In the past few months, Larry and I had been in frequent contact. My parents and Jack hadn't bothered me, and I had lived a peaceful life for a while.

Larry's gaze at me became increasingly hot, and I missed him terribly when I didn't see him for a day.

I wondered, "Is this love?"

In this new life, could I find my own happiness? However, I was already forty years old and Larry was only thirty-five years old. Would he accept me?

This weekend, I cooked a few dishes, opened a bottle of wine, and invited Larry to celebrate the success of our cooperation.

We only had one drink and a hint of ambiguity slowly filled the air. Larry quietly held my hands, and when he was about to confess his love, there was suddenly a knock on the door.

I wondered, "Is it the property management?"

I just opened the door a crack, someone pushed it open with force, then my parents and Jack rushed in.

Jack shouted excitedly, "We finally found you! Dad, Mom, look, this house is very beautiful."

My parents were each carrying several luggage bags, and they piled the bags in the living room once they entered the house.

I asked, "Dad, Mom, what are you doing?"

My father snorted coldly. "You still remember that you have parents?"

My mother sat down on the sofa and said, "Yasmin, we will live here from now on."

I knew what they were planning. It didn't matter whether the house was registered under my name or Jack's name. What mattered for them was that they could occupy it first and kick me out at any time later.

In my previous life, I bought another house for Jack as they requested, and they lived in the previous house with me. When they died, they left the house to their grandson. I had no choice but to live with my cousin and his wife. I endured them for a while until I was forced to rent a apartment.

This time, I wouldn't let them have their way.

I said coldly, "I want to live in this house alone."

My father disagreed. "We are your parents. Whether you agree or not, we will live here."

Larry walked out of the restaurant. "This house belongs to Yasmin, no one else has the right to move in by force."

My parents were surprised to see that there was another person in the room. Jack shouted, "Hey, Yasmin, we only haven't seen you for a few months, and you've hooked up with this manager?"

Larry frowned and said, "You should be more respectful when you speak. We both are unmarried, choose your words carefully."

He pulled me into his arms and said, "I'm her fiance, and we're getting married soon."

I wondered, "What is he doing?" My heart warmed up and I couldn't help but smile.

My mom screamed, "Fiance? We don't agree!"

Jack was also very surprised. "Yasmin, he must be trying to cheat you out of your money! What fiance, bah!"

My father put on the dignity of the head of the family and yelled at me, "Who agreed to this? Make him leave now. We don't agree."

I also took the risk. "We plan to get married next month."

When these words came out, they were all dumbfounded.

My mom said, "Yasmin, don't be stupid. He must be attracted by your house and money. You are already forty years old. He can't be sincere to you."

Jack also chimed in. "Yasmin, if you want to have some fun, fine. Don't treat marriage as a joke."

My dad was furious. "How could I have such a stupid daughter like you!"

Larry ignored them. "Please take your things away, otherwise I will call security."

My mother simply started to act like a spoiled brat. "Call the security guards as you want. I'm her mother, why can't I live here?"

Larry sneered. "You are her mother. But we only protect the safety of the owners. If Yasmin doesn't agree with you living here, then the security has the right to throw you out!"

As he said that, he took out his phone and said, "What? You don't believe me?"

My parents were frightened and didn't dare to say anything. They packed their luggage and left.

As soon as the door closed, Larry hugged me and said, "Yasmin, let me protect you. Will you marry me?"

I was so happy, how could I refuse?

But I knew that my parents would not let it go. They were used to squeezing money from me, so how could they let me go easily?

4

They came to my store.

My mother told me that I had to break up with Larry, otherwise she would never acknowledge me as her daughter.

This trick worked every time in my previous life. But now, I really wished they wouldn't acknowledge me as her daughter.

Seeing that I didn't care, Jack pretended to be a peacemaker. "Yasmin, don't make Mom and Dad angry, we are all doing this for your own good."

I said, "Yes, you are all doing this for my own good. For letting me die alone and spending all my money. Thank you so much. I beg you not to do anything for my own good anymore in the future."

My mother roared in anger. "Yasmin, why are you so easily deceived by men?"

I said, "I want a home of my own, what's wrong with that?"

My father, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up, "Okay, you've grown strong now, we can't control you anymore. You can get married, but we'll need eight hundred thousand dollars as a engagement gift, not a penny less!"

I said, "What, you want to sell me out?"

Jack said, "Yasmin, don't say such harsh words. Isn't it normal to ask for engagement gift when getting married?"

I replied, "In this small town, the engagement gift is only about one hundred thousand dollars, but you want eight hundred thousand. You must be crazy for money."

Just as they were arguing, Larry arrived.

