Chapter 2

"Don't you dare!" Mom completely lost it. She grabbed the bowl of piping-hot chicken soup that had just been served and hurled it straight at my face.

I hastily turned my head away. The scalding soup splashed onto my left shoulder and the back of my hand, instantly searing my skin into a line of angry red blisters.

As excruciating pain spread throughout my body, I bit down hard on my lip and refused to make a sound.

Mom thrust her finger in my face, her vicious curses piercing my eardrums. "If you dare to sue your brother, I'll act as though I never gave birth to an ungrateful wretch like you!

"In the future, even if you rot on the streets or die in your bed, your brother and I won't even spare you a scrap of mat to wrap your body in! And don't you dare expect us to come collect your corpse!"

Rotting on the streets, dying in a hospital bed, and no one would claim my corpse… The most tragic fate I had suffered in my previous life was now being hurled at me by the very woman who had given birth to me.

The blisters on the back of my hand throbbed with searing pain, yet it paled in comparison to the emptiness that had completely taken over my heart.

I drew a deep breath and swallowed down the metallic tang of blood in my throat. Then, I picked up my bag and walked out the door without a backward glance. "Fine. Suit yourselves."

On the way to the hospital, I called my lawyer, Lewis Williams. "Mr. Williams, draw up a lawsuit for me. I want to freeze the property registered under my mom's name and initiate debt recovery proceedings against Elio."

The other end of the line went silent for a moment before he responded promptly.

After hanging up, the cab happened to pull up right in front of the town hospital's entrance. The nurse used a needle to lance the blisters on the back of my hand in the emergency room.

My phone started vibrating frantically at that moment. Enduring the pain, I unlocked it. The family chat group, "One Loving Family", was already flooded with over 99 unread messages.

Mom had shared an edited surveillance footage in the group, with the beginning and end conveniently cut off. It captured nothing but my stone-cold expression as I aggressively threatened to have the house forcibly auctioned off if I didn't see the money.

Mom's voice message came right after it, filled with loud, anguished sobs. "Everyone, please judge for yourselves! The daughter I worked so hard to raise is demanding 700 thousand dollars from me just because I transferred the house to her own brother! If I don't, she's going to sue me!

"Bonnie's so upset that she's even started spotting! Irene's attempting to end our family line!"

Elio immediately followed suit. "This is all because I'm useless. I've dragged Mom and Bonnie down with me. Irene, I wouldn't be able to raise 700 thousand dollars even if I sold my blood. I'm begging you—please give the baby in Bonnie's belly a chance to live!"

After Mom and Elio played off each other, my relatives in the group chat immediately erupted.

My uncle, Axel Campbell, was the first to send a voice message, his tone stern and condescending. "Did all your education go down the drain, Irene? That's your mother's house. It's in your mother's name, so she can give it to whoever she desires. What right do you have to demand 700 thousand dollars?"

My aunt, Anna Johnson, chimed in snidely, "Exactly. 700 thousand dollars? Who do you think you are, a bank? How does one pull that kind of number out of thin air?

"You've been living off your family, and now that you're jealous your brother gets the house, you come running to snatch your share of the family assets? With a vicious heart like yours, no wonder you're well into your 30s and still single!"

The rest of my relatives also jumped in to condemn me, calling me ungrateful and cold-blooded, accusing me of caring so much about money that I was willing to abandon my family.

It was obvious that Mom and Elio hadn't mentioned a single word about the down payment and mortgage payments I had covered for them. They had painted me as the venomous elder sister who was attempting to steal her family property and drive a pregnant woman to her death.

The nurse finished bandaging my hand. I looked at the thin streaks of blood seeping through the gauze on the back of my hand and swallowed the bitterness in my throat.

Without wasting a single breath to defend myself, I sent a message directly into the group. "From today onward, I, Irene Campbell, sever all ties with the Campbell family. We owe each other nothing through sickness or health, in life or in death."

Uncle Axel replied almost instantaneously. "You want to sever ties with us? I'm going to teach you a lesson on behalf of your late father, you ingrate!"

He wanted to teach me a lesson?

I dropped two high-resolution images into the group chat.

The first was the bank transfer statements and mortgage payment statements totaling 580 thousand dollars. The bright red bank seals were almost painful to look at.

The second image was a record of credit card cash advances alongside Venmo transfer screenshots.

I tagged Uncle Axel directly. "Uncle Axel, when your son couldn't afford the ceremony for his wedding last year, the 80 thousand dollars Elio lent you was cashed out from my credit cards.

"I'm still paying the bank interest on that debt to this day. Since you care so much about doing things by the book, when do you plan on paying me back that 80 thousand dollars on his behalf?"

Without missing a beat, I dropped the third transfer screenshot into the chat, tagging Aunt Anna directly. "When Maeve was short on cash to buy a car last year and borrowed 20 thousand dollars from me, she promised to pay it back in six months, yet I haven't seen a single cent to this day.

"Since everyone's here today, let's settle the score right here and now. If I don't see the money by tomorrow, it won't just be Mom and Elio. I'll see the rest of you in court, too!"

The family group chat, which had been flooded with self-righteous messages just moments ago, went dead silent. Not a single soul dared to utter another word.

I sneered and gave them no room to breathe. I sent them a reminder. "Elio, you have 68 hours left to transfer me 700 thousand dollars."