“Mooching off our place in the city wasn't enough for you? Now you show up here trying to mooch off the villa my mom just bought me?”

I stared at Calvin in disbelief：

“Who told you your mom bought this house?”

Calvin let out a scornful laugh：

“She told me herself.”

“You're pathetic. You saw that my mom's a company CEO, so you park yourself in our house day after day, trying to worm your way into her good graces.”

“Freeloading and engineering alone time with her still isn't enough for you? Now you want to come defile my villa too?”

“Let me spell it out for you. My mom said the only reason she let you stay was because your parents are dead and she felt sorry for you. So don't push your luck and start dreaming about stealing my position as the real young master of this family!”

That was what Aileen had been telling him?

No wonder Calvin had always treated me like dirt.

To him, Aileen was the CEO who owned the villa. And I was the pitiful orphan she'd charitably taken in.

All this time, Calvin thought I was the one clinging to his house, scheming to steal his only-son status.

Absurd.

Calvin turned back to his classmates and announced loudly：

“You guys want to know how shameless this Kieran Dickerson really is?”

“He camps out in our house every single day. We can't get rid of him.”

“I even stuck a note on the door telling him to stop mooching, and he threw a fit and called the cops on my mom, said she was bullying him.”

“My mom was afraid he'd blow it up into something bigger and drag the company's name through the mud, so she just let it go—bought me this whole new villa so I could live on my own.”

“Sometimes I really can't wrap my head around it. I'm her actual son, the real deal, and I spend half my time in the dorms. But this guy, some broke orphan, plants himself in our house around the clock like he owns the place. It got to the point where if I wanted to wear my own clothes or drink the wine I like, my mom had to sneak it out from the city mansion, just so he wouldn't find out and start whining that we were picking on him.”

“In my entire life, I have never seen a more shameless waste of space!”

My eyes went wide.

So that was why things kept disappearing from the city mansion. Aileen had been sneaking them out here for her son.

Aileen Chavez. What a piece of work.

Since you want to play me for a fool, don't blame me for what comes next.

I pulled out my phone right there and called the Legal Department：

“Get a team out to my parents' country estate immediately……”

Before I could finish, Calvin snatched the phone out of my hand and smashed it on the ground：

“You worthless piece of trash—how are you still keeping up the act?”

“Your parents' estate? This is the villa my mom bought for me!”

His classmates piled on, sneering and spitting contempt：

“No wonder everyone else lives in the dorms and he's the only one who never stays on campus. I thought he was busy with something legit. Turns out he was leeching off Calvin's family and trying to steal his mom. Disgusting.”

“Exactly. His own parents are dead, so he goes and latches onto someone else's rich ones. If his parents knew how shameless he was, they'd be rolling in their graves.”

“Some people are just that brazen. The second they spot money, they're scheming to latch onto rich godparents so they can ride their way to the top.”

“Calvin, you're way too nice about this. If somebody tried to steal my parents, I'd rip him apart!”

I ignored every last one of them, locked my eyes on Calvin, and said, voice hard：

“I'd suggest you call your mother right now and ask her who this estate actually belongs to.”

Calvin's face darkened. He grabbed me by the collar and yanked me forward：

“You worthless piece of trash, you want to drag my mom into this?”

“You think I'm stupid? You know she's soft, so you play her—get her over here, squeeze whatever you can out of her!”

Then his gaze dropped to my neck, and his eyes lit up：

“That jade pendant necklace doesn't look cheap. Let me guess, you conned my mom into buying that for you too?”

Before I could answer, he grabbed it and ripped it off my neck.

He moved so fast I had no time to react. The necklace was already in his hand.

My face went white：“Give it back!”

The panic in my voice made Calvin look at me with a cold, vicious gleam：

“This nervous over a necklace? Must've cost my mom a fortune, huh?”

I couldn't keep the desperation out of my voice：“My mother gave it to me. It's not worth much money, but it means everything to me. Give it back.”

I lunged for it.

My mother had nearly killed herself getting me that jade pendant necklace.

I was sick all the time as a kid. When I was ten, I collapsed and didn't wake up. They put me in the ICU, unconscious, fading.

The doctors told my parents to prepare for the worst.

My mother couldn't accept it. She went to a temple to pray for me.

In the dead heat of summer—over a hundred degrees—she dropped to her knees at the foot of the mountain and bowed her way to the top, one step, one kowtow, all the way up.

By the time she reached the summit, her knees were shredded down to white bone, her forehead split open and pouring blood, her mind barely holding on. Only then was she granted the jade pendant necklace.

Maybe heaven itself was moved by what she'd done.

I woke up. Somehow, impossibly, I opened my eyes.

But my mother never recovered.

On her deathbed, she pressed the necklace into my hand and made me promise to keep it safe.

I'd treasured it ever since, carried it with me every single day.

It was the thing my mother had traded her life for. It was the one line no one crossed.

I would never let anyone destroy it.

“The more you want it, the more I want to break it.”

Before my fingers could reach it, Calvin hurled the necklace at the ground.

A sharp crack. The jade split apart.

Pieces scattered across the floor.

“No!”

The jade my mother had given her life for, shattered right in front of me.

The pain was so sharp I couldn't breathe.

“You're an animal!”

I couldn't take it anymore. I drove my fist straight into Calvin's face.

“You worthless piece of shit, you hit me?”

Calvin clutched his face, shrieking：“Beat the hell out of this trash!”

“Whoever messes him up the worst, my mom gives them a million. Cash.”

That was all it took. Eyes lit up around the room, and they came at me with fists and feet.

“You actually hit Calvin? His mom's the richest woman in the city. Who do you think you are?”

“Please. You're a broke freeloader. Like you could afford a necklace like that? You obviously sweet-talked Calvin's mom into giving it to you. He smashed his own stuff—what are you crying about?”

“Shameless trash. Wasn't enough to steal someone else's mother—you had to go and hit her actual son? You must be tired of living.”

“And he has the nerve to bring up his own mom. Your parents raised a shameless parasite like you. No wonder they died young!”

They beat me to the ground. My whole body shook with rage, and I ground out the words through clenched teeth：

“You'll regret this.”

The whole room erupted in laughter, like I'd just told the funniest joke they'd ever heard.

“That's hilarious. Calvin's mom is the richest woman in the city. What the hell are you? You think you can make us regret anything?”

“You're nothing but a pathetic orphan who mooches off everyone he meets and survives by latching onto other people's parents. And you're threatening us?”

“A bottom-rung loser who can't even put a roof over his own head—this pathetic little meltdown is all you've got.”

They had me pinned to the floor, mocking me without the slightest restraint.

Calvin grabbed a fistful of my hair and wrenched my head back, the whole crowd egging him on：

“Regret? I've never regretted a single thing in my life. Go ahead—I'm dying to see how a broke nobody like you is gonna make me regret anything!”

The words had barely left his mouth when a convoy of luxury cars came screaming up the drive and braked hard at the mansion entrance……