I was born as an illegitimate child after a billionaire drugged my mother. My mother and I have always been ridiculed, even humiliated by my aunt’s family. “You shameless woman, and your daughter is nothing but a bastard.” Unable to bear the insults any longer, my mother took me to seek help from my wealthy father. To our shock, he refused to acknowledge us and even accused us of extortion! “You bitch, I know you’re just after my money. I won’t give you a penny. Take that bastard child and get out of my house!” Not only that, but the billionaire’s son even beat and insulted us, throwing us out onto the street like stray dogs! I endured it all silently, until the billionaire’s son met with an accident, and I became his sole heir! “Mom, I’m home. School ran late today,” I called out as I returned home, but I didn’t see my mother’s familiar silhouette busy in the kitchen. “Mom?” I searched the house but found no trace of her. I decided to check with the neighbors. “Mrs. Zhang, have you seen my mom?” I asked at the neighbor’s kitchen window. “I saw your aunt come by earlier. I guess your mom went out with her,” she replied. My heart sank. My aunt had always been at odds with us, looking down on my mother. Why would they go out together? Sensing trouble, I hurried down the street. Sure enough, I found them in front of a shoe store, locked in a heated argument. “Wendy, stop playing innocent! You’re nothing but a shameless slut. Quit acting like a victim!” My aunt was pointing at my mother, her nose in the air, looking utterly disgusted. “What are you doing?” I rushed forward, shielding my mother behind me, glaring fiercely at my aunt. “Well, well, look who it is. The bastard child herself. Like mother, like daughter. You both make me sick,” my aunt pretended to cover her nose, clearly repulsed by our presence. It wasn’t just my aunt’s family. My grandparents, all of my mother’s relatives – almost none of them liked to associate with us. All because I was born out of wedlock. My mother had just started working when she got her first project with a billionaire named Lucas Wilson. He was a difficult client, and my mother’s project team had to drink with him several times before he even agreed to look at the contract. They thought Lucas just enjoyed drinking, but it turned out he was also a lecher. He set his sights on my mother from day one. During the final drinking session, he had his assistant drug her drink and took her away. What happened next goes without saying. The bastard didn’t even take responsibility afterward. He didn’t even sign the contract! He even blamed my mother, saying she was incompetent. Her boss, being an inconsiderate jerk, fired her on the spot. My mother, still naive and inexperienced, had no way to fight back. She could only return home, devastated. Soon after, she discovered she was pregnant. Accusations and insults came at her from all directions. Everyone thought she had been promiscuous. But she still endured the pressure and gave birth to me, naming me Zoe. “If you want to insult someone, insult me. Leave my daughter out of this!” My mother stepped forward, glaring angrily at my aunt. “Oh, spare me your mother-daughter act. You’re both just trash discarded by men. I was kind enough to offer you a job at the hair salon, and you refused. Now you dare to act high and mighty with me? Know your place!” My aunt rolled her eyes. I let out a cold laugh. “I think you were trying to sell my mother out. Everyone in the neighborhood knows the salon owner is a greedy pervert who’s had his eye on my mom for ages. I bet you got some kind of kickback for this ‘kind’ offer. Don’t insult the word ‘kindness’.” Seeing her scheme exposed, my aunt became even more furious. She pointed at us and started hurling insults like a fishwife. “Zoe, you little bitch! Don’t think you’re innocent in all this. A slut’s daughter is bound to be a man-stealing vixen too. Aren’t you ashamed? How dare you talk back to me? I’m your elder!” “So what if I am a vixen?” I sneered. I’d heard this kind of insult countless times since middle school. It no longer had any effect on me. I looked at my aunt challengingly and said with contempt, “At least I inherited my mother’s good looks. Unlike you – your face could ward off evil spirits if we hung it on the door for New Year’s.” My aunt’s eyes bulged with rage, her face contorted, but she couldn’t utter a single word. “That’s enough, Zoe.” My mother took my hand. She hated it when I insulted myself like this. “Let’s not stoop to her level. Let’s go home.” My mother tried to lead me away, but my aunt, still stinging from my retort, wasn’t about to let us leave. She lunged forward and grabbed my mother’s hair, and the two women began grappling in the street. The commotion drew quite a crowd of neighbors, gathering in small groups to watch the spectacle. “What’s going on? Why are they fighting?” “It’s just more drama from Wendy’s family. Her sister’s come to shame her again.” “Shame her? It’s just the truth. If she hadn’t messed around and had a bastard child, would her sister be this angry? She must be upset about the family losing face.” “Really? Wendy always looks so prim and proper. Who knew she was actually loose behind closed doors? And so careless too!” “Exactly! Her sister comes to make a scene every other day. I heard…” The gossiping neighbors’ cruel words pierced our ears