Chapter 61\u00a0<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, Ralph\u2019s company was struggling at the time, and pay had been slashed across the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had long resented raising Scarlet. He lost the savings her parents had left and sank deep into debt from stock market losses. More than once, he suggested that she be sent to an orphanage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Natalie refused. Because of that, the two of them argued constantly, and Scarlet could hear every word from the\u00a0<\/p>\n
next room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then one day, while Natalie was away for a medical appointment, Ralph drove Scarlet out of town. He took her to a city she had never been to before and abandoned her at an orphanage there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As he drove off, she ran after the car. From behind the wheel, he glared at her with a vicious expression and shouted a warning. \u201cI know you remember our address. If you dare go back, I\u2019ll kill you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet was not yet seven years old at the time. A child who had witnessed her parents\u2018 murder was already traumatized, plagued by nightmares every night. So, the threat from a grown man held absolute power over her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
20 years ago, it was easy to abandon a child. Scarlet never knew if Natalie had ever looked for her. She spent several years in the orphanage until one day, a journalist came.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until she grew older that Scarlet began to understand things that had been beyond her as a child.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, the house was her parents\u2018 inheritance\u2013it belonged to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She had once tried to take it back from them. By that time, Ralph had been unemployed for a long while, living off Natalie\u2019s income. Morris had just started high school, having gotten into one of the top schools in the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back then, Ralph had called her an ingrate. Natalie would cry and beg, saying they had nowhere to go. She said that Morris\u2018 schooling was at a crucial stage and that if it were disrupted, it could ruin his entire future. She even knelt before Scarlet, sobbing and pleading..\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not long after, Emily fell seriously ill, and Scarlet\u2019s marriage to William was set. After that, Ralph became even more unwilling to return the house.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYour in\u2013laws are so wealthy\u2013you don\u2019t need another place to live. Why are you taking ours? Are you trying to make our lives a living hell?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
From elementary school through college, Scarlet was taught certain principles and encouraged to cultivate a noble moral character. But once she stepped into the real world, she realized those lessons didn\u2019t always apply. Some people were unreasonable, manipulative, and impossible to reason with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the years, she had tried repeatedly to reclaim the house, but each attempt ended in failure. But now, she was about to divorce William. Soon, she would have no ties to the Cooper family at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She wanted back what had belonged to her parents. She wanted her home back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t know how Natalie had convinced Ralph after she left, but a few days later, Scarlet got a call from her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cScarlet\u2026\u201d Natalie faltered over the phone, her voice trembling. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to Ralph. We\u2019ll move out tomorrow. I know we\u2019ve wronged you, but\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet cut her off. \u201cI\u2019m at work. If there\u2019s nothing else, I\u2019m hanging up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, there\u2019s nothing else. I don\u2019t want to keep you. I\u2019ll come see you tomorrow to return the keys.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust send them by courier,\u201d Scarlet said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She got the keys back quickly. Things went more smoothly than she had expected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
X CLOSE\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earn $100 Free\u00a0<\/p>\n
4\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 21\u00a0<\/p>\n
12\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was for the best. She wasn\u2019t afraid of going to court, but it would have been a hassle, taking up a lot of time and energy. She didn\u2019t want any more entanglement with their family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So much time had passed that claiming her parents\u2018 estate had become complicated. She had to visit multiple government offices and agencies to gather all the necessary paperwork\u00a0<\/p>\n
One morning, after finishing a night shift, Scarlet returned home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ruth started chattering away, \u201cMr. Cooper\u2019s been coming home a lot lately, and you\u2019ve been so busy. It\u2019s almost like you two are coordinating your schedules. Every time you\u2019re home, he\u2019s gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday, he got back early, but you were on shift. He just left a little while ago. If you\u2019d been home ten minutes earlier, you might have run into him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 61\u00a0 To make matters worse, Ralph\u2019s company was struggling at the time, and pay had been slashed across the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-end-of-the-contractstart-of-his-obsession"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}