“You‘re making it look like I owe you money! Now you‘re even asking me to lend you some more?” Lila was completely dumbfounded.
“You‘ve taken all my money. I have nothing left. Go to someone else!” She was telling the truth. She didn‘t have a penny to her name.
“I don‘t believe you!” Jeff shot back. He raised his head and shouted at Eva, who was in her room, “Mom, Lila claims to have no money! She just wants us to be killed by the debt collectors!”
Hearing this, Eva and Glenn rushed out of the room at once.
“You told her?” Eva hissed through gritted teeth. Then, she put on a flattering smile and turned to Lila.
“Could you just lend Jeff some money? We‘re all family anyway, right? You can‘t possibly just watch your brother suffer.”
These people were driving Lila nuts. She shouted hysterically, “But I really have no money!”
Eva paused for a few seconds and then said, “Ask the Whites for some money then. We have to deal with the debt collectors.”
“Why should I help him? He‘s the one in debt, not me!” Lila sneered.
Eva was obviously partial to her son. Eva frowned unhappily. She clicked her tongue and said, “What‘re you talking about? We‘re a family. We share everything, including our troubles.”
They shared troubles? It was obvious that Lila alone had shouldered all the troubles. “I can‘t go to the Whites. I‘ve cut ties with them.
” Lila felt too ashamed to go to her former family.
“If Jeff can‘t pay off his debt, the debt collectors will never leave us alone! Our lives are in your hands now, Lila! You have to fix this!” Eva was done playing nice with Lila.
“You… You—!” Lila was speechless. These people were crazy!
*******
In the end, Lila had no choice but to come crawling back to the White family.
After explaining her plight to Johanna and Beal, they gave her three million for the sake of their history. Lila returned home and begrudgingly handed the check to Jeff.
“This is the last time I‘m helping you!” Jeff took the check and thanked her with a smile. But things didn‘t end there. Not long after Jeff left with the money, he returned home without a penny left. He knelt down in front of Lila and burst into tears.
Worse yet, he had never paid off his so–called debt. Every day, the creditors would come to threaten them, splashing red paint on their door and walls. Eva couldn‘t fight them, so she had no choice but to force Lila to ask the Whites for money again.
“Lila! Aren‘t you going to do something about this?” Holding the gas can, Eva pulled Jeff and Glenn close to her and said pitifully,
“The three of us will die here today, lest you help us!”
They were threatening her with their lives.
“Stop it. I‘ll go to the Whites, okay?” Lila was already a little numb from all this lunacy. She had been living with the Gillian family for less than two months and she was already on the verge of losing it.
“Lila, why have you keep coming back to us for money? Every single time, you would say it‘s the last. What do you take us for?
Your personal ATM machine?” Livid, Johanna smashed a teacup at her feet and roared, “Get out! We won‘t give you a single penny!”
Lila bit her lip so hard that it bled. She had never seen Johanna so angry before. Clearly, she was sick and tired of her. She ran out of the house crying. Jeff had been waiting for her at the gate of the Whites‘ house. When he saw her come out, he approached her excitedly.
“Give me the money first!” Lila glared at him and yelled, “What money? There is no money! The Whites refused to give me a penny. Figure something out yourself! If you dare to force me again, then let‘s just die together!”
Jeff had been living in luxury these days and refused to go back to his old poor life. Seeing that Lila didn‘t get any money, he came up with a bold idea.
“You have a sister named Natalie, right?” He thought since it was so easy to control Lila, it wouldn‘t be hard to control her sister.
“Let‘s find a way to get nude photos of her. We can blackmail her with the lewd photos until she gives us money. What do you think?” Without Lila, there was no way Jeff could get in touch with Natalie.
Therefore, he had no choice but to include this stupid woman in his plans. The anger in Lila‘s eyes dimmed somewhat. She looked around to see if there was anyone else listening and then said in a low voice, “What do you want me to do?”
Jeff was a little taken aback. He had thought that he would have to force her to do what he said. He didn‘t expect that she‘d agree so readily.
These days, the Gillian family was a nightmare to Lila. Every morning she woke up, she‘d pray that Jeff wouldn‘t come asking for money again. Eva and Glenn kept threatening her with suicide every day, which took a toll on her mental health. She was on the verge of breaking down. She didn‘t want to deal with these psychos anymore. She had never met lunatics like the Gillian family in her life.
And she never would‘ve met them if it weren‘t for Natalie. Natalie was the cause of all her suffering. Her misery and misfortune were all caused by her! So when Jeff proposed that they blackmail Natalie, she agreed without hesitation.
How come Natalie got to enjoy the perfect life of being the daughter of the White family while she had to endure such a misery with the Gillian family?
“Well? What do you have in mind?” Lila was in no mood to waste time. She just wanted Jeff to target Natalie instead of her. Jeff didn‘t expect that she would be so excited about this. When he got over his initial surprise, he chuckled and said, “You have to ask her out. I‘ll ask someone to take care of the rest.”
Without hesitation, Lila took out her phone and called Natalie. However, the call never connected
“What happened? Why isn‘t she answering your calls?” Jeff‘s smug smile instantly disappeared. Lila grew anxious, too. She had tried to hurt Natalie several times now. It made sense that Natalie was on guard against her.
“Let me try one more time.” Lila kept dialing Natalie‘s number. She didn‘t get through to Natalie until the tenth try.
“What do you want?” Natalie asked coldly.
All of a sudden, Lila burst into tears. “Natalie, finally! You answered my call. I just wanted to apologize for everything I’ve done. It wasn‘t until I joined the Gillian family that I realized how nice you were to me.”
“Oh,” Natalie said emotionlessly.
“Anything else?”
“No, no… But I‘d like to apologize to you in person. How about we have a meal together? I‘ve done so many terrible things but I never apologized properly to you. I have to do it in person, or else I‘ll never forgive myself!” Lila spoke as sincerely as she could.
Natalie fell silent.
This wasn‘t her first rodeo with Lila. She doubted Lila had pure intentions. Just as she was about to refuse, Sebastian covered the phone. She looked at him in confusion. He whispered in her ear, “Agree to meet her. I want to see what trick she‘s playing.”
Sebastian‘s eyes were cold as ice. He had no sympathy for Lila. In his eyes, she was nothing but trouble. He could seize this as an opportunity to get her out of the picture permanently. Natalie nodded. Then, she sighed into the phone with flourish, pretending to be helpless.
“Fine. We were once a family, so we should talk this out.” Lila grew excited. She paused for a few seconds and replied,
“Okay. Let‘s meet up at the steakhouse at Glorie Street tomorrow at 10.”
The following day, Natalie arrived at the steakhouse on time. Before she got off the car, Sebastian cupped her cheeks and kissed her.
“Act natural. If anything suspicious happens, text me. I‘ve stationed my men here, so you‘ll be safe.”
Natalie was left breathless from the deep kiss. She pinched Sebastian‘s cheek and smiled shyly
“I‘m not a child anymore. I can handle this. I‘ll get going now, okay?” Glorie Street was an old and remote block. There was only one restaurant here—the steakhouse Lila mentioned. It wasn‘t a particularly clean restaurant. There were all sorts of bugs and flies all over the place.
In the restaurant sat a group of tough–looking men with tattoos covering their arms. With toothpicks in their mouths, they looked just like a bunch of hooligans.
As soon as Natalie stepped foot inside the steakhouse, they all turned to look at her with eager eyes. Lila stood up and waved at her from the table near the door.
