Chapter 4

4: 4

The next day their videos came in, and just as agreed, we went through with the title transfers.

But the moment I stepped out, I was surrounded by relatives, every one of them holding up a property deed.

"Alma, sweetheart, look at us too. We've got run-down old places as well."

"Right. If you can buy from Wade's family, you can't play favorites. You ought to buy ours too."

"Exactly. Otherwise there's really no point in us staying close anymore."

In the crowd I caught my cousin failing to hold back a smirk, and I understood right away that this was his revenge.

He was the one who'd gone around telling everyone I'd overpaid for run-down old properties.

If I didn't buy, the relatives would surely talk behind my back.

But the pressure meant nothing to me.

I said nothing, got in the car, and left.

Still, after that day, my name was mud among the relatives.

That night the family group chat, usually dead silent, blew up.

The same relatives who used to treat our family like we didn't exist tore into us.

Especially at my mother.

【Susan Bishop, this is the fine daughter you raised. She'd rather buy strangers' run-down places than buy from her own relatives!】

【So disappointing. Today we asked her to buy our homes and she didn't say a single word, she just ran off. She doesn't think anything of us at all.】

【She needs to make it up to us. Treat us to a meal, and buy our houses while she's at it.】

Reading all of it, I just felt sick.

These people really did think a lot of themselves!

Worried it would get to my mother, I booked her a spot on a tour group to Miami right away.

She always listened to me, and she didn't much care for these relatives anyway.

We packed that night and set off first thing the next morning.

When my relatives went looking for my mother, they came up empty.

When they couldn't find her, they turned their sights on me, only to learn I'd quit my job and gone traveling.

Unable to corner either of us, they lost it completely and turned to sniping in the group chat.

【Some people really think winning a little prize money makes them investment geniuses. I can't wait to see those dozen-plus run-down places of hers rot and go to waste!】

【For real. Hears "demolition" and buys on the spot, not a brain in her head. With a brain like that, she was born to get scammed. Let's just sit back and watch the joke unfold.】

I didn't get angry, and I didn't reply in the group.

Finally half a month passed, and the day of the demolition notice arrived.

I brought my mother back from Miami.

When the plane landed, we ran smack into Wade and his family of five.

They were at the gate, having their tickets checked for a trip to Antarctica.

Seeing us, my cousin needled me on purpose.

"Well, well. The refugee finally comes crawling back?"

Rhonda came over too, purse on her arm, the corner of her mouth curling clear up to the sky.

"Isn't that the truth. Heard you sank every cent of your winnings into busted houses? This Antarctica trip of ours, we've got your hundred grand to thank for it."

"Hope one day you get to see Antarctica too!"

With that, she deliberately snapped a photo and posted it in the group.

The chat exploded at once, everyone praising her for living the good life.

Then they brought up my mother again.

【Not like Susan. Her kid won a few million and blew it all on junk, doesn't even have the luck to see Antarctica once!】

【Right. Everyone's got their own fate. Can't force it.】

I didn't explain right away.

Instead, once I'd confirmed Wade's family's plane had taken off, I posted a screenshot of a message I'd just received today into the family group chat.

The relatives who'd been sitting there waiting to laugh at me went silent in an instant.

Because everyone saw the last line.

【Fairview complex resident compensation: minimum $6 million per unit.】