All Chapters of Sold To The Underworld By My Parents: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

Before the words had even faded, the bald kingpin, Drake Stone, whacked Hanks over the head with a rolled-up magazine."How many times do I gotta tell ya? No swearing in front of the kid!"Drake crouched down so that he could be eye-level with me.I could see the jagged scar running along his jawline, and my own reflection trapped inside his pupils."Kid, who taught you how to talk like that?"I shook my head, fighting down the cold wave of terror, and answered word by word. "I taught myself."He looked me up and down, his skeptical gaze sweeping over my painfully thin arms."Your folks beat you?"I shook my head.They didn't beat me. They just acted like I didn't exist.There was never a bowl set for me at the dinner table. My face wasn't in a single family photo. When I got sick, nobody cared.Once, I spiked a fever of 104 degrees and couldn't even crawl out of bed.My mother glanced at me once and snorted. "Stop faking. You're just trying to get out of chores."Then s

Chapter 2

Drake and his men were playing cards in the living room.Three of them hunched around a folding table, chainsmoking. A thick haze of gray smoke hung heavy in the air.I sat in the corner under the dim light, sorting through the boxes file by file.Mid-game, the youngest guy, Ash Lake, glanced over at me. "Come on, Drake. What can a kid possibly figure out?"Hanks nodded in agreement. "She's been sitting there for two hours without moving an inch."I didn't dare move.I knew what happened to abandoned kids.There was a boy two years older than me whose parents had vanished, leaving him to sleep beside a public dumpster. His eyes had gone completely hollow, like two empty holes in his face.Drake didn't say a word. He just slapped a card down on the table.The moment he finished his move, I laid the final file down."I'm done."Every head snapped in my direction.I walked over to the folding table. They automatically shifted to make space.The table was littered with cig

Chapter 3

Drake wasn't lying.The new apartment was right next to my school, just a ten-minute walk away.The entire balcony faced south. When the afternoon sun flooded through the glass, it made me squint.I stood out on the balcony for ten whole minutes.I just stood there, doing nothing, letting the sunlight bake into my skin.It wasn't until a tear slipped down my cheek and hit the back of my hand that I realized I was crying.I didn't know why. I just felt a fierce, burning ache deep inside my chest, desperate to break free.I cried for a little while, wiped my face, and walked back inside.A brand-new row of books sat neatly on the study desk. Ash had dropped them off the night before.Law textbooks, school workbooks, all lined up in a crisp, perfect row.I leaned down and sniffed the pages. They smelled amazing.When Drake pushed the door open carrying breakfast, I was sitting at the desk, completely lost in thought as I stared at the books.He glanced at me, said nothing, and

Chapter 4

A crowd had gathered in a circle. Their faces wore that familiar, quiet malice.The moment they saw me walking over, they scattered.I walked up, knelt down, and started gathering my ruined things off the floor.Someone had slashed a massive, violent red cross right across my report card, scrawling a single insult underneath.[Cheater.]I tried to smooth the paper flat against my palm, clutching it tightly to my chest.The red marker wouldn't fade.The ugly word wouldn't disappear.It didn't matter.I didn't need to care what they thought.The next morning, those same boys dumped black ink and a dead mouse inside my backpack.Everything was soaked and stained. The entire bag was ruined.I went to my homeroom teacher.She took one look at me and let out a heavy, patronizing sigh. "Leo's family is well-connected, and his father is a major donor. He's just a spirited boy."He didn't mean anything by it. I'll have a word with him."I walked back to the classroom and set th

