Chapter 3

Word finally reached my two brothers that I'd bought a place and moved out.

Nathan texted me:

"You really bought a place? On a loan, right? Some cheap little dump?"

I ignored him.

Then Derek Whitney called.

"You and your wife just move out—what about Dad and Mom?"

"Dad's sick, Mom's legs are bad. Who's going to cook for them? Who's going to take them for their regular checkups?"

I laughed.

"Are you and Nathan dead? Can't the two of you do it?"

Derek didn't even flinch.

"Your wife's always handled all that. How would we know how?"

"Not that I want to lecture you as your older brother, but what kind of woman did you go and marry?"

"Talking you into buying a house, talking you into turning your back on your own parents—she's nothing but a home-wrecker!"

My voice went cold. "Dad hit her first!"

"So what? Your wife's the one who can't tell up from down. A junior daring to lecture her elders—the world's turned upside down!"

I snorted. "Fine. My wife won't do it anymore, let yours do it. From now on my wife lifts a finger for no one!"

"You—"

I didn't give him the chance to say anything else. I hung up.

Maybe it was the good energy of the new place, but my career started taking off.

I closed several big deals in a row, pulled in a good chunk of commission, and got promoted to department supervisor.

Julia found out she was pregnant too—a little over two months along, right at the most delicate stage.

That evening I cooked myself, made a few of her favorite dishes, and waited for her to get home so we could celebrate together.

That was when my mother called.

"Max, your dad and I talked it over. We're going to sell this old house and move in with you and Julia!"

"Julia only makes three or four thousand a month—tell her to quit her job and stay home to take care of me and your dad!"

I kept picking at my food.

"Fine. Then hand over the money from selling the house—call it your retirement fund with me."

"Absolutely not. That money stays put until your dad and I are gone, then it gets split three ways among you brothers!"

"Fine. Then how much are you planning to pay Julia a month?"

"We're family—since when do we pay wages?"

"Then what? All three of us brothers take you in for a year each, taking turns caring for you in old age!"

"Your dad doesn't want to stay with Nathan or Derek. He's afraid of being a burden to them!"

"Oh? So he knows perfectly well he's a burden—that's why he latches onto my wife and wrings her dry all by herself?"

My mother froze.

For a long moment she couldn't get a word out.

After I hung up, I set down my chopsticks.

I didn't eat any more. I went out to the balcony to smoke.

When my two brothers got married and bought their homes, my parents gave each of them five hundred thousand.

When it was my turn, my parents said they were out of money and told me to live with them.

I lived at their side for eight years, and my wife waited on them for those same eight years.

For those eight years, every expense—the ones you could see and the ones you couldn't—I covered.

Groceries, water, electricity, gas—the household ran about five thousand a month.

Their retirement insurance, paid off in one lump sum, was eighty thousand each, a hundred and sixty thousand total.

Their everyday illnesses, medicine, supplements—another twenty or thirty thousand a year.

All these years, everything I'd spent on them, big and small, added up to somewhere around five hundred thousand.

And in the end, I was still the most worthless one in their eyes.

They'd even hit my wife whenever they felt like it, curse her whenever they felt like it.

The one they looked down on was never my wife. It was me!

So I would never play the fool again!

Still, I knew my father. Given the kind of man he was, he wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted.

I had to guard against it in advance.

Sure enough, within three days, my mother called again.