Maybe Matthew reminded him of his own child.

Melissa stepped aside, giving Shawn room to pass into the living room.

In his hand was a bag of fruit. He bent over and changed his shoes.

Then he asked her, "Matthew is still sleeping?"

"Yes." Melissa nodded in the affirmative. "He's not up yet."

Then she looked at her watch and said, "I'll be taking the subway to work and I have to go now. So, help yourself, Shawn."

“Okay then." Shawn nodded. “Hurry up though. You know how difficult it is to get through the subway in the morning."

At this time, Julie slammed the bowl of dough on the table and snapped in a tone of displeasure, "Why did you come here at this time of the day when you knew that Melissa would be going to work?"

Shawn scratched his head in embarrassment, not knowing what to say.

"He just wants to see Matthew," Melissa said with a smile on his behalf.

With that, she opened the door and left.

After Melissa had gone, Julie began to roll out the dough.

“Mom, let me help you with it," Shawn offered after standing aside and watching her for several minutes.

But Julie gave him a hard knock on the back of his hand with the rolling pin.

“Melissa thinks you are a good person, but I know you too well," she said to him in a tone filled with resentment. "You're just like your father: a gambler. He ended up in jail and made me homeless. But you are even worse than him. Your wife and child left you. Why are you here? You came to ask Melissa for help? Well, for your information, she has to pay a hefty house mortgage every month. She doesn't have any money to lend you. If you dare try to ask her for money, I'll kill you so that you'll no Longer be a nuisance to others."

Shawn was stunned by his mother's harsh words.

But after a while, he broke into a smile and said, "Mom, I didn't come to ask her for money. She's like my sister and I'll never dare to hurt her with you around. Besides, I love her son so much. Uh... can I go give him a kiss?"

But Julie refused. "You can see him when he wakes up. You can't just enter Melissa's bedroom. It's not appropriate."

"Okay," Shawn said obediently, "I'll follow your instructions to the latter."

His pledge of obedience finally brought a trace of a smile on Julie's face. She wiped her hands on her apron and then said to him, "Let me go help Matthew put on his clothes. There's milk and eggs in the kitchen. Don't eat too much. Remember that Matthew is still a growing child and he needs all the nutrition he can get."