Chapter 1 I Cannot Afford Them

• I was branded the ungrateful daughter everyone on the internet despised.
• My beloved younger sister had accused me of marrying her off to a seventy-year-old man for money, while my younger brother had tearfully told reporters that I had embezzled his betrothal gifts to buy luxury items, forcing our gray-haired father to sell vegetables to make ends meet.
• They played the pity card and gained fame and fortune from their sob stories, while my reputation and future were shattered.
• I was thrown into a pit of disgrace.
• However, fate had mercy, and I was reborn.
• I found myself transported back in time by a decade, with a father addicted to gambling and a mother who had just passed away, leaving me to care for my ten-year-old siblings.
• Our family's livelihood had always depended on my mother, who farmed and sold vegetables just to scrape by. After her death, in order to keep the household afloat, I made the choice to quit school and start working.
• At that moment, I was tightly clutching the fifty left by my mother as waves of cramping pain radiated from my stomach.
• When my father lost money gambling, he would typically ask my mother for more, and she would always oblige. However, she was wise enough to set aside a little money each time.
• In my previous life, I had endured a severe beating from my father to protect the last fifty I had. Later, he would berate me for being unfilial, poking at my back and accusing me of being blinded by greed, completely disregarding whether he lived or died.
• At that moment, the sound of my father rummaging through drawers and cabinets for money echoed from the room. His anxiety was palpable in the air.
• With gritted teeth, I stashed the fifty into my sock and stealthily made my way to the door.
• To my surprise, I heard my younger brother's voice.
• “Mom left the money here. Delilah must have taken it for herself!”
• “Dad, Delilah will surely reveal where the money is if you keep beating her,” my younger sister chimed in with a delicate and sweet voice.
• My father slammed the cabinet door and responded in a somber tone, “That f*cking b*tch had the audacity to hide money from me, and even that lowlife dared to trick me.”
• I overheard Leon Zuckerman and Freya Zuckerman's words from behind the wall, and my heart instantly turned cold.
• It turned out that from that moment on, the younger siblings I had cherished and protected so dearly had started to turn bad.
• In my previous life, I had provided for their education. I made sure they never lacked anything in terms of food, clothing, or shelter. Not once did I shortchange them.
• When our father returned home in a rage after losing a bet, I had shielded them behind me. I was beaten so severely that I suffered gastrointestinal bleeding and nearly couldn't afford the treatment.
• Yet, that was all I got in return.
• Seeing my father starting to leave, I endured the pain and hastened my pace to run out of the courtyard.
• Not far ahead, a substantial number of villagers had come to pay their respects to my mother.
• Even though I was in such pain that I was drenched in sweat, I still managed to collapse at Greta's feet.
• My sobs echoed through the panicked crowd.
• “Mrs. Lavigne, my mother's body isn't even cold yet, and my father is already begging for money to gamble. But we're so poor we can barely make ends meet. I-I'm really out of money. I still have to support my younger brother and sister. Please, help me...”
• I purposely exposed the shocking flesh wounds on my arm and calf.
• As the crowd gathered around to gawk, I closed my eyes and passed out.
• When I opened my eyes again, I found myself lying in the small clinic in town, hooked up to an IV drip.
• Seeing Greta and her son keeping a vigil by my side, I struggled to get up.
• “IV drips are so expensive. I can't afford them. The money saved could be enough to feed my family with vegetable oatmeal for a while.”
• A clear look of concern surfaced in Greta's eyes. She gently pushed me back onto the bed, insisting that she would cover the expenses.