painfully. “Enough!” I rushed forward to separate the fighting women. “Rachel! If you hate us so much, just stop coming around. Don’t take out your frustrations with life on us. We don’t owe you anything!” My voice shook as I shouted at my aunt. This was the first time things had gotten so out of hand. “Bullshit! If I wasn’t standing up for the family, if Mom and Dad weren’t hanging their heads in shame in front of the neighbors, why would I waste my time dealing with trash like you? You loose woman! Shameless!” My aunt spat on the ground, utterly disgusted. “What will it take for you to leave me and my mom alone?” I was tired of arguing with her. They had believed from the start that my mother was in the wrong. At this point, no amount of explaining our innocence would convince them. They’d just think we were making excuses for our “dirty deeds.” “That’s easy.” My aunt looked down her nose at us, fixing her disheveled hair. “Get out of our family. Get out of this neighborhood. Never let me see your faces again. You’re an eyesore!” My aunt’s demands were completely unreasonable. My mother and I were already living hand to mouth. If we left this neighborhood, we’d have nowhere to live. “Impossible! Zoe is still in her first year of high school. This house was given to me by Mom and Dad. Why should I leave?” My mother protested, ready to continue arguing with my aunt. “Fine then. If you won’t leave, I’ll make sure everyone at school knows about this. Let’s see how your daughter holds her head up then. Being called a bastard every day won’t be pleasant, especially one born to such a shameless, loose woman. Don’t come crying when people bully your daughter.” My aunt had found my mother’s weak spot. A few words were all it took to break down my mother’s psychological defenses. “It’s okay, Mom. We don’t want to stay here anyway!” My mother had become very timid after everything she’d been through, but I was different. I was tough, and I wasn’t about to let us face any more abuse in this neighborhood. I accepted my aunt’s unreasonable demand. After this incident, my mother could no longer show her face in the neighborhood. Moving away was our best option. I used the money I’d earned from part-time jobs and what my mother had saved over the years to rent a place outside the neighborhood. It was just a one-bedroom apartment, but it was enough for the two of us. “Mom, we can’t keep living like this. We have to go find that bastard and demand justice!” This was the first time I’d ever suggested confronting Lucas Wilson. He had always been my mother’s worst nightmare, so I’d never brought it up before. But now the time was right. We had to make him take responsibility for what he’d done. “He won’t acknowledge you. That beast probably doesn’t even remember who I am. Why should we go looking for more trouble?” My mother had become very introverted after everything that had happened. She didn’t have the courage to stand up for herself, so of course she rejected my suggestion. “But he’s the one who did wrong!” I stood up, agitated. “Why should we be the ones suffering? We’re being punished for his actions. It’s not fair! We need to get some kind of resolution – money, recognition, even just an apology. There has to be some kind of result!” I had made up my mind. We couldn’t keep being trapped in this whirlpool. If not for myself, then for my mother’s sake, I had to make that bastard pay.
Once I’d made this decision, I dug through our closet and found the business card my mother had thrown away long ago – the one Lucas had given her during their business dealings. Using the phone number on the card, I tracked down his current home address and found his information online. Looking at the family photo of him with his wife and son, all smiles and happiness, I clenched my fists. How could such a despicable man deserve a happy life while my mother and I endured ridicule and shame from others? Using the money I’d saved from my part-time job, I resolutely bought two train tickets to the city where Lucas lived. “I’m sorry, but you can’t go in without an appointment,” the receptionist politely informed us when we arrived at Lucas’s company building. “Just tell him his daughter is here to see him,” I said firmly. My mother tried to pull me away, but with my stubborn personality, there was no way I was backing down now. “As far as I know, Mr. Wilson doesn’t have a daughter,” the receptionist looked at us uncertainly. “You don’t need to worry about that. Just pass along the message,” I insisted. Seeing that I wouldn’t be deterred, the receptionist contacted the CEO’s office and relayed my message word for word. “What nonsense is this? Since when do I have a daughter?” Lucas clearly wasn’t going to admit anything. “Tell them to wait. I’ll be right down.” The receptionist hung up and showed us to the waiting area. Soon enough, Lucas appeared. He was stocky, of average height, with a weasel-like face that was instantly dislikeable. “Who put you up to this? Trying to extort money from me?” Lucas seemed unsurprised, sitting down with the air of someone above it all. A contemptuous smile played on his lips – he clearly didn’t take us seriously. “I guess with all your affairs, you’ve forgotten your misdeeds from over a decade ago.” I let out a cold laugh, placing the documents about my mother and me in front of him, along with a photo of my mother