Chapter 2The Price of Entitlement

The air was thick with tension.

My husband and I looked at each other, our brows furrowed.

He walked over and spoke calmly to his aunt.

"Auntie, you know what kind of people my older and younger cousins are. They haven't checked on you in all these years; it's like they don't even have a mother."

"Shut your mouth!" She clawed the air and yelled at him, "Are you like your mother, wanting to hoard my four and a half million all to yourselves?"

I was utterly speechless at this and tried to explain.

"No one wants to hoard your four and a half million. My point is, since your two sons are unfilial, why didn't you save some retirement money for yourself?"

I thought I had phrased it as tactfully as possible.

But to my surprise, she rolled her eyes at me and argued unreasonably:

"I'm so old, I don't need money on hand. Besides, what use do I have for so much money? Wait for people to scheme against me for it?"

"You are incurable!" My mother-in-law stomped her foot in anger. "You just treat my son as a sucker! Not saving your own retirement money, waiting for my son and daughter-in-law to provide for you! If you get sick or have an accident later, who's going to pay for the hospital?!"

My aunt-in-law's expression paused.

It seemed my mother-in-law's words had slightly awakened her.

But immediately, she put on a relieved expression and actually said:

"Chloe and her husband earn quite a bit. I'm already this age, I won't get those chronic diseases, and going to the hospital won't cost much."

"Anyway, you've already taken care of me for eight years, another ten or eight won't make a difference."

Hearing this, my mother-in-law was so angry she almost fainted.

I hurriedly comforted her while asking my aunt-in-law in extreme bafflement:

"What do you take us for?"

She shrugged and said with a very self-righteous tone:

"Chloe, you can't say things like that. It was your mother-in-law who begged me to come and keep her company. I was afraid your mother-in-law would be lonely, so I had no choice but to refuse my two sons' offers to provide for me."

I laughed outright out of sheer anger.

"You've favored your younger son since childhood, breaking your older son's heart until he cut ties with you."

"Yet your younger son, spoiled rotten by you, doesn't even take you seriously. Back when my husband's uncle died, it was because neither of them cared about you that my mother-in-law, out of the goodness of her heart, asked you to move in together."

"For these eight years, you've enjoyed the same treatment as my mother-in-law. My husband and I gave you everything we could. And now you win the lottery, don't leave a dime for your own retirement, and still expect us to continue providing for you?"

Hearing this, she snorted coldly, plopped back down on the sofa, and said contemptuously:

"No matter what, you invited me back then, and a good deed should be done to the end. My two sons are busy to death all day, they don't have easy jobs like you do. And I'm used to living here now, so whatever you say is useless."

"Our jobs are easy?" My husband stepped forward. "For this family, Chloe and I work from morning till night every day. Can you be reasonable?"

"What reason should I listen to?"

She glared.

"Being reasonable just means you want money. I'm telling you clearly, there's not a single cent left."

"And you should know how much your uncle did for your family in the past!"

"He helped you with the heavy lifting a lot, didn't he? Frankly, what you're doing now is just repaying our family's favor!"