บททั้งหมดของ I Took Back The Million Dollars: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 9

Chapter 1 The Homecoming That Wasn't

After years of making my own way in the world, I had finally earned enough to return home with my head held high.On Christmas Eve, I drove home with a carload of holiday gifts and fancy goods.I had imagined so many different versions of our reunion. Maybe my mother would rush outside, wiping her hands on her apron. Maybe my father would glance at my new car and show the faintest hint of pride. However, when I pulled up outside the house, no one was waiting for me.I struggled to carry everything inside. The television was turned up loud enough to fill the room, accompanied by the sharp crack of peanut shells being split open. My father sat in the centre of the sofa with a cigarette between his fingers and a relaxed smile on his face. My mother was holding out a neatly arranged fruit platter to my cousin, Mack Lester, her expression overflowing with affection.The moment they heard me enter, the laughter stopped. Three pairs of eyes turned toward me in unison. There was no delig

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Chapter 2 The Son They Never Wanted

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 i

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Chapter 3 The Son Who Was Cast Aside

My mother did not look at me. She kept her head lowered, endlessly rubbing the corner of her apron between her fingers. "Clyde, don't take it the wrong way. Your father and I had no choice. Having Mackie adopted into our family was the only way to keep up appearances and protect the family's standing."You're away from home most of the year, and the family homestead can only be kept in the family if Mackie is adopted into it. But you're still his older brother. If Mackie ever runs into trouble, you need to help him out."I was so furious that I actually laughed.My own mother not only refused to stand up for me, but she was also asking me to keep footing the bill for the person who had replaced me.Aunt Debbie pulled out a wrinkled handkerchief and hypocritically dabbed at nonexistent tears. "Honestly, I can't bear to give up Mackie either. He's my own flesh and blood, after all. As the older sister, I can only make this painful sacrifice for my brother's family and lineage."At t

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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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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

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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

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Chapter 7 Karma Comes Knocking

Mack cowered in my mother's arms, trembling so violently that he could not get a single word out.The bald man let out a cold laugh and pointed around the house. "Smash everything! Take anything that's worth money!"The house descended into chaos in an instant. My father was shoved to the floor, my mother screamed and wailed hysterically, and Mack cowered in a corner, trying to make himself as small as possible.Meanwhile, I stood to the side and watched it all with cold indifference. To my surprise, I did not feel a thing.This was karma.…About ten minutes later, after realizing there was barely anything left to squeeze out of the house, the bald man spat out one final threat. "Today was just a warning! If I don't see the money in three days, I'll take one of this kid's legs!"With that, he turned and swaggered out with his men.Silence descended over the house.Amid the shattered debris covering the floor, my father shakily pulled himself up. He raised his hand and moved t

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Chapter 8 Three Days Later

After that, I blocked every way my family could contact me and changed the locks on my apartment. I even took my annual leave from work and booked myself a luxury vacation package, planning to spend some time by the sea and clear my head.But just as I was dragging my suitcase toward the door to leave for the airport, my parents, looking like a pair of beggars, blocked my path. Only three days had passed since I had last seen them, yet they looked as though they had aged a decade.My father's back, once straight, was now badly hunched, and more than half his formerly black hair had turned gray. My mother was still wearing the new padded coat she had been saving for the holidays, but it was now covered in mud and reeked of something sour and foul. Her hair was a tangled, unkempt mess, sticking out in every direction.The moment they saw me, their cloudy eyes lit up with the desperate hunger of wolves spotting prey."Clyde! Clyde, save us!" My mother dropped to her knees in front o

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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

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