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440words
I aimed my phone at her.“Try it.One hit,and I’m calling the police!”
Uncle,usually silent,pulled her back.
He sighed.“Zoe,no one wanted this.It’s my fault—I was too busy to notice your aunt and cousin bullying you.I’ve scolded them.They won’t do it again.”
I replied coolly,“One play the good cop - bad cop routine.You and Auntie work well together.If I hadn’t heard you call me a wretch who bullies your daughter and should’ve died with my parents,I might still think you’re a nice uncle.”
Uncle,used to playing the gentleman,froze,embarrassed.
Auntie had no such hesitation.
She pounded my door,wailing,“Everyone,judge this!This wretch was orphaned at four,and my husband and I raised her like our own,giving her everything.But she’s scheming!”
“She’s bullied my daughter since childhood and now got her sent to prison.I raised an ungrateful snake!I failed my daughter!”
My building had four apartments per floor.
Her commotion drew a crowd from my floor and beyond.
“She’s awful!”
“Her uncle and aunt got the worst luck meeting her!”
“Disgraceful!”
Whenever I defied them,they used their“kindness”to guilt me,and onlookers always cursed me.
I clenched my fists,asking Auntie,“What do you want?”
She stopped crying.“Give us$30,000—”
Uncle cut in.“$50,000,as compensation for Lily.We’ll let your bullying of Lily go unpunished,and we’ll stay family.”
I’d always paid them before. I felt indebted for their so - called “care”, even though they neglected me.
But now,I sneered,“$50,000?You’ve got some nerve.Lily stole Grandma’s surgery money,tried to frame me,and failed.What’s that got to do with me?”
“As for raising me?You don’t get to say that!”
“The house and car were mine.You took the$200,000 from my parents’death settlement.Yet you made me wear Auntie’s hand-me-downs,fed me broth and bread,forced me to get financial aid for high school due to hardship,and made me work through college.You call that raising me?”
I learned this before I died last life—Grandma helped them hide it.
The crowd erupted.
“Shameless!”
“They’re leeches!”
“They didn’t raise her—she supported them with her inheritance!”
“Making her pay?That’s bullying!”
Uncle and Auntie hadn’t expected me to know.
Exposed and shamed,they flushed,trying to flee.
The crowd blocked them.
Amid the chaos,Lucas’s voice boomed through the hall:
“Anyone touches Zoe,I’ll sue you to oblivion!”
Half an hour later,Lucas sat in my living room.
“Why’d you charge in like that?”I asked,handing him tea.
He huffed,“I was worried!I saw the mob at your door on the monitor,all riled up.Scared me to death!”
He’d installed a camera at my door,setting the cloud account himself,fearing retaliation.
I sipped tea,curious.“If they really attacked me,you’d rush in?Not scared of getting beat up?”
He glared.“Let my crush get hurt while I hide?What kind of man does that?”
