madeline—one I wasn't in. I felt the corners of my lips curve up. It had been so many years, and I thought I was already used to it, but I still felt a stuffy feeling in my chest. Chapter 3 I developed myocarditis as a complication of acute influenza, thanks to the cold I caught the other day. The doctor admitted me to the hospital and informed my parents of it while I was out cold. After Mom and Dad learned about this, they actually came to visit me at the hospital, something they would never have done in their lives. Mom even brought a hot thermal flask of broccoli cheddar soup. I was in complete shock and disbelief. Mom and Dad never treated me well in the past. Although they wouldn't starve me or make me freeze to death at night, they still never went out of their way to provide anything else for me. Justin could just act spoiled and clingy with them without a second thought and get whatever he wanted, but I couldn't. Even if I were craving bacon, it would never appear at home unless Justin himself wanted it too. If so, Dad would get up early in the morning to buy it just for him. "I brought you some shrimp as well. You used to like it in the past, remember?" Mom said. "I spent a long time making this soup. Try some." I snapped back to the present and saw Mom and Dad looking at me in concern. They even said that they would buy me a new car as my wedding gift. Mom and Dad stayed at the hospital for the next few days to take care of me. I naively thought that they'd finally come to their senses and were finally treating me like their child. After all, every parent had to still love their child no matter what, right? However, on the day I was discharged from the hospital, Justin and Madeline came over and placed a wedding photo album on the bed. Justin grinned at me and said, "Jasper, since you were hospitalized, Mom and Dad asked me to take wedding photos with Maddie on your behalf. What do you think of them? "I mean, I kind of look like you, after all." I thought that I'd misheard him at first. However, when I looked at the photos on the bed, I felt my mind suddenly stop working for a moment. I looked up at Madeline and asked shakily, "What is the meaning of all this? I'm the one who's marrying you! Why is Justin taking photos with you on my behalf?" Mom explained. "You were hospitalized, weren't you? That's why we told Justin to step in for you." At that, Justin massaged her shoulders and said, "It's all thanks to Mom and Dad's help too." Mom sighed. "If it weren't for the sake of covering for you, I would never have had to travel all the way here to take care of your brother at the hospital and get all exhausted like this…" Dad glared at her the moment she said that. Mom then only realized her slip of the tongue and clamped a hand over her mouth. My lips twitched. I gripped the hospital sheets tightly. So, they had only come to look after me at the hospital so Justin could take the wedding photos with Madeline on my behalf. "So, does this mean that you're also going to get Justin to step in as me at the wedding too?" I asked. Madeline's face paled. Just as she was about to say something, Dad roared at me, "Your mom and I have been tirelessly taking care of you at the hospital for days, and this is how you repay us, you ungrateful brat?" Madeline softened her tone and comforted me. "I was just treating Justin as a younger brother. Don't hold this against him. "I'm still going to be marrying you when the time comes. But if you feel unhappy about it, we can always retake the wedding photos. We can even register our marriage ahead of time—" I interrupted her and said calmly, "Forget it. We're not registering the marriage anymore." Madeline was stunned. Yet, Mom and Dad were absolutely delighted. Justin spoke up at once. "That's good. Maddie, if you ever regret being with Jasper next time, you won't even need to bother with divorce." His words were meant to provoke me, just as always. However, for once, I agreed with him. Chapter 4 On the day Madeline and I got married, practically all of my relatives from my hometown showed up. Some of them had already forgotten my name and still referred to me as "Swiper", but Mom and Dad didn't bother correcting them. After all, they couldn't care less about me. The wedding emcee presided over the wedding ceremony. Just as I was about to exchange vows and rings with Madeline, Justin suddenly yelled from across the banquet hall. Everyone turned their eyes to him, watching him run onto the stage in a fluster. "Jasper! You stole my watch, didn't you?" At that, everyone in the seats perked up immediately, eager to watch the juicy drama unfold. They exchanged glances with each other and began murmuring amongst themselves. My face was dark as thunder when I heard their gossip. "Once a swiper, always a swiper. I can't believe he still hasn't changed his ways after so long. Why would he steal his own brother's watch?" "I lost a couple of hens once, back in the day. I bet he was the one who swiped them from my backyard. What a shameless jerk. I hope he rots in hell." The emcee was embarrassed. He awkwardly cleared his throat and tried to control the situation, but Justin refused to let up and began pestering Madeline, looking at her pleadingly. "Maddie! It was the watch that you bought for me…" Mom and Dad also ran onstage after him. Mom glared at me angrily and yelled, "What the hell is going on?" "I never stole anything." This scene reminded me of when I was younger. It was just all too familiar. I had also been rooted to my spot, trying and failing to defend myself, but nobody believed me. Madeline stepped between my parents and me. She said, "I believe in Jasper. He would never steal anything." I looked up in shock, a hint of glee flashing in my eyes. However, a split second later, she leaned closer to me and said in a voice that only she and I could hear, "Jasper. People are watching. You might be shameless, but I still care about my reputation. "Return the watch to Justin at once. I'll buy you whatever you want in the future." I shoved Madeline aside. "I said, I never stole anything!" Suddenly, I felt an excruciating pain on the side of my head. Dad had picked up a wine bottle from a nearby table and smashed it against my head. "Is this how I raised you? How dare you go around stealing like this instead of behaving properly like I taught you?" Warm blood trickled down my face and dripped onto the floor. Mom looked at me with a grim expression. She initially reached out her hand to me, but she withdrew it almost immediately. The wedding was ruined. The guests all thought it was cursed and hurried out of the venue as quickly as possible. Justin then put on a belated, remorseful look and grabbed another wine bottle before smashing it on his own head. "I'm sorry, Jasper. I didn't know that things would end up like this." Mom and Dad were shocked and rushed over to him, trying to stem the bleeding. It also gave Madeline a huge fright. "We'll talk about the wedding another time, Jasper. We need to get you guys to the hospital pronto." I was dazed and unsteady on my feet as I was loaded into the ambulance alongside Justin. When I finally woke up in the hospital, I realized that there wasn't a single person in my ward. However, I heard Mom and Dad's voices in the ward next to mine. "How could you have done this to yourself? Jasper has been called a thief for 20 years! He's already used to it and wouldn't have minded! "Even if he did, you know that we're always on your side!" Madeline's voice then sounded. "I will question Jasper myself and give you an explanation for this, Justin." I didn't bother listening to the rest of what they had to say. I just yanked out the needle on the back of my hand and steadied myself for a bit before getting up. This time, I was done with my family and my fiancee. I didn't want them anymore.