Four Ballots. Four Names. My Family Chose To Trade Me Away Chapter 03

Four Ballots. Four Names. My Family Chose To Trade Me Away Chapter 03

When I first came back to the Blakes three years ago, a strange internal mechanism—which I came to think of as a family endowment clause—had activated in my mind.

It told me I carried a unique genetic marker. I could channel biological energy into designated family members, but the cost would be my own vitality and lifespan.

Back then, the Blake family was falling apart.

Harrison’s investments had tanked, his company on the verge of bankruptcy. He spent days drunk in a dark room, screaming from the rooftop about jumping.

Celeste, who now constantly talked about having standards for life, was suffering from depression and premature aging.

She cried in front of the mirror every day, and in a fit of madness, she smashed everything in the house that could reflect her image.

Dorian had failed the GRE twice and was completely demoralized.

He locked himself in his room, refusing to eat or drink, and didn’t even dare to leave his room.

There was no trace of the elite businessman with gold-rimmed glasses and nonstop business jargon he would later become.

And Seraphina had been born with a naturally raspy, off-key voice. After a disastrous middle-school talent show, she was mocked by the whole student body and stopped speaking above a whisper.

I’d just come from foster care in the countryside, desperate for family, for belonging.

I wanted to pull them out of the mud. I wanted to earn my place.

So I didn’t hesitate. I made the transfer and siphoned a full decade of my biological viability into the family trust.

I gave fortune to Harrison. He recovered from the brink and became a celebrated entrepreneur.

I gave beauty to Celeste. Her wrinkles and spots vanished overnight, turning her into an ageless icon.

I gave intelligence to Dorian. From a repeated failure, he became the so-called genius everyone praised.

And then he turned around and mocked me for having no business sense.

I gave a voice to Seraphina. She gained a stunning singing talent and became a teenage star.

And then she complained that I, sitting in the audience, had a gloomy expression that ruined the mood.

They all got everything they wanted, and reached the peak of their lives.

And they turned around and called me a burden.

Three years of life force drained left me sickly, weak to cold, unable to speak loudly without gasping.

I couldn’t force cheerful smiles anymore. Even standing straight took effort.

They called me gloomy. A rat in the shadows. An embarrassment to their polished family.

I had become the only stain in their perfect picture.

Then the system’s cold voice echoed in my mind.

[Severe emotional betrayal detected. Unbind endowment transfer?]

[Upon unbinding, all transferred energy will be revoked and your consumed biological viability will be restored.]

[Target individuals will suffer severe karmic backlash. Please decide carefully.]

I lowered my gaze and hid the coldness in my eyes.

Since they despised me so much, since they wanted to trade me away, then what I gave, I would take back.

With interest.

Could they hold up their gilded lives without my years filling the cracks?

I answered silently.

[Unbind.]