Eva was so shocked that she felt as if a bolt of lightning had flown out of the heavens and hit her squarely in the chest. One
million? They couldn‘t afford so much money!
“You bastard! Did you gamble at the casino again?” Glenn had also heard these words. He came out of the room with a pipe in
his hand. His face turned scarlet with fury. He landed two hard blows to Jeff‘s head and said, “You‘ bastard! How could I raise
such a failure like you?”
Eva rushed to Jeff to protect him. “Why hit him so hard? We only have one son!” Glenn clenched the pipe in his hand and said,
“Well, now that he has landed himself in such serious debt, what are we going to do?”
Eva wiped her tears away and complained, “You like drinking and gambling yourself. You are no better than him!”
“The point is that we don‘t have so much money now. You two might as well take my life to pay them!” Glenn was exasperated
and his face darkened. One million was indeed a huge sum of money for them. Holding Eva desperately, Jeff said, “Mom, we can
go to Lila! She definitely has the money!”
*******
Lila was busy playing games quite late that night, when she received a call from the hotel receptionist informing her that her
parents and her brother were making a scene in the hotel lobby.
Initially, Lila didn‘t even want to give them any thought or consideration, but in the end, she decided to go downstairs. She didn‘t
want to be embarrassed by them.
As soon as Eva saw Lila, she fell to her knees before her with Jeff.
“Lila, your brother gambled away a huge sum of money and now he owes the creditor one million. Can you give us some money
to pay them? We will pay you back when your father‘s shop starts to make a profit!” Eva pleaded, cutting to the chase.
Lila‘s first reaction was to turn around and run away from this mortifying situation. It was so humiliating. She wanted to dig a hole
to bury herself in it. She had no desire to give them even one penny. The money she received from the White family was for her
to live her life. Lila had never cared about this so–call brother of hers after all. His life or death had nothing to do with her.
“Lila, please! Jeff is your brother!” Glenn sighed and almost knelt down to beg her as well. Fortunately, it was very late at night
and there were very few guests in the reception area.
Lila glanced around and found that all the hotel staff were staring at her expectantly. waiting to see what she would say. Lila was
so frustrated that she had no choice but to agree.
“I will only help you this one time. And you have to pay me my money back!”
The White family had given her a total amount of three million dollars. After these days she had spent at the hotel, she had
roughly two million dollars left. If she gave Jeff one million to pay the debts, she would still have one million for herself.
After weighing the pros and cons, Lila wrote a check and handed it to Jeff. She hoped the money could drive them away forever
and she could be free of them. Now that he had the money in his hand, Jeff stopped crying immediately and even burst into
laughter. At last, he left happily with his parents.
*******
Lila had thought it was over. But a few days later, Jeff came to her again with Eva.
“Interest has accrued, the debt collector said we need to pay him more money than just the principal sum of one million.”
Jeff knelt down in front of Lila pitifully. He didn‘t seem to find begging on his knees humiliating or degrading in the least bit. In
fact, he didn‘t owe any debts at all. He had taken one million and spent it on sleeping with hookers and on purchasing himself a
few luxury items.
In a matter of just a few days, he had spent all the money Lila had given him. He knew that Lila still had money, so he had even
hired some friends to play debt collectors and come and threaten them at home. As a result, Glenn and Eva were so scared that
they didn‘t dare to go out at all. Under the persuasion of Jeff, they came to borrow money from Lila again.
“No way! You haven‘t paid me back the one million you have borrowed yet!” Lila was so livid that she wanted to curse. She felt
that she was really unlucky. Why did she have such a brother and parents? They were like a gum stuck on the bottom of her
shoe that she couldn‘t get rid of at all. Eva loved her son so much that she would even die for him.
“Are you going to lend us money or not? Lila, if they kill Jeff, I won‘t be able to go on living. How pathetic is my state! My
daughter doesn‘t care about me or her brother at all!”
As she rushed to the pillar of the hotel, Eva shouted, “I might as well die!” Lila was startled by her. She had never met someone
like Eva before, so she had to compromise.
“Fine! I will give you the money! Stop making a scene here!” She gritted her teeth and wrote him a check for another million. Now
she didn‘t have much money left. Plus, she had been staying in the presidential suite of the hotel for the entire month. The cost
was very high, so she couldn‘t stay here anymore.
She had to go back to the Gillian family‘s shabby apartment. It was a good news for Jeff, because he didn‘t have to go to the
hotel to ask Lila for money anymore.
“You need more money? I have given you two million dollars! Isn‘t it enough to pay off your debts?” Lila was impatient. She really
had no money left now.
“How would I know? The creditor said I owe him three million dollars in total. Lila, write me another check. I need to pay him as
soon as possible!” Jeff said.