Winner Takes All

Katherine returned home. Soaked from head to toes, she was so freaked.

As soon as she entered the house, her parents and her younger brother Tommy all stood up.

"You finally come back." Elissa growled, "Why did you get pissed off? We just arranged a blind date for you."

Katherine jerked slightly while staring at Elissa with shock, "Mum, do you know what happened?"

"I know. Tommy told me about that."

Elissa pointed at Tommy, but her next words finally made Katherine cried, "What if you're being touched? It's a blind date after all. You would have done us a great favor if you didn't end up like this tonight. If your blind date was a success, Tommy wouldn't have to worry about his bride price anymore."

"Mum, what did you take me as?" Katherine howled with tears in her eyes.

Kieran's face had darkened as he glared at Elissa, "What nonsense are you spouting in front of our children?"

"She's my daughter. Why can't I criticize her?" Elissa got sarcastic as she placed her hands on her waist, "Since she has ruined her blind date, what should we do about Tommy's bride price? Can't I criticize her since she couldn't even help her young brother?"

Elissa finally made Kieran speechless.

Katherine could felt that Ben had no idea what had happened in the restaurant. When she ran off at that time, Tommy probably only heard about another version of that scene from Ben.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

Frustrated, she was going to explain clearly to them what had happened.

"Katherine, do you help me or not?"

Tommy suddenly cried out loud, "I am your biological younger brother after all. If you don't help me, I won't be able to marry Shirley. My life will be meaningless. I would rather die!"

"If Tommy is dead, we don't wanna live anymore!" Elissa chipped in while breaking out into a wail of her own.

In an instant, the whole family was in a disaster.

As younger brother and mother were threatening to kill themselves, Katherine could only plopped down to the floor and cried out loud as she tugged her hair.

"Katherine, let me advice you. Since your mother and younger brother is in such a poor state, as a sister, you should endure somehow." Kieran began solemnly, "Although your blind date partner Ben is not you type, you shouldn't have run away after he has just touched you a little, am I right?"

"Dad..." Katherine felt extremely sad at the moment. 'Was that just a little? He basically treated me as a prostitute!'

She was well aware of the fact that her explanations would be useless no matter how hard she tried.

Suddenly, she recalled Jack's message, and she decided to give it the last shot. She began in a hoarse voice, "Dad, why don't you buy Tommy a house in West Shantytowns? The value will probably rise soon, and Tommy's bride price can be done!"

Kieran's face darkened.

Elissa immediately scolded, "Are you crazy? Buy a house in West Shantytowns? That is a shabby and countryside area fraught with alien workers. How can the price increase? There is no way in hell! I would be retarded if I decide to buy a house there!"

"Sister, are you crazy? West Shantytowns is such a messed-up residential area, Shirley would never agree to us buying a house there," Tommy quipped in, "We are real siblings bounded by real blood, so you shouldn't think of something that would harm me, right?"

Tears filmed Katherine's eyes. She was biting her lips so hard that they were almost going to bleed.

She knew well what kind of place West Shantytowns was. She was starting to doubt the authenticity of Jack's message.

However, this was her best solution at the moment. Since the housing price in West Shantytowns was relatively low, she could make up for Tommy's bride price with the rest money if she bought a house there. This was the best she could do at the moment. Other than that, what could she do?

Would she really have to sell herself?

"Enough! Shouldn't you guys stop your nonsense? You're creating a mess in our home!"

Kieran couldn't stand their antics anymore as he loudly reprimanded them, "If there's no other way now, we will come up with something later on."

"Then can you come up with something? You're just a teacher who can't fork out large sum of money at all for our Tommy's wedding. Or else, do you want your lineage to end at his generation?" Elissa retorted while giving him a push. Kieran's face was pale white upon hearing those words.

Kieran was a teacher who firmly believed that the greatest sin of a man was cutting off his future lineage. This was an act that was strongly against a person's belief of filial piety. If this happened to him, it would be more torturing than asking him to kill himself.

Kieran nervously caressed his hairs while giving himself a slap across his cheeks, "Then, I shall put down my pretense and borrow money from some old friends. I think I would be able to gather enough money for the bride price."

"Do you think that you don't need to return those money you're planning to borrow?" Elissa was screaming at him.

Katherine's face was very pale as she stared at her mother. Suddenly, she felt very dizzy for some reason.

Indeed, they would need to return anything they've borrowed.

However, did that mean her mother would rather let her sell her body instead?

...

Early next morning, Kieran went out to borrow money. He was very bothered with what had happened last night, but Elissa's words made him headache. He had no choice but to discard his dignity to borrow money from his friends.

Katherine didn't fall asleep all night and her eyes were swollen as she cried. But she still dragged herself to work as usual.

During the time she was married, she never acted like a housewife. She was able to secure herself an easy job like the front desk. She could make a measly three thousand yuan a month.

Jack would always take care of household expenses, so she only needed to care about herself.

However, things were different after she divorced Jack. This three thousand yuan was all she had to cover her expenses.

After last night, Katherine was still a little dazed. She sobbed slightly while taking out her phone to post a tweet: In the end, I took on everything myself.

Soon, she got many likes and encouraging comments, which made her less frustrated.

Jack saw her tweet and found her pathetic.

He put down his phone and continued working on the West Shantytowns renovation project. The news would be disclosed tonight, so he couldn't make any mistakes.

In the blink of an eye, it was already six in the evening.

People were watching TV news when it came to a short announcement.

"The YK Group has announced their plan to build a massive commercial plaza in the core of West Shantytowns in an effort to boost the local economy. We will keep close track of the following news."

A short news as it was, some stunning information was disclosed.

It was like a bomb that shattered the silence of the city.

The YK Group was the number one property developer in the country!

This move into West Shantytowns would made an increasing housing price of this area!

Following this breaking news, in the MJ Club, a terrifying shrill broke out.

"What the fuck? How come? How could this happen? Ah..."

And for the Parry family there was a similar reaction.

"Has something happened?" Katherine asked.

Elissa suddenly screamed, "The, the YK Group is going to build a plaza nearby the West Shantytowns... the housing price there is going to balloon!"

She was getting more and more agitated as she spoke, and her face was deadly pale.

Kieran was covering his face with his hands while letting out sighs after sighs.

If they had listened to Katherine last night, Kieran didn't need to belittle himself and borrow money all around. They would have bought a house in West Shantytowns.

All they could do was to sigh and regret.

Katherine suddenly felt like a headache.

She hurriedly took out her phone and read Jack's message again. Every single word was hammering down on her eyeballs.

'Jack was damn right!'