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Owning Two Shops, They Begged Me; I Reported Everyone
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Hoàn thành
My aunt posted a plea in the family group chat, saying my cousin was gravely ill and urgently needed money. She wanted me to sell my pre-marital apartment to help. In my past life, I was grateful, so ...
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第1章
My aunt posted in the family group chat asking for help, saying my cousin was seriously ill and needed money fast.
She wanted me to sell my pre-marriage apartment to cover it.
In my last life, I felt I owed her. So I sold the place.
Later I found out their family already owned two commercial shops.
Both were leased out, and they didn't want to eat the penalty for breaking the contracts.
When I figured it out, they spread a rumor instead, saying I'd thrown myself at her son, chasing a family above my station.
They forced me out of my engagement. I spent the rest of my life depressed.
After I was reborn, my aunt tagged me in the group chat.
【Nina Fisher, your cousin Clive Chavez is sick and needs surgery.】
【Don't you have an apartment?】
【Sell it first, lend us the money for now. After the surgery we'll find a way to pay you back.】
I opened the chat and answered her straight.
【No. Here's a suggestion: sell your two shops if you need emergency money.】
【If that's not enough, I'll help you set up a Joe Hanna fundraiser.】
The chat was full of comforting words, telling my aunt not to be too upset.
Everyone said Clive's surgery would definitely go well.
My aunt sat there sobbing, 【But we're still way short on the medical bills.】
Every word, spoken and unspoken, was aimed at me.
She wanted me to make up the difference.
In my last life, I thought I was needed, that they treated me like family.
So I listed that little pre-marriage apartment for sale.
Only later did I learn their family owned two commercial shops downtown.
Rent brought in well over a hundred thousand a year. They weren't short on money at all.
The leases just weren't up yet, and they didn't want to pay the few thousand in penalties for breaking them.
The moment I sent that message.
The relatives who'd been talking all went quiet.
The chat went dead. Several minutes passed with no one saying a word.
It was my aunt who finally spoke up.
【Nina, what nonsense are you talking about?】
【If we really had that, would we be begging you to sell an apartment?】
【If you don't want to help, just say so. No need to sit here making things up.】
Her tone was full of hurt, as if I'd wronged her.
Reading it made me laugh.
【Your shops are on University Row, leased to someone running a tutoring center.】
【Two years left on the lease, and you're scared of the penalty if you sell.】
【So you'd rather make me the sucker who pays for it?】
My aunt went silent for a moment, then challenged me.
【Who's been feeding you this garbage?】
I answered her flat out.
【You've got three properties of your own, and you're still making relatives chip in.】
【Is this chipping in? This is daylight robbery.】
My uncle's wife suddenly jumped in.
【Is this really Nina?】
【You're usually so sweet. How can you say such ugly things at a moment like this?】
My aunt rushed to play the peacemaker.
【It's a whole apartment, after all, not a small sum. It's normal she doesn't want to.】
My uncle's wife spoke up on their behalf.
【We're all family. When something happens to one household, everyone lends a hand. That's normal.】
【Why is it suddenly a problem when it comes to you?】
Instead of getting angry, I smiled.
【Auntie, that sounds so noble. May I ask how much money you put in?】
That stopped her cold.
A few seconds later, she sent me a voice message.
“Nina, you know we're still paying off what we borrowed all over for Zack's wedding.”
“We haven't even cleared that yet. Where would we find money to lend out?”
“Our family didn't put in cash, sure, but we put in effort.”
“Last time Clive collapsed, it was your uncle who drove him to the hospital.”
“And you? Your parents? What did any of you contribute?”
My youngest aunt chimed in too.
【Exactly. What right does she have to stand there so self-righteous?】
I was about to type my reply.
Then my mom suddenly sent me a private voice message.
“Sweetheart, just hold your tongue.”
“That's your aunt. Family helps family.”
I drew in a deep breath and typed back.
【Their two shops are worth over two million.】
【Plus the place they live in now, that's worth a few hundred thousand more.】
【Why should someone else pay for them?】
My mom replied fast.
“Don't talk nonsense. Don't you think I know exactly what their situation is?”