when she was young. “Open your damn eyes and look carefully. See who we are. Think hard about the dirty things you’ve done!” Lucas hadn’t been taking us seriously, but when he saw the photo of my young mother, the smile froze on his face. “Do you see clearly now? Fifteen years ago, you used a business dinner as an excuse to drug my mother. I don’t need to spell out what you did after that, do I? Do you have any idea how my mother and I have lived all these years? We’re here today to demand justice and settle accounts for all these years!” “Lucas, I never wanted to have anything to do with you again. Just seeing you makes me sick! But the mud slung at me and my daughter over the years has been too much, and it’s all because of you!” My mother and I tag-teamed, our eyes blazing with anger as we glared at the scumbag before us. Lucas suddenly laughed, looking at us mockingly. “It was consensual. Now you’re here trying to get something out of me? How unsightly.” “Who said it was consensual?” My mother shouted, enraged. “You said you’d discuss the contract if I drank that glass of wine. All my colleagues were watching! But you, you beast, you drugged my drink! And now you’re slandering me? You’re despicable!” “Let me ask you this – do you have any proof that it wasn’t consensual? Or any evidence that I drugged you? If not, stop making a scene in front of me! Crawl back where you came from!” Lucas threw the documents at us, snorting derisively. “What if I go to the police?” My mother stood up, shaking with anger as she glared at Lucas. I quickly pulled my mother back, signaling her not to be hasty. Seeing Lucas’s nonchalant attitude, I knew that a wealthy businessman like him must have connections in this area. That’s why he could commit such wrongs without punishment. Otherwise, how could he have kept all his shady business dealings hidden all these years? Someone must have been smoothing things over for him. “We don’t need compensation. Just let me be your daughter officially, take my mother back, and we can put this behind us,” I said, thinking of a better approach. If we could get some kind of recognition and get close to Lucas, how hard could it be to find some dirt on him? “What kind of daydream are you having? Two country bumpkin bitches like you, thinking you can waltz into my family? Take a good look at yourselves and see if you’re worthy! Ridiculous!” Lucas laughed as if he’d heard the funniest joke ever. “So you’re refusing to acknowledge me as your illegitimate daughter?” I asked, my gaze darkening as I clenched my fists. “Since you’ve already called yourself illegitimate, you should stay in the gutter where you belong. Why bring it out in the open and make everyone uncomfortable? Besides, I’m not the one who’ll be embarrassed. I bet your mother’s been called all sorts of names, hasn’t she? Let me guess – a shameless whore?” Lucas taunted us, showing no fear at all. “You bastard! I won’t let you get away with this!” I gritted my teeth and grabbed the glass from the table, smashing it against Lucas’s face. After a series of crashes, Lucas’s face was bleeding, and water had splashed all over the three of us. “You crazy bitch! Do you have a death wish?” Lucas, enraged by my actions, grabbed my hair and glared at me viciously. My mother screamed and rushed forward, but Lucas shoved her to the ground with one hand. “What acknowledgment? I can see you’re just after money. Let me tell you, you won’t get a single cent from me! Take this bastard and get out of my company! Stop making me sick!” Lucas threw me to the ground, looking at my mother and me with utter disgust from his superior position. “What’s going on here? Why are they fighting?” “I heard this woman brought her illegitimate daughter to confront Mr. Wilson, but he wouldn’t acknowledge them. Then they started causing a scene.” “I bet it’s just this woman being promiscuous. So many people try to latch onto Mr. Wilson shamelessly. Who knows if this daughter is even real? How disgraceful.” “And they dare to act so righteous! If I were Mr. Wilson, I’d teach them a good lesson they won’t forget!” Our commotion had attracted the attention of many company employees. They whispered among themselves, their words unspeakably harsh. “Dad? Are you okay? What happened?” A young man about my age came running in from the company entrance, looking worriedly at Lucas’s injuries. I recognized him from memory as Lucas’s son, his legitimate heir. “It’s nothing, just dealing with two bitches trying to extort money. What are you doing here?” Lucas looked at us with disgust before turning to smile at his son. “What are they here for?” Lucas’s son, Max, eyed us maliciously. His piercing gaze made me extremely uncomfortable. “We’re here to demand justice from your father,” I said, seeing Max as another potential breakthrough. I decided to try and work on him. “Do you know how many disgusting things your father has done outside? My mother was one of his victims. He drugged her, had a one-night stand, and I was born as a result. Doesn’t that make you sick? Your father isn’t faithful to your mother. Your family is falling apart!” I tried to provoke Max, hoping to drive a wedge between them. I could see Max’s expression freezing bit by bit. Just as I thought my attack was working, he said something that shocked me to my core!
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