Chapter 2

Hearing this, I felt so disgusted that I wanted to throw up. I stood up and said, "You guys keep up the act. I'm done playing along."

With that, I walked to the living room and grabbed my two suitcases to leave.

Just then, Eleanor ran over and shoved a bank card into my hand. "Charlotte, there's ten thousand dollars in here. I worked part-time jobs and saved it up over a whole year. Take it, you have to take care of yourself."

Looking at the bank card in my hand, I smirked and tossed it precisely into the trash can.

Aiden jumped to his feet. "Charlotte! Are you crazy! Eleanor was kind enough to give you money, and you just threw it away! What, ten thousand dollars isn't good enough for you now? Your birth parents in that backwater probably don't even make ten thousand dollars a year!"

I lifted my eyelids slightly. "Didn't she just say she was giving me this money? Since she gave it to me, I can do whatever I want with it."

With that, I headed straight for the door.

Victoria dropped the act and started cursing. "Give her an inch, and she takes a mile! We raised you for eighteen years! Fed you well, gave you everything! And this is what you turned into!"

Hearing this, I stopped, turned around expressionlessly, and said, "You can mess around with your food, but not with your words. Before I turned sixteen, you were just selling fish at the seafood market, giving me a few hundred dollars a month for spending money, and I had to work part-time jobs myself. It wasn't until the land back in the countryside got bought out and you got a few million dollars that you opened the seafood company and made it big. That was less than two years ago - have you forgotten your roots already?"

As I finished speaking and opened the door to leave, Aiden grabbed a plate and hurled it at me. By sheer bad luck, it hit a middle-aged man who was just about to knock on the door.

Instantly, the man's head split open, blood flowing down between his fingers.

Everyone inside was shocked.

I dropped my suitcase and rushed to check on the man's injury. "Are you okay!"

Aiden was terrified, Victoria covered her mouth in fright, and Eleanor quickly hid behind Aiden.

The middle-aged man looked up and said urgently, "Do you have tissues?"

"Yes, yes! Bianca!"

Bianca hurried over with a roll of toilet paper and handed it to me. The moment she did, she seemed to realize something, her face instantly darkened, and she muttered as she walked away.

I helped the man wipe the wound on his forehead. Aiden walked over nervously. "How is it? Is he okay? Who are you?"

After wiping away the blood, I found the man's wound wasn't very deep, so I said to Aiden with a stern face, "Get some gauze to bandage it!"

"Right! Right, right, Bianca, bring the first aid kit!"

In the living room, I applied some blood-stopping medicine on cotton and taped it to his wound, finally relaxing.

The middle-aged man looked around at everyone present, his tone unfriendly. "I'm here to take Charlotte home. Were you all bullying her just now?"

Aiden and the others exchanged glances. Victoria didn't take it seriously at all, crossing her arms and leaning against the sofa. "What do you mean by bullying? She's our daughter, whom we raised for 18 years. What's wrong with disciplining her when she doesn't listen? And what, are you trying to scam us for money?"

That's when I noticed the man's appearance. He wasn't tall, his light gray suit was badly stained, his hair was messy, and his shoes were scuffed - he looked completely disheveled.

"Mom, don't be like that. I think this is probably Charlotte's family's best outfit. We shouldn't look down on them."

Thinking this man was my father, I said directly, "If you hurt someone, you should pay. Otherwise, we'll call the police."

At these words, everyone was stunned. Aiden was so angry that his teeth were clenched, and Victoria's face darkened.

"Charlotte, are you already trying to scam us?"

"Then let's call the police." I pulled out my phone.

Aiden quickly stopped me. "How much do you want!"

"A hundred thousand dollars."

"What? A hundred thousand! For a few inches of cut on his head, a hundred thousand?"

I smirked and sneered, "Didn't you keep saying you're a wealthy family? What's the matter? For a wealthy family, isn't spending a hundred thousand dollars as easy as spending ten dollars? Looks like you don't have money after all. Never mind then."

Aiden felt his whole face burning. He gritted his teeth. "Who says we don't? A hundred thousand dollars is nothing. I'll give it to you, consider it charity for beggars."

He gestured to Victoria, who reluctantly went upstairs to get the money.

A few minutes later, Victoria came down and threw a bank card at me. "Exactly a hundred thousand dollars."

I handed the card to the man, then said, "Let's go."

I headed straight for the door, and the man followed closely behind. Outside, the man called out to me, "Your father asked me to give some money to your adoptive parents to repay them for raising you. This hundred thousand dollars - should I give it back?"

Just then, Aiden and the other two came out. The middle-aged man pulled out a bank card from his pocket and handed it to them.

"Everyone, this is money from Charlotte's father to repay you for raising our family's heir all these years."

At this, Eleanor burst out laughing. "What? Heir? A family from some backwater village deserves such a grand title?"

Victoria smiled without warmth. "Alright, alright, we don't want this little bit of money. A bank card probably only has a few thousand dollars anyway. You keep it - after all, you still have four younger brothers to support."

The middle-aged man looked puzzled and turned to look at me. I said directly, "If they don't want it, forget it. Let's go."

Since I had said so, the man had no choice but to take my suitcase and follow me.

Aiden snorted coldly and went back inside, with Victoria and Eleanor following.

"Charlotte, have they been bullying you all along? I should report this to your parents. How can we let you suffer like this?"

I shook my head. "No need, we're not related anymore anyway."

"Your adoptive parents don't seem like a wealthy family either. They actually looked down on a billion dollars?"

At this, my eyes widened in shock, my mouth hanging open. "You... how much did you say? A billion dollars?"

"Yes, your parents offered a billion dollars to repay your adoptive parents, and they actually looked down on it."

I looked incredulous. "My family is from a poor backwater village - how could they possibly have a billion dollars? Are you sure you're here to pick me up? You didn't escape from some mental hospital, did you?"

Although I knew it was rude to say this, I needed to make sure.

The man cleared his throat, pulled a business card holder from his pocket, extracted a card, and handed it to me.

"I forgot to introduce myself. My lady, my name is James Smith. I'm your family's butler."

Butler?

My family has a butler?

Isn't it supposed to be a poor backwater village?

I asked again, "Isn't my family from a poor village? Don't I have four younger brothers?"