“Besides, she's my own sister.”
I stared at that line, my eyes stinging.
It had been like this in my last life too.
She always took her family's side, her sister's side.
When I was wronged, she told me to swallow it.
When I was slandered, she told me not to make a fuss.
When my engagement was broken off, she said it was my own loose behavior.
I couldn't stop myself from typing.
【I'm your own daughter too. Who actually matters more to you?】
She didn't think she'd done anything wrong.
Instead, she turned it back on me.
“When did you get so selfish?”
“You never used to be like this.”
My hands froze over the keyboard.
Scene after scene from my last life came rushing up.
I sold the apartment. They took the money.
Slandered, cast out of my engagement, whispered about everywhere.
From start to finish, she never once spoke up for me.
【Mom, I'm not the one who got selfish. You're the one who's gone senile.】
And with that, I left the family group chat.
Out of sight, out of mind.
第2章
The moment I quit the group chat, my mother only came at me harder.
She fired off one voice message after another in our private chat.
"That's your own aunt. She held you when you were little."
"All you know is how to cozy up to your father's side of the family."
"Pushing away my family like this. Do you have any conscience left at all?"
I listened to them come one after the other.
That feeling of loss inside me.
It sat there like something jammed in my throat, hard to bear.
In my last life, all I ever wanted was to please her.
I always felt she'd gone through so much to bring me into this world.
So I owed her gratitude, obedience, good behavior.
That was why, the second her sister opened her mouth, I said yes without a word.
Sell the apartment, save my cousin.
And what came of it? What did I get in return?
I pressed the record button and answered her.
"From the time I was little, it was Grandpa, Grandma, and my uncle who always looked out for me."
"What has your side of the family ever done for me?"
"Except when you needed something from us, coming over with a thick face to say a few sweet words."
"When something good came along, did any of you ever once think of us?"
My mother went quiet for a few seconds.
Then a voice message came through, thick with outrage.
"You heartless little thing!"
"You ungrateful brat!"
"All these years I raised you for nothing!"
Her voice was shrill in my ears.
I tossed the phone aside and didn't reply again.
That evening I came home from work.
The moment I pushed the door open, the smell of cooking hit me.
Horace Gilbert already had dinner ready.
He stood in the middle of the living room, smiling at me.
"Nina, guess what today is."
I blanked for a second.
He came over and pulled a velvet box from behind his back.
He opened it. A necklace.
The pendant was a tiny little star.
"Three years since we met."
"Happy anniversary."
He leaned down and fastened it around my neck.
"I made us a candlelit dinner too."
I looked up at him.
His eyes were full of tenderness, of the care he'd always poured into keeping this love safe.
The thing I regretted most in my last life.
Was that I couldn't hold on to what we had.
The right time, the right person.
And I lost it all, to my own soft heart, to that family and their guilt-tripping.
All of it ruined.
Back then he'd protected me so fiercely.
Trusted me without condition, even stood against his own family for me.
And in the end it all came to nothing, because I was a coward.
Horace waved a hand in front of my eyes.
"What is it, Nina?"
"Too moved to speak?"
I came back to myself and nodded.
Gave him a small smile.
And swore to myself, quietly.
This life, I would never let the old story play out the same way again.
He turned and tied on his apron.
Went into the kitchen to reheat the food he'd already made.
I stood to the side and watched him bustle around.
He warmed the dishes and chatted with me the whole time.
About some blunder the company's new intern had made.
About old Dave from his office fighting with his wife again.
I leaned against the doorframe and listened.
Answered here and there.
Days like this, warm like this. So good.
He switched off the lights and lit the candles.
Setting the mood.
But he'd just poured the wine and was handing me my glass.
When the front door was suddenly pounded, hard.
The two of us stared at each other, both startled.
Horace frowned and set down his glass.
He got up and went to answer it.
When I saw the figures standing at the door, my face dropped in an instant.
Christine stood at the front.
Behind her were my uncle's wife, my youngest aunt, and a handful of other relatives.
All of them crowding my doorway.
I never thought she'd actually dare to bring a crowd to my home to make a scene.
