A wealthy woman is taken aback when she discovers a homeless man has the same birthmark as her.
Carla Sutton was supposed to be happy. She was getting married again, to the same man. The same gorgeous, fiery man she’d first married at 23. They renewed their vows.
Looking back, Carla knew what they had experienced was enough to trigger a vow renewal.
Carla helped a homeless man she saw while driving to a store | Source: Shutterstock
As they watch a concert by one of her favorite bands, Carla’s mind wanders with guilt.
At 60, Carla wasn’t very excited about the marching band, but she could pretend to be there while her mind was focused on other things.
She was a businesswoman who officially inherited her parents’ businesses at the age of 30, even though she was adopted.
Unofficially, she had been pushing buttons and doing paperwork for decades. She was raised by proud parents who believed in good virtues.
She considered herself a kind, generous, honest, and successful woman. Her husband, Taylor, was also in business. However, his company was only a small operation that was still struggling to establish itself comfortably.
Carla’s business is decades old and existed before she was born. Taylor, 62, is a successful man, but he’s also very jealous.
Carla had tea with her friends while her husband had a beer with his buddies | Source: Pexels
Carla remembers that the signs began to appear after their sixth month together. But it wasn’t until another man entered the picture that she really saw it manifest.
It all started one sunny weekend. Carla had gone dress shopping and stopped to buy some sandwiches.
As she approached a bend, she slowed the car and her gaze was immediately drawn to a little girl giving a sandwich to a homeless man sitting next to a medium-sized stray dog.
The man smiled at the girl in thanks, and after she left, he cut the sandwich in half and gave one half to the dog, who quickly devoured it. It was a touching moment, and it prompted Carla to stop her car and give him the bag of sandwiches she had bought at the cafe.
“You may take them, sir,” she said shyly.
The man replied, “Bless you,” and Carla felt a sense of gratitude.
She tried to observe the man without looking at him as she walked away, but she couldn’t make out the face behind the unruly beard, facial hair, and dirt that covered it.
Since that day, every time she passed by that point, she would drop off something for him, sometimes food, other times warm clothes. One day, her husband noticed that she had taken the clothes he was sending to the recycling bin.
The homeless man split the snack in half and gave one half to the dog | Source: Pexels
“Why would she need men’s clothes?” Taylor thought to herself but kept it to herself until she was about to leave for work.
“Why do you need these clothes?” Taylor asked quietly.
“Oh, that?” she said. “Well, I’m giving them to a homeless man I met some…”
“Are you talking to homeless people?” He cut her off, his face wearing an expression of disgust.
“Yes, but he…”
“Don’t try to defend this sacrilege!” he yells, cutting her off again.
“It’s just an act of kindness,” she said, hoping he would understand.
“If you don’t listen to me, then I’ll send those who will listen to evict him from wherever he’s perched. Beggars are a nuisance anyway,” Taylor said before walking off to make phone calls.
On the other hand, she refocuses, takes a deep breath, and then goes to work. Within the hour, she was informed that Taylor had gathered some friends who would join him in expelling the beggars from the community. They thought it was a general operation, but she knew Taylor only wanted one.
She had rushed towards the beggar to get him out of the area, but when she arrived at the place where the man had temporarily taken refuge, she saw that it was too late.
Taylor and Carla had an argument over the homeless man she helped | Source: Pexels
Her husband was already there. And he had already exchanged several blows with the beggar, who looked lost and ready to collapse. “What are you doing, Taylor?!” Carla shouted.
“Is that him? The man you cheated on me with?” Taylor shouted.
“I never cheated on you, Taylor, believe me!” she replied.
At that point, Taylor approached the beggar to speak to him. “She’s yelling at me because of you, it’s enough to drive any man crazy,” he said before forcefully pushing the beggar to the ground.
Unbalanced, the man fell backward, and as soon as he hit the ground, he knew something was wrong. He felt sick and very uncomfortable.
Carla walked over to the man and, seeing the situation, quickly began unbuttoning the beggar’s tight shirt and giving him CPR.
“Stay alive,” she shouted, her eyes fixed on the man’s chest, hoping her husband hadn’t just committed manslaughter.
That’s when she saw the birthmark on his chest. It looked like a crown-shaped patch of dark skin, exactly the same as her own.
