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Chapter 2 The Son They Never Wanted

Author: Sole Authority
My knuckles slowly turned white around the water glass I was holding.

They had never once reflected on themselves or wondered who had made me the way I was.

When I was very young, they had left me at my grandfather's house, sometimes going several years without coming to see me even once. My grandfather had raised me from childhood, and I had naturally taken after him. I was not one for smiling or idle pleasantries.

I was their son by birth, yet no matter how well I did, I was never as good in their eyes as my cousin.

"Mom, Dad." I took a deep breath and made one final attempt. "I got promoted this year. I'm the company's CFO now, and my salary went up too."

I wanted to tell them that I had the means to give them the best life possible. That I could carry this family on my shoulders.

Yet, my father slammed his cutlery onto the table without bothering to look up, and reproached coldly, "You can't even get yourself a wife, so what's the point of making all that money? The people in the village are already talking behind our backs. All you've ever done is embarrass us! You're 28 years old already. Finding a wife should be your priority!"

I opened my mouth, but every word I had left died in my throat.

Outside, firecrackers exploded in a deafening roar. Inside, the laughter and conversation continued as before.

Only now… it belonged to the other three.

Halfway through the suffocating Christmas Eve dinner, the front door was pushed open. Aunt Debbie and Uncle Homer came in with snow clinging to their hair, carrying two boxes of the kind of yogurt commonly found in the discount section of the supermarket. Their faces were covered in broad smiles as they squeezed into the house.

"Jim, you've already started eating?" Aunt Debbie's voice was loud enough to make my ears ring the moment she stepped through the door.

The stern expression my father had worn just moments ago instantly blossomed into a grin. He hurriedly put down his cutlery and even stood up to greet them. "Debbie, Homer, come on in! Take a seat!"

The already cramped round table became even more crowded, until there was barely enough room to move an elbow. I silently pushed my chair back a little, doing my best to make myself as small and inconspicuous as possible.

After several rounds of drinks, the air in the room had grown stuffy and hazy with heat.

My father's face was flushed from drinking. Suddenly, he brought his glass down hard on the table with a sharp crack.

The entire room fell silent. Mack, mid-gnaw on a bone, looked up at my father in confusion.

My father took a deep breath and turned toward his sister and her husband. "Debbie, Homer, about the matter we discussed before… I think today is a good day, so let's settle it."

My heart lurched, and an ominous feeling rose in my chest.

Aunt Debbie narrowed her eyes and let out a deliberately reluctant sigh without saying anything. Uncle Homer, however, rolled his eyes thoughtfully before nudging Mack beside him.

My father turned back toward Mack, his eyes fixed on him with such unmistakable affection that it felt completely foreign to me.

"To make sure our family's blessings continue for generations, Sherry and I have talked it over. Starting today, Mackie will officially become my son. In the future, he'll take care of me in my old age, see me through to the end, and carry on the family line!"

For a moment, I wondered if I had heard him correctly.

Become his son?

"Dad, you've had too much to drink." I stood up, my voice trembling. "Do I look dead to you? Why do you need to adopt someone else to take care of you?"

The affection vanished from my father's face in an instant, replaced by a vicious glare. "What do you know? This is a major family matter! You will eventually squander the entire family fortune! You're still not married despite your age. Are you trying to make sure our family line ends with you?"

Every one of those words felt like a knife driven straight into my heart. I could not believe how worthless I was to him.

I turned to my mother, desperately hoping to find at least a trace of reason in her expression. "Mom, you agree with this too?"
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  • I Took Back The Million Dollars   Chapter 9 None of It Had Anything to Do With Me

    I felt no sympathy at all as I looked at their miserable state. After all, not long ago, they had been pointing at my nose and telling me to get out, calling me a worthless bastard they had bought."Who was it that said Mack would be the one to support you in your old age?" I looked down at them, a mocking smile curling at the corners of my lips. "And who was it that said I was an outsider, that I was no longer part of this family? Well, you cast me out. Now you want me back? Too late."When pleading did not work, my father's shameless side came out again. He suddenly stood up and pointed a finger straight at my face. "Clyde Lester! Don't push your luck! Even if you're not our biological son, we raised you for 28 years! "So what if we bought you for 500 dollars? Without that 500 dollars, you'd have died! Now that we're in trouble, you have to help us! Otherwise, I'll make a scene at your office! I'll take you to court for abandoning your parents!"The pedestrians around us began w

  • I Took Back The Million Dollars   Chapter 8 Three Days Later

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  • I Took Back The Million Dollars   Chapter 7 Karma Comes Knocking

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  • I Took Back The Million Dollars   Chapter 6 Five Hundred Dollars

    With trembling hands, I opened the sheet of paper again.It was a crooked, handwritten receipt.'Received 500 dollars in full from James Lester for the transfer of one male infant. All obligations between us are settled from this day forward.'The signature at the bottom belonged to a stranger. The date was the very year I was born.Five hundred dollars—that was all I had been worth.For 28 years, I had endured their coldness and contempt. It was not merely because they thought I was stiff and old-fashioned. It turned out it was because I was not their biological son at all."What's that in your hands?"The moment my father saw me staring blankly at the envelope, his expression changed drastically. He rushed over and snatched the paper from my hands, but it was already too late.I raised my head and stared hard at the two people I had called Mom and Dad for 28 years. "So, I was bought? Because you couldn't have a child, you bought me to cover up the fact that you couldn't?"Wi

  • I Took Back The Million Dollars   Chapter 5 Whose Son Was I?

    By the time I returned to my apartment in the city, it was already 3 a.m.I collapsed onto the sofa, but I could not stop thinking about what the bank manager had told me. I picked up my phone and dialed a number."David, I need you to look into someone for me." I got straight to the point. "It's my cousin, Mack Lester. I want his complete financial records for the past two years, especially his debts and loan transactions. The more detailed, the better. Money isn't an issue."…It was not long before the investigation report landed in my inbox.Over the past two years, Mack had become addicted to online gambling. He had not only blown through his own savings and everything his parents had put away, but had also borrowed heavily from loan sharks. He had taken out loans from more than a dozen lending platforms, and with the interest compounding on itself, the total amount he owed had ballooned to five million dollars, including principal and interest.Worse, one of the lenders w

  • I Took Back The Million Dollars   Chapter 4 The Day I Finally Walked Away

    I laughed bitterly. As it turned out, having lived in this family for 28 years, I was not even worthy of a single keepsake that belonged to my grandfather.I stared at my father's twisted expression and suddenly found the whole thing absurd beyond words."I'm an outsider? Every year, I sent you money so you could buy houses and cars. When you were sick, I didn't even dare take time off work because I wanted to earn more money to support you. And after everything I've done, I'm the outsider?""Shut up!"My father had not even spoken when my mother panicked first. She rushed over and grabbed my arm, her fingernails digging painfully into my flesh. "Clyde! How dare you talk to your father like that? Mackie will eventually care for us when we're old, so of course we're giving it to him! Why are you being so unreasonable? It's Christmas! Do you really have to ruin the holiday for everyone?"I looked at my mother's anxious face, and my heart went completely cold. Perhaps this was what p

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