Mom, Where Did My $800,000 Go? のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 1 - チャプター 10

“I don’t have any money.”I thought I had misheard her.For a moment, I even wondered if several sleepless nights had made me hallucinate.“Mom, what did you say? The $800,000 I earned over the past three years is all with you—”Beep. Beep. Beep.She hung up.I stared blankly for two seconds before calling her again.This time, an automated message said the phone was switched off.I stared at the black screen of my phone while the last echoes of the fire alarms from the nearby business park faded away.My mind went completely blank.The $800,000 was all gone?I stared at the black screen for three seconds.Then I pressed redial.The automated message informed me that the number I had dialed was switched off.The mechanical female voice came through the receiver.Once.Twice.I called five times in total, but the same message played every time.My mother had actually hung up on the phone call that could save my life, then switched off her phone.That was impossible.She kept $800,000 of

The train rattled along for two and a half hours before finally pulling to a stop.I dragged my suitcase out of the station, hailed a rideshare, and headed toward the countryside.It was late autumn, and the fields along the road shimmered like waves of gold. I had helped harvest them when I was a child.Back then, my mother always told me that once I became successful, she would manage my money and never let me suffer a loss.Now, the memory only left a heavy ache in my chest.Twenty minutes later, the car stopped outside my family home.I took out my key and tried to insert it into the lock, only to find that it would not fit.The lock had been replaced with a keypad at some point, and I did not even know the code.I pressed the doorbell three times. A long while passed.The door opened a crack, and my father peeked out.The cigarette in his hand nearly fell to the ground when he saw me, and his smile froze.“Larry, you’re back? Why didn’t you tell us you were coming?”He stepped asi

The next stack contained the shipping depot’s bills, the lease, renovation receipts, an invoice for a small delivery van, and employee payroll records.I once asked my younger brother, Ryan Watson, whether he had enough money to open the depot. He said he had saved some and borrowed the rest from friends.It turned out he had not spent a cent of his own money. Every dollar came from me.I added up the receipts one by one. The total came to $140,000, exactly what he had invested in the shipping depot.It closed after only six months. Ryan then turned around and complained that he was drowning in debt, so I transferred another $4,000 to help him.The whole thing felt like a cruel joke.I looked up at my mother. Anger surged through me again, and my temples throbbed.“Was this $140,000 used to help Ryan open the shipping depot?”She nodded, still sounding protective of her youngest son.“Your brother is young. He didn’t want to work for someone else and put up with being mistreated. He wa

Last year, Dad broke his leg and was hospitalized. I transferred $10,000 to Mom for his medical expenses, but she immediately transferred it back into this account.I stared at my phone screen, and the heaviness that had been weighing on my chest suddenly vanished.“Then… when I called you that day and asked for $60,000 to compensate the customer, why did you say you had no money?”My mother’s eyes immediately reddened.“I was asleep at the time. You called around two in the morning, and I was completely disoriented.“I heard how badly your voice was shaking. You said you had to pay $60,000 or you would be sued and sent to prison. My heart just seized up.“I even dropped the fan I was holding. I wanted to tell you about the properties, but I was afraid you would panic and sell them off to an agent for far below market value.“Someone in the same neighborhood needed money recently and sold a 1,290-square-foot rental house for only $640,000. That was nearly $400,000 below its market valu

“What if she has other plans for the properties? Besides, keeping them and collecting rent is too good to pass up.”I suddenly realized that my mother might actually be very reliable when it came to managing money.That same day, I finished replacing the warehouse’s fire-safety equipment.I sat on the steps outside the convenience store beneath my office and called my mother.I told her I planned to sell one of the properties and use the proceeds to repay Tom the money that had saved me.She agreed without hesitation.She said I should sell the loft apartment in Harbor City’s western district because it had the best location.A real estate agent had already asked about it three times, and someone just offered $840,000.I contacted the agent my mother used when she handled the paperwork and asked her to list the apartment.The buyer happened to be another e-commerce seller who previously inquired about purchasing inventory from me.He knew I was Larry Watson and accepted the asking pric