Carla continued CPR until the ambulance arrived moments later. Then, as he was being treated in the ambulance, she tried to fight her intuition.
After seeing the situation, Carla quickly got to work unbuttoning the beggar’s tight shirt and giving him CPR | Source: Pexels
“It’s not possible, is it?” She thought to herself, trying in vain to calm her rapidly beating heart as she looked more closely at the unconscious beggar.
He looked a lot like her now that she saw him up close. Then a crazy idea took root in her mind.
“Could he be related to me? My own blood brother?”
“It has to be him,” she thought.
“What are the chances of a man having the exact same birthmark as me? These things are supposed to be unique,” she thought.
She kept thinking about taking a DNA test to confirm her hunch on the way to the hospital, and when the vehicle stopped in the parking lot, she decided to give it a try.
As they wheeled the man in front of her, she feigned a moment of emotion to get closer to him, then pulled out a few strands of his hair.
“That’s what you get for wasting all that time thinking, Carla,” she told herself.
“Actions, not words! Actions, not words!” she repeated like a mantra as she walked to a DNA testing center.
It turned out the injured man was actually his long-lost brother. When he came to, Carla was there waiting for him.
Carla continued CPR until the ambulance arrived moments later | Source: Pexels
“You again?” he said with a gentle smile.
“I told the nurses to shave you while you slept,” Carla said. “Now your face reminds me a lot of someone I used to know.”
“Tell me your story, Mr. …?”
“Steven,” he said. “What do you want to know?”
“Why, quite naturally,” she said.
With a deep breath, he began.
“My mother took my little sister and me to an orphanage when I was 5 years old. My sister had just turned one, so she was immediately adopted while I grew up in an orphanage.”
Before he could say more, Carla hugged him.
“It’s you!” she shouted. “You’re really my brother!”
“My sister? Josephine? Is that you?” Steven asked.
“It’s Carla now, but yes, it’s you!” she shouted before hugging him again.
“I have the same birthmark on your chest, I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you immediately,” she hastened to continue.
“It’s okay, Jo-Carla, you were still too young to remember anything.”
“My adoptive parents told me I was adopted a long time ago, but they never mentioned a brother or sister.”
Taylor knew he’d come close to taking a life because of his jealousy, so he looked at him from afar with disdain. He couldn’t hurt his brother-in-law.
Steven began telling Carla his life story after waking up | Source: Pexels
Carla welcomed Steven into her family and made sure he had everything, including a bedroom under her roof. However, her husband, Taylor, opposed this.
He doesn’t want Steven to live with them, and he constantly argues with Carla about this man. Taylor keeps these arguments going until he has to devote himself entirely to his failing business.
He tried to reverse what was happening, then gave up, saying it was already too late to change anything. So instead, he stayed home, drinking, and avoiding contact with anyone.
One day, Steven approached Taylor and said, “Your wife found me after decades of separation. Do you really still think anything can be too late in this life?”
It was a challenge for him, and Taylor responded immediately. He went into the office the next day and spent all day and night working on reports and analyses.
He continued this for several days alongside his team, and after much deliberation, they managed to find a solution to the problem.
From then on, he began to respect Steven more because of his wisdom. So, when Steven suggested that Carla and Taylor renew their vows, her husband wholeheartedly agreed.
“What a strange man,” she thought, waving goodbye to the guests who left with her husband.
Carla is happy to have her brother back and to have a second chance to make her marriage work. She partnered with Taylor to fund homeless shelters with food and clothing. This brought them even closer, and over time, Carla had no doubt that her husband had indeed turned over a new leaf.
Carla and Taylor grew closer over time, and she had no doubt he had turned over a new leaf | Source: Pexels
What have we learned from this story?
- Words have power . Steven inspired Taylor and pushed him to do the right thing with a few well-placed words. This brought about a lot of change between the three individuals and underscores the power of words. Use them with care.
- Don’t let your feelings control you . Taylor could have committed manslaughter while his jealousy controlled him, and it would have ended his progress in life. This shows the importance of controlling your emotions. If you don’t control them, they will control you.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
If you liked this story, then you might also like this one about a poor boy who hears a dog barking in his neighbor’s house for two days and decides to go inside.
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