My Family Called Me a Freeloader, So I Took Every Client Away Chapter 08

My Family Called Me a Freeloader, So I Took Every Client Away Chapter 08

After his expulsion, Tyler spent three days in bed without eating or drinking. Daniel was beside

himself.

On the fourth day, Tyler sat bolt upright, his eyes shining with alarming intensity. “Dad, I’m starting a business.”

Daniel stared. “What kind of business?”

“A classmate’s dad sells products on livestreams and makes tens of thousands a month. I know the internet better than he does. I can do it. Give me $14,000 to start, and I’ll earn it back in six

months.”

Daniel didn’t have any money left. His factory had stopped production, he still owed his

workers, and he’d sold his house to pay debts. His pockets were empty.

Tyler didn’t care. He made a scene every day, broke things, and called his father a failure.

Claire couldn’t stand it and handed over her last $2,800 in personal savings.

Megan contributed $700. Brooke took half the money she’d set aside for her market stall.

Tyler borrowed another $4,200 from a classmate. With a little over $7,000 in all, he rented a tiny office, bought two phones and a ring light, and started selling products on livestreams.

He sold anything he could find. Socks one day, snacks the next, then laundry detergent.

He was always alone on camera, shouting himself hoarse. His audience never topped twenty

people.

After a month, he’d sold less than $420 worth of goods, and half the orders were returned.

When his classmate demanded repayment, Tyler sold Daniel’s old phone and stole his mother’s gold necklace to pawn it.

His mother was furious. She went to stay with her parents and said she wanted a divorce.

Tyler still wouldn’t give up.

He heard there was money in cross-border e-commerce and took out an online loan.

The interest was crushing. Month after month, the balance swelled: $7,000 became $11,000,

then $17,000

Debt collectors called Daniel, and that was how he found out Tyler had borrowed again.

Daniel called Tyler over and hit him for the first time.

Tyler held his cheek, stormed out, and didn’t come home for three days.

Then the police called. Tyler had gotten into a fight at a gaming lounge and injured the other

man badly enough to split his scalp.

Daniel hurried to the station. Tyler crouched in a corner, his face bruised, still muttering, “He

started it. He called me a deadbeat.”

Daniel paid the man’s medical bills and the fine, then took Tyler home.

Tyler didn’t say a word on the way. He went straight to bed. Daniel sat in the living room and smoked all night.

The next day, Tyler’s mother came back, but not to forgive Daniel. She came for the divorce

papers. She glanced at Tyler lying in bed and told Daniel, “That kid’s a lost cause. He’s your

problem now.” Then she took the papers and left

Daniel didn’t stop her. He couldn’t.

He took out his phone, opened my contact, and typed, “Evie, I was wrong.”

He deleted it. Then he typed, “Evie, I want to see you.” He deleted that too.

Finally, he tossed the phone aside, covered his face, and cried.

Things weren’t going well for Claire either,

After the divorce, Claire and her child crowded into our mother’s old house. Mom scolded her

every day. “I told you not to pick a fight with Evie, but you wouldn’t listen. Now the factory’s gone and so is your husband. Happy?”

Claire didn’t dare answer. She hid in her room and cried.

Claire tried to find work. In her forties, without a degree or a trade, all she could get was a dishwashing job at a restaurant. After a month, her hands were pale and waterlogged, and her

back ached so badly she could barely stand. She earned $1,200. Holding that money, she

Temembered how the clients I’d brought her had once helped her make tens of thousands a

year, and she’d still resented paying my commission.

Megan stocked shelves at a supermarket. She hauled boxes every day until she could barely

raise her arms.

Brooke sold socks and gloves at a street market. Summer was manageable. In winter, she stamped her feet against the cold.

The four of them struggled through their separate, miserable lives. They all hated Tyler.

Claire posted in the family chat, “That ungrateful Tyler will get what’s coming to him.”

Megan replied, “He ruined my life. I’ll never forgive him.”

Brooke wrote, “If it weren’t for him, we never would have fallen out with Evie.”

Daniel saw the messages but said nothing. What could he say? Tyler was his son.

Tyler saw no fault in himself. As far as he was concerned, the whole world owed him.

His dad was a failure, his aunts were idiots, and I was coldhearted.

He posted online about how his relatives had cheated him and left him to suffer.

Someone commented, “You deserved it.” He shot back, “What do you know?” Then he threw

his phone.

Eventually, he found a job as a bar server.

In less than two weeks, he fought a customer and was fired.

He tried delivering food, but quit after three days because the work was too hard. Then he became an apprentice at an auto repair shop. The mechanic scolded him, and Tyler grabbed a

wrench as if to swing it at him.

The owner fired him. “With a temper like that, you’re going to get yourself into trouble.”

In the end, Tyler died by suicide. I didn’t go to his funeral, though they came to me crying and begged me over and over.

I cut ties with them completely.

Some wrong turns couldn’t be undone. And some relationships never recovered from that

much hurt.

I went on to live a good life of my own, with no ties to them.