After being discharged from the hospital, with my arm in a sling and wrapped in bandages, I brought three bodyguards and went daily to the hangout of the underlings to have tea. They cried and begged:
“Haven’t I already knelt and apologized to you?”
“I finally found a job, and if I lose it again, how will I make a living?”
I smiled faintly:
“Did I ever say I would forgive you?”
“The fact that you can’t survive make a living is exactly what I want.”
As expected, after offending our family, the underlings were kicked out of myhomes and barely managed to find jobs to make ends meet, which I then made themlost everything
“Not only will I make sure you can’t live, but I’ll also take revenge on you. letting your families suffer too!”
The underlings collapsed to the ground in fear, crying loudly.
“Why are you crying? Shouldn’t you be grateful to me?”
In the following days, I wore jewelry that I personally designed and visited many of my mother’s business partners and their husbands. The companies owned by the underlings’ families went bankrupt overnight for various reasons. Their homes were thrown into chaos. The children of these families were laughed at by others. The impoverished families also vented their anger on the underlings.
When I visited the underlings again, some were disabled and unable to take care of themselves. One even died mysteriously. As for Theron, my mother said she fled back home with no income and was beaten by her family. Hasan had thought that if he couldn’t have my mother, his son could replace him in winning her favor, but this years of grooming his son in my mother’s preferences – to know my mother’s preferences and getting plastic surgery to look like my father – all of these efforts have been in vain. He beat Theron daily, venting all his dissatisfaction and despair on him.
Hasan’s brother, influenced by strangers, suddenly developed bad habits and owed a lot of money. He planned to sell Theron to pay off the debt. When Theron tried to escape but was caught, Hasan’s brother beat him half to death. Neither Hasan nor his brother wanted to spend money on Theron’s treatment, so they threw him into the mountains where he was mauled and eaten by wild dogs. When the police found him, what he left was only bones.
Later, Hasan’s brother went to prison while Hasan narrowly escaped punishment. Unfortunately, Hasan also developed a drug addiction under his brother’s influence but had no one to sell for money He had five fingers cut off by a casino and now sells himself in the slums to those with peculiar tastes.
Sometimes living is worse than dying…
“Karolyn, your father can finally rest in peace,” my mother said with a heavy sigh and gave me a knowing smile as if years of suppressed guilt had finally dissipated.
I held my mother’s hand:
“Mom, I’m planning to return home. I want to stay by your side and take care of you on behalf of Dad.”
My mother squeezed my hand tightly and patted it firmly:
“That’s good”