CHAPTER 367: RETURN HOME AFTER A LONG TIME
On Sunday, Chloe Malan stood at the shabby dirty neighborhood, feeling sad. She had also forgotten how long she hadn’t returned.
She didn’t want to return because she couldn’t find the reason to. A dead heart had no hope of being able to survive.
So, when she stood on the bottom ground and looked up, there wasn’t a slightest color of excitement in her squinted eyes. She didn’t think that family above could give her an unexpected surprise. As long as it didn’t scare her, she would thank the earth and the sky.
In the dark and cramped corridor, every step she took, she could smell the dust and something musty. The mottled and yellow walls recorded the age and disrepair of the house.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want her family to live better and more comfortable. But her family was too unconvincing. They were like a bottomless hole, like a vampire, they wouldn’t stop until she was squeezed dry, to such an extent as to she giving up on aided them financially.
The more she gave, the more they wanted. And this time, she didn’t know what tricks they played.
The iron door was rusty. She knocked three times then let out a deep breath. Sometimes, it wasn’t that she was heartless, but she was forced into helplessness. Since she was young until now, she felt like an outsider in the family. She even ever suspected whether her parents did give birth to her.
Mrs. Malan was quick to answer the door. Seeing she had come, it was like a stone fell to the ground. She smiled widely and beckoned her to quickly come inside. It was the same on that day when she kicked her out, then pretended to be pitiful on the street, very pleasing to the eyes.
“Chloe, so good that you return. I was afraid that you’re still mad at mom and dad and won’t come back. Your dad and sister-in-law have been busy in the kitchen all morning, making a lot of your
favorites.”
As she was talking, Mr. Malan and Zhi Wang, her sister-in-law, came out of the kitchen and called her affectionately. James Malan, who was sitting in the living room, also asked his son, who was watching TV, to call her aunt.
Everyone seemed to have changed. They were so friendly towards Chloe Malan that she couldn’t bear it. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to think the goodness in human nature, but it was because she knew her family too well. She was afraid that some scheme was waiting for her. Pleasant countenance were not their natures. She smelled something fishy.
“Zheng, why aren’t you calling auntie?” Zhi Wang scolded her son.
Chloe Malan didn’t look forward to be called auntie. This woman who she called sister-in-law had ever encouraged her son to scold her a bitch and bad luck. But because she and Bruce Lynn had divorced, they couldn’t find the slightest benefit from her and didn’t want to call her auntie.
But the child was still so young and innocent. While he had been raised by his parents in that way. She didn’t know what he would be like after he grew up.
Mrs. Malan served teas, “Sit down. What are you still doing there?”
In the past, before she was married to Bruce Lynn and after divorced with Bruce Lynn, she didn’t even get a glass of cold water whenever she came back home. Only during the period when she was married into the Lynn family, they flattered her in every possible way. But how could she not know that each word of flattery and concern was just to get more benefits from her.
Everyone said ‘poor all the parents in this world’. But since she was young until now, she had never known the word ‘warmth’ from this family. What was ‘family affection’? What was ‘protection’?
And this time, what they gave was still icy cold.
When she saw Bruce Lynn knocked on the door with a gift, everyone’s faces immediately shifted into flattering smiles. And she understood in an instant. A sneer appeared at the corner of her mouth.
“Bruce, look at you. You just need to come, no need to bring anything.” Mrs. Malan pretended to be polite as her hands had already received the gift. Her face was full with smile.
“It’s dad’s birthday today. It’s just a little gift. It’s nothing,” Bruce Lynn smiled, but his eyes stared deeply at Chloe Malan.
Chloe Malan felt annoyed and coldly snorted, “Mr. Lynn, it seems like you’ve forgotten. We’re divorced.”
She would have never expected that this man was getting more shameless. He was hitting a wall with her, so instead he turned to her greedy parents. He thought his roundabout tactics would work?
“This kid. You can remarry after you divorce,” Mrs. Malan shot her a glare.
Mr. Malan also helped out, “It’s inevitable for men to make mistakes. What’s important is he can come back. He doesn’t even say anything about you messing around with other men outside.”
Chloe Malan was depressed—she messed around. That’s her parents. In order to sell their daughter for glory, they even contradicted her character, not knowing how advantaging it was for him. She stood up from the couch, she said word by word, “Bruce Lynn, just give up. Even if I’m all alone forever, I will never go back to remarry with you.”
The atmosphere in the room froze in an instant, and everyone had different kinds of feeling embarrassed on their faces. Her words ended as she stood up.
Chloe Malan was sharp-eyed and deft-handed. Seeing she was about to leave, Mrs. Malan pulled her back, “This kid. Bruce had sincerely come to apologize to you. Why are you acting like this?”
“Should I be grateful?” Chloe Malan coldly chuckled.
“Food are all served and on the table. Let’s sit down first, then we talk.” Mrs. Malan became the mediator.
“There’s no need,” Chloe Malan coldly refused.
Bruce Lynn felt that sharp chilly gaze of hers, but the smile on his face didn’t diminish, “Chloe Malan, you’re still acting important. I admit, I was wrong to you in the past. But do you think you have a future with Aoba Hoyle?”
Zhi Wang agreed too with an ingratiating smile, “Yeah. What’s good about Aoba Hoyle? He only listens to his mother, and his mother won’t accept you…”
James Malam’s face changed a bit, secretly stretching out his hand and pinching his wife’s waist.
Knowing that Zhi Wang had made a mistake, she quickly shut up.
But they didn’t know that the small move had caught Chloe Malan’s eyes. She was a smart person. For no reason, how could her family know Aoba Hoyle? Even Aoba Hoyle’s mother.
“The old witch had met you,” Chloe Malan said without the slightest tone of suspicious. Her eyes swept through everyone in the room coldly. “What does she give you? Talk.”
Her shout shocked everyone in the room that they didn’t respond for a while. Chloe Malan stared at everyone’s dodging eyes, feeling upset.
Mrs. Malan chewed her bottom lip, “Chloe…”
“How much did she give?” Chloe Malan’s voice was so cold that all temperature was lost. She knew. She really couldn’t hope anything for this family.
Maybe it was the chill that radiated from her body stunned Mrs. Malan for a while. This woman, who had always believed that she could freely push around her daughter, inevitable felt guilty at this moment. She cowardly muttered the truth, “One million.”
“Haha,” Chloe Malan mock-laughed so furiously. She laughed miserably. One million—the value of her life’s happiness in her parents’ eyes. A fixed price and they sold her.
“Chloe Malan…” Bruce Lynn suddenly called her a little nervously.
Chloe Malan ignored him. She reached out her hand and said, “Give me.”
Of course she meant the one million. Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
It was just that the money you had put in your pocket couldn’t be easily spat out.
Zhi Wang was afraid that she would steal it, so she dragged her mother-in-law to behind her. “We have used that money to buy a new place. It’s not like you don’t know how dangerous this place is now. It’s dusty on sunny day and raining on summer. But, look at you. You earn money and live at other family’s place. But you didn’t care a bit or ask about your parents. Are there other daughters like you?”