Chapter 3The Price of Entitlement

Hearing her words, my blood boiled.

Back then, when my father-in-law was seriously ill, we had several acres of fields waiting to be harvested. My husband and I were so tired we couldn't even straighten our backs, but we were still too slow.

Seeing that the crops were about to rot in the fields, my aunt and uncle came, and she arranged for him to help us work.

That feeling of receiving help in our darkest hour moved us deeply.

But after the harvest, my uncle used the busy farming season as an excuse to take away one-third of the total yield.

This left our family at a total loss.

Because at that time, my father-in-law's medical bills were also very high.

But we couldn't find a suitable reason to refuse.

Later, my aunt and uncle had a huge fight, even reaching the point of threatening divorce, but my uncle wouldn't yield an inch.

My mother-in-law really had no choice. She couldn't let a family break apart over some grain, so she agreed to it.

Although we were a bit dissatisfied with my uncle, we were full of gratitude toward my aunt.

But looking back now...

Could that have been a sob story they put on together?

I pulled my thoughts back. I didn't want to bring up the past anymore, wanting to leave a good impression of our familial bond.

Then I said to her:

"Forget it, Auntie, let's not talk about who owes who. No matter how much I owed you, these eight years should have paid it back."

"I'll say it again, we didn't want to take your lottery money. Since you've already given it to your two sons, they now have the ability to support you. I hope you enjoy your twilight years. I'll take you back."

My husband pulled out his car keys upon hearing my words.

But my aunt showed no sign of getting up.

Sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed, she shamelessly refused.

"I said I'm not leaving, I'm used to living here, and I don't want to trouble my two sons."

His good temper was almost depleted. He frowned and asked her, "Then you have the nerve to trouble us?"

"Liam, what kind of talk is that? I am your aunt!"

"Those two are your sons! By reason and logic, they should be the ones supporting you! Before, they had no money and no heart, but now that they have money, shouldn't they immediately take you back? I said if they don't have time, I'll take you."

She glared at us, scanning the room with utter bafflement.

Full of resentment, she said:

"And here I thought of you as family! I must have been blind!"

"Since you all know I was abandoned by my two sons because of my favoritism, why don't you think about my situation?"

"This time, I'm giving $2.25 million to my older son and $2.25 million to my younger son. Now that I'm treating them equally, they can't accuse me of playing favorites anymore."

"Solving a lifetime's worth of resentment with this one thing, you should be happy for me!"

Then she sneered disdainfully again.

And said to me:

"You don't have a real job right now anyway, so go be a nanny for my older son. You'll get $3,000 a month, consider it my way of repaying you and your husband."

"You should be satisfied now, right?"

Seeing her dismissive attitude, the anger I had suppressed for so long finally erupted.