Chapter 3

The doctor said surgery within a week was the best course of action. To earn money, Arthur started frantically looking for odd jobs. At noon, I went to the construction site and saw him carrying a huge sack of cement on his back. The grimace on his face told me his old back injury had flared up again. Under the blazing sun, his clothes were soaked with sweat, and his skin was peeling from the sunburn.

In an instant, tears streamed down my face. I ran toward him, wanting to help, but just then, a steel plate above us suddenly loosened. As it crashed down, Arthur, with lightning-fast reflexes, pulled me out of the way. We were safe, but another worker wasn't so lucky. He was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a severe, crippling injury.

That evening, Arthur was suddenly called in by his supervisor for questioning about the incident. It turned out that during the investigation, several of the other workers had unanimously claimed the accident was due to Arthur's negligence, presenting their story convincingly. Unfortunately, that spot was a blind spot for the security cameras, and no matter how Arthur tried to explain, no one believed him. This meant we wouldn't just lose his wages; we'd also face a massive compensation claim.

Eleanor's surgery funds were still up in the air, and now this happened. The family was suffocating under the pressure. Arthur's hair turned white overnight.

A kind neighbor earnestly advised me to get the lottery ticket back. "Even if they're your adoptive parents, with no blood relation, they've treated you exceptionally well all these years! You can honor your biological parents in a different way. Your family's situation is dire right now; you have to take care of yourselves first, don't you?"

Arthur and Eleanor also looked at me expectantly, placing their last hope in me. "Yes, Chloe, the money we're using now is basically borrowed from you. We can write an IOU. We'll definitely pay you back slowly, okay?"

How could I not know that getting the winning lottery ticket back would resolve all the difficulties our family was facing? But even at this point, I still shook my head, appearing unwilling to listen.

The neighbor sighed, calling me heartless and beyond saving. "You're utterly impossible to reason with! Oh, you two would have been better off raising a dog than this daughter. All that money for her education and upbringing was completely wasted."

Arthur and Eleanor's gazes dimmed. Deeply disappointed in me, they both broke down in tears. Yet, despite the neighbor's urging for them to disown me, they consistently refused. They said that no matter what I did, I would always be their daughter.