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Lahat ng Kabanata ng My Slum Apartment Hides a Gold Mine: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

10 Kabanata

Chapter 1

I froze, staring at the wall between the living room and bedroom. I wondered if I had imagined that voice.Still, that wall did seem thicker than the others in the house.110 pounds of gold… At the current price of gold at 4,100 dollars per troy ounce, that was worth over six million dollars! My girlfriend, Julie Slade, nudged me. "Why are you spacing out? What's so interesting about this dump of an apartment?"When I came to my senses, Peter Locke, the real estate agent, was still standing there, smiling ingratiatingly at us. "Miss, the apartment might be a little run-down, but you really can't beat the location. This place is 0.31 miles away from the subway station. "The school district's pretty decent too. And the best part is, this apartment is affordable—"Julie cut him off immediately. "It's a 30-year-old shabby apartment that's only 538 square feet, and you're asking 800 thousand dollars for it? And you call that affordable?"Peter was visibly embarrassed.Julie gl

Chapter 2

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

Chapter 3

My heart lurched. The old voice chimed in too, clearly enjoying my predicament. "This bastard's pretty perceptive. Could he have figured out there's gold stashed in the walls?"I stepped forward, pointing at the old-fashioned carved wooden bed in the bedroom."I'll be honest with you. I'm interested in this bed since it's an antique." I acted like I knew what I was doing and patted the bed frame. "If it really is the real deal, it's worth more than the apartment itself."The corner of Owen's mouth twitched. "Buddy, are you certain?""The contract says I get everything inside the house, right? That means the bed is mine too. Don't even think about taking it from me."Owen's eyes flickered as he walked over to examine the bed. He reached out and ran his fingers across the carvings on the bed rail. His brows knitted as he looked at me again.I didn't give Owen another chance to pry and pushed him and Peter out the door. "Alright. I have to go. We'll handle the paperwork tomorrow

Chapter 4

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

Chapter 5

After I heard what the old voice said, a shiver ran down my spine. I was rooted to the spot. I sat alone amidst the broken bricks and plaster dust.Dad just had a heart attack, Mom was crying on the phone, and Julie said she wanted to abort our baby. And I was just sitting there like a fool, holding a metal detector and staring at a blank wall, thinking some great fortune had fallen into my lap. I raised my hand and slapped myself hard. Just then, I heard the familiar voice again."So freaking noisy! Why are you tearing the place apart in the middle of the night? Can't you let me get some sleep?"I was rooted to the spot."You were just swinging the sledgehammer at the wall. Don't you know you were smashing the wrong wall? You're so stupid!"I immediately looked up. I choked on the dust and coughed a couple of times. "Who's there? Who are you?""Who else? I'm the house itself. I haven't said a word about you smashing my walls, and now you want to know who I am?"My ent

Chapter 6

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…

Chapter 7

Julie said she wanted to abort our baby. Where could she be now? Which hospital did she go to? The women's and children's hospital? Or Kenton Hospital?As I stared at the screen, I suddenly recalled something. Julie and I had turned on our location-sharing so we could see each other's location.Back then, Julie insisted on doing that so she could always see where I was. That way, I wouldn't sneak off to an internet cafe to play games. I quickly checked her location, which showed that she was at the women's and children's hospital. I rushed out of the hospital and hailed a taxi. In the back seat, my legs shook so violently that I couldn't keep my feet on the floor.The taxi driver glanced at me several times through the rearview mirror. "Young man, are you okay?""Sir, could you please step on it? I need to get to the women's and children's hospital. My girlfriend's over there."When I got to the women's and children's hospital, I rushed inside and made my way to the front de

Chapter 8

"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

Chapter 9

By doing that, Barry thought he could protect his other daughter. He never knew that the daughter he had lost had been right by his side, lying beneath the bay window where he slept. Julie walked over to me and crouched beside me, reaching out to take my hand. Her hand was as cold as ice, but she held mine tightly. "Milo." Her voice was very soft but steady. "Call the police."I turned to look at her. "I know the gold is worth over six million dollars." Julie looked at me, her eyes still red, but she never broke eye contact. "But if we take the gold and pretend we saw nothing… If our child asks us one day how we made our first fortune, what would I even say? That I took the gold from right next to the body of a murdered female college student?"I felt a lump form in my throat.Julie sniffled. "Three million dollars is more than enough for us to buy an apartment, Milo. We don't need a very luxurious apartment. I'm not picky. We can't use money like this."I stared at Julie f

Chapter 10

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

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