\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 9 City of Love\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 9 City of Love\u00a0<\/p>\n
96\u00a0<\/p>\n
+5 Free Coins\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d already blocked all three of them on my phone and social media. I was about to hang up when I heard her say something that stopped me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAva\u2026 your dad and I are in your city now. You can\u2019t just abandon us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I kept my voice flat. \u201cWhere\u2019s Stella?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She went quiet on the other end, stammering without really answering.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I laughed. \u201cCan\u2019t bring yourself to say it? Stella took the money from selling your house and used it to throw cash at her favorite celebrity. She thought if she became a big enough spender, his fans would forgive her for everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mom was sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. \u201cI didn\u2019t give her that money! She stole it from us!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I cut her off. \u201cDon\u2019t talk about your peace of mind and security like that. And don\u2019t come crying to me to clean up her mess!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you\u2019re just going to let your parents end up homeless?\u201d Mom finally screamed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I knew they\u2019d already sold the house, which meant I couldn\u2019t send them care packages anymore. I\u2019d have to send cash instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dad\u2019s voice muttered in the background. \u201cIt came through\u2026 Wait, only six hundred bucks?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSix hundred dollars. The minimum legal support amount. Completely legitimate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My tone stayed flat. \u201cA condo isn\u2019t the only kind of housing out there. You can live in a basement apartment or a studio. You\u2019re the one who refused to live in the place I bought you and gave it away to someone else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I opened Stella\u2019s Twitter. She was still using that cat as her profile picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBought 1000 copies of his new magazine to support him. Please stop attacking me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted four minutes ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was their peace of mind. Their security.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Mom and Dad faced homelessness, their beloved youngest daughter was dropping 48 thousand dollars on celebrity magazines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
10:06 Tue, Jan 27\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 9 City of Love\u00a0<\/p>\n
0:0\u00a0<\/p>\n
96\u00a0<\/p>\n
+5 Free Coins\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s voice went shrill. \u201cWhat do you mean \u2018someone else\u2019? That\u2019s your sister! Why can\u2019t you just let this go?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She still didn\u2019t understand how things had gotten to this point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLet it go?\u201d I let out a short laugh. \u201cMom, maybe you should stop coming after me. Stella just posted on Twitter that she spent 48 thousand dollars on magazines.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hung up and immediately blocked that number too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The next time I saw Stella, she was on the evening news.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung Woman Arrested for Illegal Fundraising Scheme. Embezzled Three Million Dollars to Fund Celebrity Obsession.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t surprised at all. Based on everything she\u2019d been posting online, the amount had clearly gone way beyond what Mom and Dad got from selling their house.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After Stella got arrested, she became the poster child for obsessive fans gone wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The celebrity was forced to make another statement telling people to be rational about their support, and his angry fanbase collectively mass-reported Stella\u2019s account.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All that money she\u2019d spent, all the carefully crafted image she\u2019d built up over the years-it all vanished the moment her account got deleted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the first of the month again, and I sent Mom and Dad their usual six hundred dollars right on time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mom replied using the transfer memo feature. \u201cAva, your dad and I were so wrong. We only\u00a0<\/p>\n
you now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
have\u00a0<\/p>\n
I fastened my seatbelt as the plane prepared for takeoff. I was heading to Rosavera, city of love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Right before I turned off my phone, I saw today\u2019s trending topic. \u201cShare Your Small Wins This Year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought about it for a moment, then posted a photo of my boarding pass and passport with everything important blurred out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCut ties with a toxic relationship, and right now I\u2019m sitting on a plane headed to Rosavera. Getting to see more of this beautiful world is my little win this year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cedella is a passionate storyteller known for her bold romantic and spicy novels that keep readers hooked from the very first chapter. With a flair for crafting emotionally intense plots and unforgettable characters, she blends love, desire, and drama into every story she writes. Cedella\u2019s storytelling style is immersive and addictive\u2014perfect for fans of heated romances and heart-pounding twists.<\/p>\n
When Love Locked by Mark Twain 9 \u00a0 Chapter 9 City of Love\u00a0 Chapter 9 City of Love\u00a0 96\u00a0 +5 […]<\/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":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-her-revenge-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23185","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=23185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}