The moment she saw me, the wronged-victim act began.
Her eyes went red, and she made sure to wail to the people behind her.
"You heartless little thing!"
"Clive is lying in a hospital bed, and here you are enjoying a candlelit dinner!"
"Go on, tell me, can you even look him in the eye?!"
第3章
In my past life, I agreed to sell the apartment, so this scene never happened at all.
I certainly never imagined she would come pounding on my door to make a scene.
Horace was thrown by the whole spectacle.
He'd met my aunt before, so he asked before he could stop himself.
"Aunt Christine, is there some kind of misunderstanding?"
"What happened to Clive? Why is he in the hospital?"
Christine gave him a cold look.
"I've got nothing to say to you. You're not family."
The awkwardness sat right on Horace's face.
He stood in the doorway, not sure how to respond.
This was exactly what she'd done in my past life.
She was the one who wrecked things between Horace and me.
I knew she was saying all this on purpose today.
She'd come for no reason but to make our lives miserable.
This woman was capable of anything.
Before she could open her mouth again, I stepped forward.
I put myself in front of Horace.
"Aunt Christine, I made myself perfectly clear in the group chat."
"There's no way I'm selling this apartment."
"If the surgery really is short of money, I'll help you set up a Joe Hanna fundraiser right now."
The second she heard that, she whipped her head around and shouted to the crowd behind her.
"You all heard that, didn't you?"
"This girl is deliberately trying to upset me!"
"She's got the means, and she'd rather waste time on all this nonsense."
"How badly does she want her cousin to die?"
As she went on, her eyes went red.
My aunt by marriage and my youngest aunt looked at me like I was in the wrong.
I raised an eyebrow.
Then, without missing a beat, I answered.
"Your own son is gravely ill, and you won't sell your apartment to save him."
"But somehow your whole mind is set on squeezing money out of someone else."
"Does that seem normal to you?"
The moment I said it, the relatives at the door froze one by one.
A few leaned together, muttering under their breath.
"She's right. If your own son is sick, why not sell your own place?"
"Why does it have to be your niece who sells?"
Christine's face shifted for a second.
But my aunt by marriage was right there to back her up.
"If they sell the apartment, where are the three of them supposed to live?"
"Out on the street, living on air?"
I laughed.
"Since you're so noble about it, they can just live with you."
"Your place is a two-story house anyway. Three more people won't crowd it."
Her face went a shade of green at that.
She glared at me like I'd done her some terrible wrong.
I turned back to Christine and pressed on.
"Don't you still have two shops over on University Row?"
"Sell just one of them, and the problem's solved, isn't it?"
"What, afraid of losing a few thousand in a breach-of-contract penalty?"
She'd clearly come prepared. She answered me without a flicker of panic.
"University Row? Do you have any idea what one shop there costs?"
"If I actually had that, would I be groveling to people, begging to borrow money?"
Her voice cracked as she spoke.
Like she'd been wronged beyond all reason.
"Nina, you know in your heart how good I've been to you since you were little, don't you?"
"Spreading lies like this, you're going to be the death of me."
I looked her straight in the eyes and said it word by word.
"Do you need me to read out the exact address?"
Seeing how firm I was, and how detailed my claim sounded,
the relatives started to waver.
"If it's true, that's really heartless of her."
Christine paled for a moment, then put on a mournful face.
"Nina, you mean those two training centers on University Row, right?"
My stomach dropped.
I had a bad feeling.
Then I watched her reach into her coat.
She pulled out her phone.
In front of everyone, she dialed a number.
The contact label read plainly, two words.
The Boss.
The phone rang twice, then connected.
Christine instantly switched to a meek, deferential tone.
"Sir, I'm so sorry to bother you this late."
"It's like this. My niece keeps insisting those two training centers are my shops."
"No matter how I explain, she won't believe me."
"And she's spreading lies in front of all our relatives."
"I really don't know what else to do. I'll have to trouble you to vouch for me."
She finished and pressed the speaker button.
A middle-aged man's voice came through.
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"Both of those shops are clearly mine. What do they have to do with you?"