Chapter 5

The entire hallway went dead silent.A teacher from the next classroom peeked her head out, took one look at the tattooed men, and immediately pulled her head back in.Drake stepped into the classroom. His heavy combat boots hit the linoleum with a dull, echoing thud.The homeroom teacher hurried over, looking flustered. "Who are you people? Look, I'm the homeroom teacher. If you have an issue, talk to me."Drake didn't even glance at her. His voice dripped with casual contempt. "Funny. I didn't see you rushing over to talk when people were bullying our advisor."He swept his gaze across the terrified classroom, his eyes finally landing on Leo.Pinned under the cold, predatory weight of that stare, Leo froze like he’d been nailed to the floorboards."You're the one?"Nobody answered. But Leo knew, deep in his gut, that the giant in front of him was here for him.Drake walked straight up to the podium, towering over the shaking boy."Is your name Leo?"Leo nodded, then fr

Chapter 6

That evening, Drake stopped by my apartment.He sat on the couch with an unlit cigarette tucked behind his ear.Ever since the day I'd coughed from his secondhand smoke, he stopped lighting up around me entirely.A row of new backpacks lined the coffee table in every color imaginable."Didn't know what shade you liked, so I grabbed the whole lot."Drake spoke casually, like dropping a small fortune on designer bags was no more complicated than buying a pack of gum."You guys really went to my school today?""Yeah."Seeing the questions piling up behind my eyes, he clicked his tongue."Counselor, you're a kid. Kids aren't supposed to carry that much weight."Just focus on your books. That's your only job."I didn't know what to do with that. A heavy wall of gratitude blocked my throat, refusing to go down.After a long stretch of silence, I managed to squeeze out five words."Thank you, Drake. Nobody ever protected me before."My parents never looked twice at me. Their who

Chapter 7

The grand freshman orientation hall was packed to the gills.I stepped up to the podium as the youngest incoming student in the history of the university to deliver the keynote address.Down in the front row, Drake, Ash, and Hanks sat in sharp, tailored suits.With their slicked-back hair and broad shoulders, they actually looked like high-end corporate elites.Somewhere in the back rows, my parents and Tiana had managed to track me down.They spotted me on stage and immediately started screaming, charging blindly down the aisle to rush the stage.Drake didn't even blink. He simply stuck out a heavy boot and tripped them mid-stride.Ash and Hanks swooped in instantly, tackling both of them to the carpet before they could take another step."Back off, trash," Ash snarled, pinning my father's arm behind his back. "Let's see who dares ruin our counselor's big day!"The moment I stepped off the stage, the first thing I saw was my family pinned under my crew."Sylvia! It's Mom!"

Chapter 8

The three of them looked like absolute wrecks, dressed in ragged, oversized clothes against the backdrop of a squalid, peeling apartment.My mother sobbed hysterically into the camera. "I poured my heart and soul into raising her, and now that she's a big-shot lawyer, she won't even look our way!“She sicced a gang of thugs on us! Is there no justice left in this world?"My father chimed in with heavy, dramatic sighs. "The kid's been cold-blooded since the day she was born. We gave her everything, and this is how she repays us. Cold stares and closed doors."Even my sister squeezed out fat, cinematic tears. "Sylvia, just because you made it to the university doesn't mean you can just throw your own family away!"A waterfall of chat comments raced across the screen. Some viewers expressed immediate, foaming outrage.[What kind of heartless monster abandons her own flesh and blood?][Living the high life while leaving your parents to rot? Disgusting.][Dox her! Ruin her l

Chapter 9

I flicked my phone screen dark and tossed it onto the table.Freya skipped into the office, her pigtails bouncing as she peered curiously at the glowing monitor."Sylvia, who are those people?" she asked, pointing a small finger at the screen. "Why are they saying mean things about you?"I reached out and gently ruffled her hair. "Just bad people.""That's right!" she declared, puffing out her cheeks. "They're mean bullies. Sylvia is the nicest person ever."I couldn't help the small smile that touched my lips. In the real world, the line between good and bad was rarely that clean-cut.Ash slammed his palm against the tabletop, his face flushed with righteous fury. "Counselor, the second those deadbeat parents of yours show their faces near you again, I'm dragging them out back."I offered a quiet, easy shrug, giving him a silent nod of thanks.As it turned out, my parents didn't dare show their faces again.It wasn't because a sudden wave of conscience hit them. It was be

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