Every Monday morning, we held the company's regular meeting.

When the department manager was giving a long speech, the door of the conference room was suddenly pushed open.

A woman dressed in rustic clothes and with disheveled hair rushed in.

In everyone's astonished eyes, she stood in front of me.

"Yolanda, I finally found you! You can't abandon your parents. I'm begging you. Please don't break off relations with us. How can you be so cruel? I'm begging you. Our family can't live without you!"

My mother Jenny Moore cried and shouted, begging me.

Her voice was very loud.

Everyone present was surprised.

None of my colleagues had ever seen such a scene.

But I had got used to it.

To force me to pay back the money for my brother Bruce Moore, Jenny had used this trick.

"Even if you die in front of me, I don't want to have any contact with you anymore. I'm not your daughter anymore," I said firmly and ruthlessly.

"How can you do this to your mother?"

"You're too much!"

"Now that you've become rich, you look down on your parents? You're ungrateful!"

"Yes, they are your parents."

"Cold-blooded!"

"Selfish!"

"Unfilial!"

I heard my colleagues' whispers.

Mary from the HR department came to persuade me, "Yolanda, how can you treat your mother like this? You should understand your parents' difficulties. Even if they are wrong, you should be tolerant and magnanimous."

After hearing what Mary said, I showed a mocking smile.

I saw a sentence in a book before: [You must stay away from those who advise you to be magnanimous.]

What right did Mary have to ask me to be magnanimous?

Did she know what I had experienced?

It was right that people should be filial to their parents, but the prerequisite was that their parents were kind to them.

My name was Yolanda Moore. I had a brother Bruce Moore, and my parents favored him over me.

My hometown was a small town, and my parents were both workers at a local plant.

My family was not wealthy, but we lived a good life.

Before I went to junior high school, I thought I was just an outsider fostered in this family.

My father Jack Moore told me he was my uncle and Jenny was my aunt.

According to them, my biological parents were their distant cousins.

But not long after I was born, my biological parents died in an accident, and I became an orphan.

My uncle and aunt adopted me.

I had believed this since I was a child because they not only told me this but also told everyone around them this.

Therefore, I was very grateful to my kind uncle and aunt at that time.

They took me in, and they were my benefactors.

So I wanted to repay them.

I started learning how to do laundry, cooking, and various housework in elementary school.

When I saw them only giving delicious food to their own son Bruce but never giving to me, I never felt jealous or complained.

I knew I couldn't be too greedy.

It was lucky for me to have a home.

Therefore, I never compared myself to Bruce.

I knew I was not qualified to compare to Bruce.

I had always been tolerant towards Bruce, who was a naughty kid when he was young and became a problem teenager when he grew up.

When I was in junior high school, I heard from my classmates that I was actually Jenny and Jack's biological daughter. Then I went to the police station to verify it and finally knew my true identity.

It turned out that I was not an orphan adopted by them.

These were all lies!

I was their biological daughter!

Jenny and Jack always wanted a son.

Jenny gave birth to me in her hometown in the countryside.

After finding out that I was a girl, they fabricated a story about my orphan background and lied that I was their niece.

Later, they gave birth to Bruce.

My biological parents lied to me for more than ten years.

To have a son, they watched their daughter live an aggrieved life, but they didn't feel guilty at all.

When I learned the truth, I almost collapsed.

I cried and screamed, but they were indifferent.

"Have we ever treated you badly? Why are you aggrieved? We just like boys more!

"We didn't throw you into the river, and we were very kind to you.

"Why do you complain now? To fake your identity, we spent tens of thousands of dollars. You have to pay us back!"

That was their explanation to me.

That year, I ran away from home for the first time in my life.

I wandered outside for a few months and was finally taken in by an orphanage.

I had a very happy time there.

I realized that being an orphan was not miserable.

Having heartless parents was the greatest tragedy in a child's life.

I would rather be an orphan than be deceived by my biological parents like a fool for so many years.

Unfortunately, a fire broke out in the orphanage.

After the fire, I was sent home.

My father Jack gave me a loud slap in the face.

"Bastard!"

After that matter, I was very depressed for a while.

Later, I saw a sentence: [Knowledge can change one's destiny.]

Suddenly, I was enlightened.

I understood that if I wanted to leave this family, my only way out was to study hard.

When I had the ability to support myself, I could completely break away from this family.

So I studied very hard.

But after graduating from junior high school, my parents didn't want me to continue to high school.

They thought it was useless for girls to study, and it would cost money.

They wanted me to learn some skills like beauty and hairdressing so that I could earn money for the family earlier.

I resisted, but they beat me up.

Later, I met a kind person. She was Elizabeth, the director of the Women's Association.

With the financial support of Elizabeth, I finally finished high school and was admitted to university.

I started working part-time to support myself during my freshman year, and throughout my college years, I didn't ask my family for a penny.

After graduation, I stayed in the city.

Life in the city was very hard.

I slept late and got up earlier every day and worked hard.

I had to listen to my boss and suffer the bullying of the landlord.

I would meet often perverts on the bus.

Now I had been staying in the city for five years since graduating from university.

In the past five years, I changed four companies and moved six times. During this period, I was deceived many times.

I met three black-hearted bosses.

The worst time was when I was cheated out of all my money.

I was kicked out by the landlord in the heavy rain. Carrying my suitcase, I cried until I was out of breath.

No passersby felt sorry for me or looked at me.

My suitcase was broken, and my underwear, socks, and chargers were scattered all over the floor, being crushed by passing cars.

At that moment, I felt like the whole world had abandoned me.

I couldn't hold on anymore.

But I gritted my teeth and endured it, continuing to work hard in the city.

Everyone else had their home as a shelter from the wind.

They had their family to comfort them.

But I had no way out.

I had no home but only shackles.

I had no family but creditors.

Other people's parents didn't care if they were successful but only cared whether they were tired.

My parents never cared whether I lived a good life or not. They just wanted to get my money to support their good-for-nothing son.

It was ironic.

When I was a child, I was disliked by my family because I was a girl and I almost dropped out of school.

I was a burden that my family despised.

They always favored Bruce.

But after I started working and earning money, they suddenly thought of me.

I became the biggest source of income for the family, and they tried to get money from me.

They had been asking me for money in various ways over the years.

I didn't want to use my hard-earned money to subsidize them, especially Bruce.

He was like a black hole that could never be filled.

He was spoiled since childhood and had poor grades. He didn't even graduate from high school because he missed too many classes.

I thought Bruce was a loser.

He was an overconfident and self-righteous prodigal.

After he dropped out of school, if he stayed at home, it would be a contribution to my family.

But he kept making trouble.

He wanted to get rich and become a big boss, so he started to do business with friends.

As a result, he was tricked. He lost all my family savings and owed a lot of debt.

At that time, I was working in the city, so I became the one who paid off Bruce's debts.