Betrayed After Getting Rich Overnight Chapter 03

Betrayed After Getting Rich Overnight Chapter 03

Chapter 3 Transaction History

My clothes lay scattered across the floor where they’d been trampled repeatedly, but nobody seemed to care.

Then Felicia’s expression turned sharp. “You ungrateful little liar! You told me there was no settlement money. So where’d you get the cash for all this stuff?”

I actually had a 1.2 million dollar settlement, but I wasn’t about to tell them that.

Autumn suddenly piped up out of nowhere.

“Summer, did you win the lottery or something? I saw this person claim ten million on the news, and their build looked just like yours. Where else would you get that kind of cash?”

My stomach dropped. Even though I’d worn a full disguise when I claimed the prize, anyone who knew me well could recognize me just from my body shape alone.

Cold sweat broke out on my back. They absolutely could not find out I’d hit the jackpot.

“I saved this money myself,” I said.

Felicia got even more furious and slammed her hand on the table.

“Oh, so that’s how it is, Summer! All those years I raised you for nothing! You’ve got money and you won’t even help your own family! How can you be this selfish!”

She shot Autumn a knowing look, then jabbed her finger right in my face.

“You’ve got two choices right now. Either hand over that settlement money, or get the hell out! We don’t keep freeloaders under this roof!”

I thought back to that Twitter thread. The top comment had said exactly that. Hand over the settlement.

I let out a bitter laugh.

A freeloader.

I’d been supporting this entire family with my own hard-earned money, and somehow I was the freeloader eating for free.

Michael stepped in to play peacemaker.

“Look, since you already bought groceries and everything, just stay a few days. You can pitch in a bit extra for household expenses. Everything’s so expensive these days anyway, and you can’t expect to eat for free.”

They shoved me into the storage room, and I sat down on the dusty folding bed, listening to Felicia spin her lies to the relatives.

The whole situation felt surreal.

This was my house, the one I’d bought with my own money, but Felicia claimed that since I only came home a few times a year, I should stay in this tiny storage closet that was barely four square meters. And apparently I needed to pay them for groceries and utilities too.

Every year before this, things had been fine between us. But this year, the second I got laid off and lost my income, they completely turned on me.

So what was I to them? What did all those years of support even mean? Was I just some ATM they could drain dry whenever they felt like it?

“I pulled up my banking app and stared at the balance. One point two million in severance pay, plus eight million in after-tax bonuses. Nine point one two million total.

”

Thank god I’d decided to come home and tell them the news in person. At least now I could see them for who they really were.

Just so the relatives could gang up on me properly, Felicia added me back to the family group chat.

Within minutes, everyone started tearing into me. They all told me to stop being such a mooch, get off my lazy ass, and find a job instead of bleeding my parents dry.

Outside the door, I could hear Autumn and Felicia whispering. Felicia sounded uncertain. “Autumn, you really think pressuring her like this is gonna work?”

Autumn’s voice was smug and confident. “Mom, relax. You know how Summer is, right? We push her a little and she’ll hand over all her money like a good girl. Plus she’ll go find a job real quick.”

She kept going. “We’re doing this for her own good anyway. She’s a woman with cash sitting in her account. Some guy’s gonna scam her eventually. And she knows Timothy’s tuition is due after Christmas. The fact that she’s holding out on us? That’s just spiteful.”

That set Felicia off completely.

“That ungrateful little bitch! She’s doing this on purpose! She doesn’t want what’s best for my grandson!”

My chest tightened like someone was squeezing my heart in their fist.

I opened my banking app and started scrolling through eight years of transaction history.

I’d worked my ass off for eight years, and with overtime and bonuses, I’d pulled in about 2.4 million total.

Five years ago, I bought this house. Right after Autumn’s divorce, she moved back home and Felicia insisted I start sending money every month.

Twenty thousand a month for five years added up to 1.2 million.

Then there were the holiday gifts, clothes for Felicia and Michael, random presents, Timothy’s school tuition, all of that came to another 400 thousand dollars.

The down payment on the house was 500 thousand dollars.

I’d spent 2.1 million dollars on my family.

Meanwhile, I lived on about three grand a month for myself.

My savings account balance sat at a big fat zero.

God, it was pathetic.

I spent the entire night putting it all together. Every transaction, every receipt, including the 78 grand I’d just dropped on their Christmas presents. Then I posted everything to the family group chat.

The next morning, Felicia came barreling into my room and yanked me straight out of bed onto the floor.

She stood over me, jabbing her finger in my face. “Summer, what the hell was that? You posted all that crap to embarrass me in front of the whole family?”

She yelled, “How can you be so vicious? It’s Christmas and you’re trying to tear this family apart!”

I picked myself up off the floor and got dressed. “I just wanted everyone to know I’m not some freeloader. I’m not a parasite. I’m not living off you guys.”