第4章
She'd guessed before she even got here that I'd come at her about the shops.
She'd come ready for it. Now she looked at me, all helpless.
"Nina, why don't you take the call yourself?"
She held the phone out to me.
On speaker, the middle-aged man was still cursing away.
"I'm the one who sank my money into that training center."
"And now what, I'm just some hired hand?"
That settled it for the relatives crowded at the door. Every one of them believed him now.
They started laying into me, all talking at once.
Nina's aunt crossed her arms and spoke in that snide, sing-song way of hers.
"If you don't want to lend the money, then don't."
"But why go running background checks first?"
"You'd throw away every scrap of shame just to dodge your aunt, is that it?"
Nina's youngest aunt chimed in from the side.
"Right, a young girl with this many tricks up her sleeve."
One after another they piped up.
I was nearly drowning in it.
Horace got angrier the longer he listened, and warned them to watch their mouths.
I knew he was doing it for me.
That was exactly why I couldn't leave him in the dark about any of this.
So I spoke up again.
"Aunt Christine, do you dare snap a photo of the training center's legal rep and show everyone?"
Christine was losing patience.
"Are you done yet?"
"You made me verify it over the phone, now you want a photo of the legal rep."
"What's next, you want my boss to show up in person?"
She said it, then let out a sigh.
"Nina, what did I ever do to you?"
I looked her dead in the eye and smiled.
"That would be perfect."
In my last life I was certain of it. The training center was theirs.
They welched on the debt and refused to pay.
I had no choice but to take them to court.
Only a forced enforcement order made them sell off one of the two.
I expected her to refuse.
Instead, she actually dialed the number again.
"Boss, you heard all that."
"Could I trouble you to snap a photo of the legal rep on the license?"
The man on the other end grumbled his agreement.
"Hold on. Bunch of lunatics."
Christine hung up and looked at me, daring me to say more.
I frowned and stared at her phone.
About five minutes passed.
The photo came through.
She held the phone up so everyone could see.
Legal representative, printed plain as day: Finn Chavez.
"See it clearly now?"
"What did I ever do to wrong you, that you'd smear me like this, over and over?"
Faced with hard proof, the relatives drowned me in a fresh wave.
"This girl is really out of line."
"Looks like such an honest thing, but her heart's black as pitch."
She saw the shock on my face, and the corner of her mouth curved up.
She turned and complained to the crowd behind her.
"Sister, see? I told you, didn't I?"
"This daughter of yours is too selfish, only ever thinks about herself."
"Doesn't care whether the rest of us live or die."
There were so many people, I hadn't noticed before.
My mother was in the crowd too.
She'd been standing all the way at the back.
Hearing that, she pushed through the crowd and walked right up to me.
Before I could get a word of explanation out,
she raised her hand and slapped me hard across the face.
"Have you made enough of a scene?"
"You won't be happy until you've made me tear ties with my own family, is that it?"
"What are you really after?"
"How did I give birth to a thing like you, who sides with outsiders against her own!"
I held my cheek.
And looked at my mother, calm.
It hurt. But it was nothing next to the hurt inside.
Every time anything touched her family, she went at it like something had gotten into her.
Her family was right about everything.
My father's side, me included, the daughter she'd carried ten months and given birth to.
We could do nothing right.
The crowd looked on cold-eyed, not one of them speaking up for me.
Some even threw fuel on the fire.
"This child doesn't have her own mother in her eyes at all."
"Raised her all these years for nothing."
Christine turned to look at me, her eyes full of triumph.
"Nina, anything else you'd like to say?"
I dropped the hand from my cheek.
Looked at her, and slowly began to speak.
"Of course."
"Just a little while ago, Bright Peak Learning was reported."
"For suspected fraud and illegal fundraising."
Christine laughed like she'd heard the joke of the century.
"You really have lost your mind!"
The words weren't even out before footsteps sounded in the stairwell.
Two uniformed police officers came up.
"Which one of you is Ms. Christine Chavez?"
"The Bright Peak Learning center you run is currently facing multiple charges."
"Please come with us and cooperate with the investigation."