Reborn as the Romance Heroine, I Only Aim for First Place Chapter 04

Reborn as the Romance Heroine, I Only Aim for First Place Chapter 04

That evening, I had barely stepped through the front door when my mother called out to me, clearly annoyed.

“I heard your teacher scolded Chelsea today because you didn’t do cleanup duty.”

I turned my head.

Chelsea was clinging to my mother with red-rimmed eyes, sobbing quietly.

“I know Tessa has never liked me. She thinks I stole something from her, but I never meant to.”

“I really don’t know what I did wrong for Tessa to treat me like this. If she hates me that much, I can leave.”

My mother’s gaze sharpened.

“It was one cleanup duty. Are you so important now that everyone else is beneath you? You act busier than the President.”

“Apologize to Chelsea. From now on, you’ll do her cleanup duties for her, and every day after school, you’ll come home and tutor her. If her grades don’t improve, that will be your fault.”

She was insane.

I was completely done with this moronic mother of mine, so I walked straight into my father’s study.

“Dad.”

My father was on a video call, listening to his assistant report his schedule. Hearing me, he looked up.

“Tessa? What’s wrong? Do you need more money, or is there something you want to buy?”

The original Tessa’s father was not as biased as her mother.

He was just a rough-around-the-edges businessman who poured all his energy into work and never noticed the quiet power games happening inside his own house.

I got straight to the point.

“Dad, do you know how much money Mom has spent on her side of the family over the years?”

My father’s expression shifted. Then he forced himself to sound casual.

“A little money doesn’t matter. They’re family.”

But his expression had already hardened.

Clearly, he knew my mother had been acting like her brother’s personal ATM.

I read out a list of expenses.

“The year before last, Mom spent half a million dollars helping her brother buy a luxury condo in a top school district. She said it was for Chelsea’s education.”

I kept reading aloud.

“Last year, she poured two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into a company that went nowhere, then gave him another half a million in startup money. At the beginning of this year, she transferred another four hundred and fifty thousand to him, claiming it was to pay off a loan.”

“In reality, my uncle got hooked on online gambling. All that money has been used to pay off his debts.”

My father’s face had gone thunder-dark.

He knew my mother had been supporting her side of the family, and he had looked the other way.

But he had not known she had given them this much.

I was not done.

“Also, Chelsea’s father, my wonderful uncle, was secretly given a procurement manager position at one of your subsidiaries by Mom last year. Dad, do you know how much he skimmed from the company this year?”

The study went so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“Almost a million dollars, and that’s just from six months.” I set my phone down. “He inflated purchase prices under the guise of procurement and took kickbacks. He switched suppliers three times. The finance department caught it last month, but Mom suppressed it. There are still two unreconciled holes sitting on the books.”

I smiled.

“Mom is still running around trying to scrape together money to clean up her precious brother’s messes, and she hasn’t dared tell you. Now they’ve even sent their daughter into our house and expect me to tutor her. They really are treating our family like you have no real heir and your estate is theirs for the taking.”

I knew all of this from the plot.

I shrugged.

“Mom obviously thinks her brother’s family matters more than the two of us. Dad, have you written a will? If something ever happens to you, there’s a good chance this entire business will end up in the Carter family’s hands.”

For an old-school, self-made patriarch like my father, that hit him right where it hurt.

“You’re making vicious accusations!” Panic flashed in my mother’s eyes as she pointed at me and started yelling. “What does a stupid little girl like you know?”

“Your uncle is helping your father run the company, and here you are trying to turn us against each other. Are you just dying to see this family fall apart?”

“Fall apart?” I laughed. “Seems to me you’re the one waiting for that. Once this family falls apart, everything can go to your brother fair and square.”

Chelsea shrieked, “Tessa, shut up! My dad never—”

“Enough!”

My father roared.

At last, he took a deep breath, and an ugly smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“They’re family. Spending some money is one thing. But the company is another matter.”

“Tomorrow, corporate audit will move into the subsidiary. Every dollar that needs to be returned had better come back.”

Then his gaze shifted and landed on my mother.

“Since her family has already bought a home in a good school district, Chelsea should go back and live with her own parents.”

My mother panicked. “Chelsea can’t go back. She—”

She stopped short.

Of course, she could not say that Chelsea’s father was a degenerate gambler who had buried himself in debt and was still waiting for her to bail him out, while Chelsea’s mother had another man on the side and was almost never home.

After all, in my mother’s version of the story, her family was respectable, well-mannered, and perfectly happy.

“If you’re worried there won’t be anyone to take care of your niece, then you can move out and take care of her yourself,” my father said coldly.

My mother froze. Then she collapsed onto the floor, wailing.

“Jim, are you out of your mind? You’re throwing us out over a few things your daughter said? I’ve been with you for twenty years—”

My father ignored her entirely and spoke to the housekeeper.

“Pack up their things and have everything sent out.”

Now my mother was truly terrified.

“Don’t be rash. I’ll have Chelsea move out, all right? Jim, I’ve been with you for more than twenty years. You can’t do this to me.”

Chelsea started crying too. She no longer dared to say any nonsense about leaving if Tessa was unhappy.

After all, this time, she really was about to leave.

Choking on her sobs, Chelsea tried to plead with my father.

“Uncle Jim, I just can’t bear to leave you and my aunt.”

I scoffed.

“You can’t bear to leave someone else’s parents, but you have no problem leaving your own.”

She fell silent. The way she looked at me made it seem like she wanted to lunge at me and tear me apart.

My father said flatly, “You’ve been away from home for a long time. Your parents must miss you. You should go home.”

Behind me, my mother and Chelsea were still crying.

The housekeeper was packing their things.

My father was on the phone, ordering the audit team to investigate my uncle’s embezzlement immediately.

The System sounded close to tears. “What is even happening? This whole thing is a hot mess!”

I could not have cared less.

“Then let’s dig in while it’s still hot.”

This time, the System really started crying.

“But according to the plot, your mother was supposed to empty out the family fortune before finally realizing that her brother and niece never cared about her at all. They were only using her.”

“Then she would start her family groveling redemption arc and try to make amends with you. You would forgive her with generous grace, and the three of you would go back to living happily together as a family.”

Fuck. Just listening to that annoyed me.

I snapped, “Shut up. If you keep whining, I’ll go kill both male leads.”

The System went silent instantly.