Chapter 2
Violet switched her phone to silent, tucked it back in her pocket, and headed back to the meeting room.
When she opened the door, the review was still in full swing. One of her coworkers was in the middle of explaining some complicated state management thing. Her team leader shot her a look, checking if she was alright.
Violet nodded, sat down, and opened her laptop.
The error was still on the screen. She glanced at it and, on autopilot, started typing.
Just three lines. She got rid of an extra state dependency.
The error vanished, and the component loaded like it was supposed to.
She stared at the screen and suddenly smiled.
'Turns out fixing a bug is that simple,' Violet thought. 'Too bad fixing my life isn't that easy.'
After the review, Violet didn't go home.
Instead, she headed to a café near the office, ordered an Americano, and opened her laptop. But instead of coding, she opened Excel.
She was going to list out every single transaction from those 157,000 dollars, one by one.
She exported all her transfer records from the past two years from her banking app and filtered for the ones sent to her family. The whole process took her two hours.
When the final total came up, Violet just stared at the screen, silent for a long time.
157,320 dollars. Down to the last dollar.
She itemized the 157,000 dollars.
Emilia: 80,000 dollars.
Rent "emergencies": 8 times, totaling 21,000 dollars.
Cosmetic procedures: 40,000 dollars (eyelid lift and rhinoplasty).
Designer bags: three bags, totaling 14,000 dollars.
Vacations: two trips, totaling 4,000 dollars.
Lincoln: 62,000 dollars.
"Living expenses" subsidy: 3,000 dollars a month, totaling 24,000 dollars.
Gaming top-ups: 27,000 dollars.
Dating budget: 11,000 dollars (gifts and meals for his girlfriend).
Parents: 50,200 dollars.
Medical bills: 9,000 dollars.
Family events: 7,000 dollars.
Violet made a few charts. A pie chart showed that Emilia and Lincoln accounted for 89.6% of the total.
A bar chart showed monthly transfers growing exponentially, from a few thousand dollars a month at the start to forty or fifty thousand dollars a month by the end.
She also calculated a "leech rate": on average, she had to earn 1.8 dollars per hour for her family. Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, nonstop.
The most ironic part was that her expenses were squeezed to the absolute minimum.
Rent: 800 dollars a month, sharing a cramped, run-down apartment with roommates.
Food: 18 dollars a day, living off the company cafeteria and discounted takeout.
Clothing: Spent less than 700 dollars on clothes all year.
Entertainment: Basically nothing.
She hadn't even bought herself a new laptop. She was still stuck with the entry-level MacBook Air she'd bought three years ago.
Violet saved the Excel file to her cloud drive with a complicated password. Then she took screenshots and sent the most important charts to her private account.
By the time she finished, it was already dark outside.
The café lights were warm, and around her, couples whispered to each other, students rushed to finish their homework, and freelancers tapped away at their keyboards.
Violet suddenly realized that this was the first time in two years she was sitting somewhere, doing something for herself, not for work, not for money.
Her phone buzzed again. This time, it wasn't a call. It was a mention in the family group.
Mom: [Violet, reply when you see this. We had a family meeting about Lincoln's house. We decided you'll cover the 67,000-dollar down payment. Emilia needs 10,000 dollars for tuition next month. That's 77,000 dollars total. Get it ready and send it over this week.]
Dad: [Violet, I know you work hard for your money, but you're the only one in the family who can do this. Family should help each other.]
Aunt: [Violet, Lincoln, buying a house is a big deal. As his sister, you really should support him. Once your brother's successful, he'll look out for you.]
Uncle: [77,000 dollars isn't that much for you, right? Your mom says you pull in tens of thousands every month.]
Emilia: [Violet, don't forget to send my tuition money. I signed up for that expensive training course. The teacher says I've got real talent.]
Lincoln: [Thanks, Violet. Once I get the house, I'll have you over.]
Violet read through each message one by one.
Not one person asked if she was tired. Not one cared how she was doing. Not one bothered to say thanks.
Just demands they felt entitled to.
Her finger hovered over the screen for a long time, then she started typing.
Violet: [I checked my transfer records from the past two years. It's 157,320 dollars in total. I've made an Excel file with all the details. If anyone wants to see it, I can send it to the group.]
The group went quiet for about three minutes.
Mom: [Why are you sending this? Do you really have to be so clear with family?]