Chapter 2
The 300 thousand hit my account in no time.
Mom pulled out a ledger and said, "If I hadn't played along with your little act just now, you wouldn't have gotten anything.
"You owe me 60 thousand for that act I just put on, on top of the 180 thousand I spent raising you. Now add 190 thousand for your wedding. The total is 430 thousand."
Dad chimed in, "Since we're family, just round it up to 450 thousand. If we hadn't picked her up back then, she'd be long gone."
The whole loving family show from earlier was nothing but a façade.
Seeing the look of greed on their faces, I pulled out my own notebook.
I shot back, "When Grandma found me, I had a bracelet on me. It was worth about 240 thousand. You swapped it for a fake, sold the real one for 150 thousand, and used it for a down payment on this house.
"Now the house has shot up to over 900 thousand. By my math, I should get two-thirds of that, which comes out to 600 thousand.
"Grandma left me her house in her will. You hid it and had your daughter, who was studying abroad, come back and inherit it instead.
"The will you destroyed was just one copy. There's another one, and I already had it. That little house is worth 270 thousand.
"So, you owe me 870 thousand total. Take off the 450 thousand you're asking from me, and you still owe me 420 thousand. Clear enough?"
Right there, tucked between the pages of my notebook, was Grandma's will.
Mom's face twisted with rage as she jabbed a finger at me. "Wow, you've got some nerve, talking numbers with us? Raising you was the favor of a lifetime. You owe us everything. Without us, you wouldn't even exist."
I arched an eyebrow at her. "Raised me? Seriously, how many days did you actually look after me?" Grandma was the one who truly raised me.
Mom realized that she couldn't out-argue me, so she switched to mocking. "Don't get ahead of yourself. The Swanson family had you make a spectacle of yourself at the wedding. Clearly, they can't stand you. Keep desperately trying to win their favor, but it's only a matter of time before they kick you out."
I acted like I didn't hear her, waving my notebook. "Just don't forget the 420 thousand you still owe me."
Living in this house turned me into someone with a razor-sharp tongue and a score-settling attitude. If I hadn't learned to fight back, all their drama would've chewed me up and spit me out.
By that afternoon, word had spread like wildfire about me having to wear some trash, cheap pin at the wedding.
Some people said it was the Swanson family putting me in my place. Others mocked me for being more of a bootlicker than a simp. A few were even betting I wouldn't last half a year before getting divorced.
When my friend, Zora Raymond, heard about it, she called me, annoyed. "You cannot be serious. You're actually going to wear that 90 thousand wedding dress, the one that ten people could sit on, with that tacky pin?
She knew all too well how obsessed I was with Jeffrey, so it didn't surprise her that I'd agree to his ridiculous request. She was just frustrated with me, thinking I had no backbone and no boundaries.
I fired off a screenshot of the 300 thousand landing in my account to Zora.
Zora practically raced over to celebrate with me. She grinned, "Finally, Vanessa, you're done being a simp."
Just as we were about to head out, Zora got a call from her parents. They wanted her to go to the grand opening of a relative's auction house.
Then we headed toward the auction house.
Suddenly, the comments popped up again right in front of me.
[Does Betty get a system or something? She actually ditched her engagement just to come here and score a hidden gem. Is she planning to bid for Vanessa's bracelet?]
[Yeah, Betty's got a system, and it's got her on a mission to win Vanessa's bracelet.]
[That bracelet is no ordinary piece. There's a little map carved into it, and if you follow that map, you can actually find a gold mine.]
After reading those comments, I let out a long breath and turned to Zora. "Is there a bracelet up for auction today?"
Zora had no clue about it, so she went to ask her relative. Meanwhile, I wandered around by myself and ran into Betty.
Her name was Betty Swanson, and she was Jeffrey's sister in name.
But honestly, neither of them was actually part of the Swanson family. Betty was the daughter of the Swansons' nanny, and her real name was Lily Woodard.
During a fire, Lily's mother got badly burned trying to save the Swanson couple, and she ended up disabled. Out of gratitude, the Swansons adopted Lily, giving her a life of comfort and plenty.