My Slum Apartment Hides a Gold Mine

I opened my mouth, wanting to explain, but I couldn't exactly tell Julie that there was gold stashed inside the wall while Peter was still there. Just then, the old voice rang out again, dripping with mockery."Bah! Trying to haggle the price down? Don't you know there are plenty of people out there dying to have me? "Owen Sullivan, the guy next door, tried to marry Barry Aston's daughter back then so he could get his hands on the Astons' assets, but he failed. Now that Barry's dead, Owen's set his sights on this apartment too."He's coming to see the place tomorrow. When he snatches it up, don't come crying to me later!" My mind went blank for a moment, and I blurted out, "I really like this place. Why don't we sign the contract today?"Peter hurriedly pulled a contract out of his bag. "That would be great, Milo! If you sign the contract today, we can start the paperwork tomorrow!" Just as I finished speaking, someone knocked on the door, and Peter went to open it. Standi

Julie came by the apartment at 6:00 pm. She stood at the door, her eyes bloodshot. Her voice trembled as she said, "Your dad called me, saying that you had taken out a high-interest loan to buy this dump. Milo, have you lost your mind?""Come in. I'll tell you why I bought this place."Julie hesitated for a few seconds. She then bit her lip and walked inside. I guided her to the wall, crouched down, and pressed the metal detector against it. It started beeping.Julie froze. "What is that?""It's a metal detector." I looked up at her. "There's something inside this wall."She gaped. "Could your dream actually have been real?"I didn't even flinch. "Yeah. I wasn't convinced, so I came over to see for myself. There really is something in the wall."Tonight, I'm going to tear it down. If there really is gold inside, we'll get married tomorrow and buy a high-end apartment. All your friends will be so jealous of you."Julie teared up. She rushed over and wrapped her arms around m

I pried open one of the panels. The entire ceiling gave way under the weight and immediately collapsed halfway. Bills came raining down on me, hitting my head and shoulders.I stood there without moving as money piled around my feet, nearly reaching my calves. I was buried in three million dollars in cash. A wave of dizziness overwhelmed me. My vision went black, and I collapsed into the pile of cash. By the time I came to, I had no idea how much time had passed. My face felt cool from the bills pressed against my skin.I groggily opened my eyes. All I saw was cash.The old voice rang out again, clearly impatient. "You passed out, didn't you? What a loser. I can't believe you fainted just from seeing three million dollars in cash."Quickly get up. Your dad's waiting at the hospital for you to pay for his surgery. Your girlfriend's going to abort your baby too. Aren't you going to stop her?"I immediately sat up, and the bills covering me slid down onto the floor. "The money…

"Let's leave it there for now. We'll talk about it after my dad gets discharged from the hospital."Julie and I returned to the old, run-down apartment to deal with the mess. I had completely wrecked the living room, and the bay window in the master bedroom had been smashed open. Even half of the kitchen ceiling had collapsed.While Julie grabbed a broom and started clearing the broken bricks, I went to the master bedroom, pulled out the bundle of gold, and set it on the bed. The gold bars were lined up neatly. Julie crouched next to the bed, staring at them. When she reached out to touch them, her fingertips recoiled slightly."The gold's really heavy.""That's 110 pounds right there."Julie smiled, the corners of her mouth turning up. That was the first genuine smile she had had over the past few days.I bent down and started clearing scattered chunks of concrete out of the cavity beneath the bay window, preparing to seal the opening again. As I scraped the debris away, my fi

That afternoon, Julie and I went to the shopping mall to buy a crib. Along the way, we walked past a lottery shop on the first floor.Julie stopped and tugged at my hand. "Milo, let's buy a lottery ticket.""What for? Do you really think we'll win something?""Let's try our luck." Julie tugged on my arm. "We've had such terrible luck lately. It's about time things started going our way."I couldn't talk Julie out of it, so I pulled out ten dollars and purchased a random scratch-off ticket. I was still looking at my phone, responding to Mom's text, when I scratched off the coating.Suddenly, Julie pinched my arm, making me yelp in pain."What's up?"Julie pointed at the scratch-off ticket, her lips trembling just the way they had when she saw the gold back then. I looked down at the ticket. First prize. It was a total of 50 million dollars. Julie and I stood in the mall walkway as people walked past us. No one knew that the young couple standing in the corner had just w