Chapter 2 A Homeless Melanie

"Melanie?! What are you doing here?"

A cold voice suddenly came from the door. Melanie turned to find a middle-aged woman walking in. This was her stepmother, Ximena.

Hearing the noise, the man and woman upstairs looked downstairs.

Neville pushed the woman in his arms away. With a trace of panic in his eyes, he stuttered, "Mel-Melanie, why... why are you back?"

"What sort of question is that? This is my home. I have every right to come back here!" Melanie sneered, glaring at him.

Elliana moved to Neville again and rubbed his chest. She then chuckled. "Did I just hear you say this is your home? For your information, this villa is no longer under the name of Moshe Scott!"

Melanie frowned. "What do you mean?"

Elliana, who was wearing a miniskirt that gave a peek of her buttocks and high-heeled shoes, went down the stairs majestically. "Ten months ago, your father, Moshe took his own life by jumping off a tall building. He left behind a lot of unpaid debts. If my mother hadn't stepped in, this house would have been taken away. So, this is no longer your home. It belongs to my mother and me now."

What! Her father jumped off a building? He committed suicide? How could that be?

Melanie was having none of it. She grabbed Elliana by the collar and shouted with a red face, "That's bullshit! How could my dad have committed suicide? Tell me the truth or I'll tear you apart!"

"Are you nuts? What do you think you are doing? Let go of me!"

All of a sudden, a thud followed by a cracking sound was heard.

Neville just pushed Melanie down to the floor.

It seemed she had broken a bone due to the impact.

In pain, Melanie glared at them and shouted like a mad woman, "Give me back my dad! Did you all connive to kill him?"

"Enough! How dare you accuse us of such nonsense? Where were you when he was going through hell because he was neck-deep in debt? You vanished into thin air and cut all contact with us for ten whole months. And now, you are acting as if you care about him? Humph! We have no hand in Moshe's death. The constant pestering from his creditor drove him to take his own life!"

"No way! I transferred ten million to his account months ago. That should have been enough to pay some of the debt. How on God's green earth did he choose to kill himself?"

"Ten million? Humph! You are such a dreamer! Where did you get ten million?"

There was a buzz in Melanie's head for a few seconds. Suddenly, she reverted her squinted eyes to Ximena as a terrible guess popped into her head.

Perhaps this witch her father married stole the ten million she had earned by selling her virginity and dignity.

That money was meant to save her father from prison, but it never got to him!

An explosion suddenly occurred inside Melanie. She was shaking uncontrollably as she asked, "Did you steal the ten million I sent my father? It was you who pushed him to suicide, right? You witches! Bring my dad back right now. I want my dad... You must pay for what you have done!"

Melanie leaped to her feet. She grabbed the fruit knife on the table nearby and brandished it fiercely at Ximena and Elliana.

"Oh, my God! She has gone crazy. Neville! This madwoman wants to kill me. Do something!" Elliana shouted in panic.

Without hesitation, Neville grabbed Melanie's wrist and squeezed it hard. The fruit knife fell off, scratched her arm, and then landed on the floor. He kicked it away thereafter.

Ximena stared at Melanie with her hands akimbo and said angrily, "Elliana! Go and bring out Moshe's ashes. Since she wants her father, we should give him to her!"

When a golden urn was brought out, Melanie stared at it with her mouth open.

Did that... really contain her father's ashes?

Ximena took the urn and flung it to Melanie, who caught it quickly. "A space at the cemetery costs a lot, so we made sure he was burnt. Keeping an urn here brings bad luck, anyway. There you go. Do whatever you want with it. Don't come back here ever again. Even if our paths cross in the future, act like you don't know us. You are nothing to us!"

Melanie burst into tears, clutching the urn to her chest. "Dad! Why did you jump off a building? How could you leave me in this cold world? You didn't even say goodbye to me! You said you would wait for me to come back... How could you do this to me after promising me?"

"Argh! Don't cry here. Take that thing and get out! Neville! Throw this piece of trash out!" Ximena said.

Neville grabbed Melanie by her injured arm and threw her out just as requested. Out of the goodness of his heart, he threw a one hundred dollar bill to her and said, "It's raining heavily. Take a taxi with that. And never come back here!"

Melanie held the dollar bill and looked at it with a frown. "What do you take me for? A beggar?"

In the blink of an eye, she ripped the bill into pieces and threw them at his face. "Fuck you, Neville! I swear, y'all will pay for what you have done to me. When you least expect, I'll show up and rip away your happiness just like you have done to me!"

Neville sucked his teeth impatiently and then shut the door in her face.

A gust of cold wind blew on Melanie's face as the door was shut. It sent shivers through her whole body.

Still clutching the urn to her chest, Melanie walked tiredly in the heavy rain. It was already dark outside. The dim light from the streetlights fell on her body, casting a lonely shadow on the tarred ground as she walked.

"Dad, hang in there. I'll take you home."

The next few minutes were spent in the rain. Melanie got so tired and cold that she sank to her knees in the middle of the empty road. She wrapped her arms around the urn just to prevent rain from falling on it. She lowered her head and smiled bitterly. "I'm sorry, Dad. I can't walk anymore. We are homeless now. But one day, I'll take you back to your real home. I promise."

The cold wind blew as the rain got heavier and heavier. Suddenly, a dazzling light illuminated the dark road.

A black limited-edition Maybach was moving at a high speed. It finally came to a screeching halt in front of her.

Behind the wheel, a wide-eyed man looked at the limp figure lying on the road and stammered, "Oh... Oh, my God! Mr. Collins, I think I just hit someone!"

A shadow was cast on the face of the man in the backseat. With an unreadable expression on his face, he said coldly, "Don't just sit there. Go bring her in and drive to the hospital immediately."