Chapter 6
Willa sneered, "Money's tight, huh?
"I heard your sister cleaned out your family's bank account and took off. Is that true?
"Are you guys so strapped for cash that you can't even cover the property fees now?"
Devon's face went pale. "Who told you that crap?"
Willa shot back, "Stop denying it, Devon. Everyone in our circle is talking about it.
"They say you're nothing but a wannabe rich kid, and your whole family's been mooching off your sister.
"Now that she's cut you off, your family's about to go bankrupt."
Willa's voice was like a knife, stabbing right into Devon's pride.
Willa said coldly, "Just so you know, I'm not marrying some broke loser.
"You've got twenty-four hours. If you can't get the 300-thousand-dollar down payment into my account by then, we're done for good.
"And don't say I didn't warn you. My dad's got people digging into your family's background."
The line went dead.
Willa hung up on him without a shred of mercy.
Devon held his phone, his hands shaking so hard that he could barely keep hold of it.
He turned to Eddie and Tessa, shouting at them, "This is all your fault, and that bitch Rosie, too.
"Great, Willa's breaking up with me.
"I don't care. You have to get me 300 thousand, no matter what.
"If you don't, I'll kill myself right in front of you!"
The house erupted in another heated fight.
Meanwhile, Tessa wasn't just sitting around.
She came up with her final move: guilt-tripping Rosie.
She opened the family group chat.
She dragged in every distant relative she could find, even those barely connected to the family.
That was when she turned on the drama.
She typed out a long, sob-filled rant.
She blasted Rosie for being a disobedient, ungrateful daughter.
She claimed Rosie had gotten her head turned by some guy and run off with all the family's life-saving money.
She made herself out to be the poor, heartbroken mom, betrayed by her own daughter.
She thought that, with a tidal wave of family criticism, Rosie would be buried alive and have no choice but to come back home.
She believed she could force Rosie to return and beg for forgiveness.
The group chat blew up.
All the relatives started roasting Rosie.
[How could Rosie do something like this?]
[This is outrageous. Guess all that schooling was for nothing.]
[Tessa, don't cry. We'll back you up and give her a piece of our mind.]
Seeing all those messages blow up the group chat, Tessa couldn't help but grin triumphantly.
But her smug grin barely lasted three minutes.
Suddenly, someone new popped up in the group chat.
It was Rosie.
Rosie didn't say a word.
She silently tossed a file into the group chat.
It was a PDF file.
The file name was "The Fisher Family's Ten-Year Financial Breakdown and My Outstanding Debts."
It was the same 960-thousand-dollar invoice she'd sent to Eddie earlier.
But this time, it was more detailed.
Every single transfer came with a screenshot of the bank transaction.
There were photos of Eddie's receipts for top-shelf cigarettes and premium liquor.
There were Tessa's records of splurging on designer bags.
There were Devon's bills for the newest phones and game consoles.
Every transfer, every expense, all laid out one by one.
Everything was so clear that nobody could deny it.
And at the very end, the final tally: an eye-popping 960 thousand dollars in debt.
The group chat was instantly frozen. Nobody dared to type a single word.
All those relatives who'd been raging moments ago were left speechless.
They stared at those shocking numbers and bank statements.
Compared to Tessa's earlier sob story, the truth couldn't be clearer.
The real culprit was laid bare for everyone to see.
It turned out that Rosie wasn't the ungrateful one.
Her whole family had been treating her like their personal ATM, bleeding her dry for a whole decade.
After a few seconds of silence, the whole vibe in the group chat flipped.
A cousin who usually got along well with Tessa spoke up, her tone cautious.
She asked, [Um, Tessa, is everything in this file real?
[Spending over 100 thousand dollars a year? That's a lot of money for one family.]
Another older male relative didn't hold back. [Eddie, are you even human?
[You treat your daughter like a beast of burden while you're out there living large, eating and drinking the best.
[I always knew you were a real piece of trash.
"And Tessa, you're as much of a fool. You spoil your husband and son like that?
"Are you raising kids, or making enemies out of them?
[No wonder Rosie wants to cut ties with you. If I were her, I'd disown you, too.
[Pay Rosie back now. You might not care about being a shame, but you've disgraced the Fisher family.]
The backlash and scolding crashed in like a tidal wave.
This time, everyone had stopped aiming at Rosie.
All the heat was on Eddie and Tessa.
Tessa stared at her phone, her face flushing and paling by turns.
She wanted to explain, but she couldn't bring herself to type a single word.
She thought she was setting a trap for Rosie, but ended up wrecking her own family instead.
Her plan backfired, destroying her whole family instead.