My mother shouted at him, "Did you hear me? If you want to marry my daughter, give us eight hundred thousand dollars!"

Larry walked up to me and looked at me.

I said, "Larry, don't listen to them. I will decide my own marriage, and I don't need any engagement gift."

My father was so furious that he picked up a vase nearby and was about to throw it at me.

Larry quickly protected me behind him. "Whoever dares to touch Yasmin, I won't let him get away with it."

My dad was stunned for a moment, and my mom stopped him. He put the vase down and said, "We don't agree if you don't give us the money."

I said, "I'm sorry, but we don't need your consent, we will get married tomorrow."

Back when I opened the beauty salon a few years ago, I had already moved myself from our family's household registration, so they couldn't stop us from registering.

Jack suddenly sneered at Larry and said, "Hey, don't blame me for not telling you. My sister had several abortions before, and no one wants her anymore. If you want to be a sucker, that's up to you."

I was so angry that my eyes turned dark and I almost fainted.

This was my good brother. In order to prevent me from getting married, he did not hesitate to fabricate facts and ruin my reputation.

Larry was unmoved and hugged me tightly. "I believe Yasmin, don't slander her!"

My parents and brother walked away, and I snuggled in Larry's arms with tears in my eyes. With him, I felt safe and no longer lonely.

Larry asked, "Yasmin, is what you just said true?"

I asked, "What?"

Larry said, "Get married tomorrow."

I punched him lightly. "You wish."

Larry said, "Yasmin, I want to give you a grand wedding."

"Oh my goodness, is this happiness?" I wondered.

Two days later, I received a call from Jack. "Yasmin, come to the hospital immediately. Dad was so angry with you that he had a heart attack."

This was their usual tactic. Every time I did something a little bit not to their liking, they would threaten me with fainting, hospitalization, and so on. But I wasn't going to fall for it anymore.

However, I still went to the hospital to see what else they would come up with.

The door of the ward was ajar. I saw through the crack that my father was lying on the bed. His face was ruddy and he was taking big bites of an apple. And he didn't look like a patient at all.

Jack was stirring up trouble and said, "Dad, Yasmin will be here soon, ask her to pay for Liam and Luna's interest classes, it costs twenty thousand dollars."

My mother said, "The money is not a problem at all. The important thing is that your sister is going to get married! Which means from now on, her house and salon will belong to someone else!"

My dad said, "No, we can't let her get married."

My mother said, "It must be that Turner guy who bewitched her. Yasmin used to be so obedient."

My father got excited and said, "If she dares to marry him, I will kill myself in front of her!"

Jack couldn't hide the joy in his eyes. "Why would she get married? It would be great if our whole family could be together. When she gets old, Liam and Luna will take care of her."

"Haha, thank you so much." I thought.

In my previous life, I treated Liam and Luna as my own children, but these two ungrateful little bastards kept saying, "We have our own parents, how can we have the energy to care about Aunt Yasmin?"

Yes, I was just an aunt, how could I expect them to take care of me? So I would not put any hope on them or give anything more to them.

Since I was already here, I went into the ward.

When my father saw me, he snorted, turned his face away and ignored me.

My mom sat on the edge of the bed and said, "Yasmin, look at you. You've made your dad so angry. We worked so hard to raise you, how could you be so obsessed with a man?"

Jack coughed lightly to remind her.

My mom continued. "Forget it. Now hurry up and pay for Liam and Luna's interest classes, it's more than twenty thousand dollars. Hurry up and transfer thirty thousand dollars to your brother."

I took out my phone from my bag, Jack's face lit up with joy, and my parents exchanged proud glances.

I calmly found a picture from my phone album and showed it to Jack. "This is the new car I've fallen in love with, it's three hundred thousand dollars. I've already paid for it and will pick it up next week. So I don't have any money now!"

Jack's face turned purple with anger. "Yasmin, why did you buy such an expensive car? What will we do? The expenses for a whole family are so high!"

I put away my phone and said, "You guys should take care of your own expenses. You are already over thirty years old. You need to know how to support a family."

My father completely forgot that he was pretending to be sick. He sat up suddenly and pointed at me. "You, you disobedient girl, so ungrateful."

I sneered. "Ungrateful? How much did you spend raising me? How much did I spend on you over these years? You can do the math yourself."

My father was so angry that he picked up the shoes under the bed and threw them at me. "You! Are you trying to piss me off to death?"

I dodged to the side, and my mother responded by howling, "What a sin! How could we have such an unfilial daughter!"

Lisa watched all this with cold eyes, she suddenly stood up, and yelled at Jack, "If you don't get her to pay for Liam and Luna's interest classes in the next two days, I will divorce you!"