Relatives Suddenly Dropped Off Their Kids and Cleaned Out My Luxuries!

When summer break started, my relatives didn't want to deal with their kids, so they dumped the burden on me.

No phone call, no text, nothing. They just dropped the kids off at my place and took off.

That night I was slammed at work, and I still had a dinner to attend to talk over a project.

By the time I got home in the middle of the night, my apartment looked like it had been robbed.

The front door hung wide open, and everything of any value was gone.

My face went white, and before I could even come to my senses to call 911, someone started hitting me over the head.

I thought it was a burglar. Turned out it was my little cousin.

"Cousin, what took you so long to get home! Hurry up and make me something to eat."

Then he started ordering me around like he owned the place.

It was the security footage that told me the truth. No thief had cleaned me out. My aunt and uncle had.

They couldn't get the door open, so they called a locksmith to pry it. And the person who let them do it was my own mother.

The two rotten kids in front of me had simply been dumped on me to raise.

"Hey! Are you deaf?"

"My sister and I haven't eaten all day, we're starving to death, and you still won't go cook."

I set my phone down and stared at the two kids at my feet, my face blank.

The older one was only twelve, the younger one just eight.

How much nerve did their parents have to leave them here at my place and bolt like that?

If they'd been snatched by child traffickers, who would have answered for it?

Me? I hadn't known a thing.

But set the law aside and go by how people actually judge these things, and the blame lands on me.

The kids went missing on my watch. The thought of it sent a strange rush of anger up through me.

"Who told you to come here? Why didn't anyone tell me before you showed up?"

There was fire in my voice, and rage all over my face.

The rare orchids in my apartment, the Tang dynasty landscape painting hanging on the wall, the designer clothes and watches in my room, all of it my uncle's family had taken without asking.

How was that any different from thieves? And on top of it, they didn't want to raise their own kids, afraid the kids would get in their way.

So they played the hands-off boss out of pure selfishness and dumped the burden on me.

I'd have to be a saint to keep my temper now, and I'm no saint.

I didn't expect my anger would set the two of them off crying.

"WAAAAAAAH!!!!"

The shrill wailing bounced through the whole apartment and woke the neighbors too.

"The hell! Who's carrying on like this in the middle of the night when people are trying to sleep!"

"Been crying ten minutes straight and still won't stop. Where are your manners?"

"Stop it or I'm calling the cops."

"Damn it, I've got an early morning."

The one thing I dread is a complaint, so I lowered my voice and hissed at them to stop crying.

But I don't know how to soothe a kid. I'm a grown man who's never raised one, and I had no idea how to calm them down.

So the two of them, brother and sister, only cried louder, one smashing things to vent, the other bawling with everything he had.

By the look of it, their aunt had coached them at home.

The moment they weren't happy, they'd throw a fit and cry until I gave in.

My uncle's whole family were selfish operators. Back at family dinners, they'd never missed a chance to teach their kids to squeeze favors out of the adults.

I clenched my fists tight. I had never felt this humiliated and helpless.

"Stop crying. I'm so worn out I haven't even had a sip of water, and here you are crying and crying. Isn't it enough already."

For a second my shout stunned them, and they finally went quiet.

But the next second, a crowd showed up at my door.

Their faces held nothing but anger, and more anger.

I knew they hadn't come to be friendly, and I knew what they'd come to do.

"Was that you two carrying on like that just now?"

"What, did your wife die, or your dear old mother?"

Nobody's happy about getting dragged out of sleep in the dead of night.

Their insults were going too far, but when I stopped to think about it, I'd been in the wrong first.

I put on a quick, apologetic face. "I'm really sorry, everyone."

"I just got home myself and found out my relatives dumped their kids here for me to look after without ever asking me."

"I don't know the first thing about taking care of kids, and now I've gone and made them cry."

Only then did everyone notice my front door looked pried open, the apartment a wreck behind me, and two children staring at them with wide eyes.

Their eyes came back to me, and they finally registered that I was still in my suit with my briefcase in hand, like I'd just walked in from work.

That took some of the edge off.

"Listen, buddy."

"I'm not trying to lecture you, but you'd better send those two kids back fast, or you'll be asking for trouble and won't even know it."

"That's right. You work all day, you're only home at night. If you let them go hungry, their parents will come after you."

I knew their advice came from a good place. But these two little terrors weren't a problem I could hand off that easily.

Once the neighbors were gone, I didn't dare keep scowling at the kids, afraid they'd start up again and wake everyone.

What I hadn't counted on was that before they ever showed up at my place, they'd been coached, like their aunt had run them through a training program.

"Then get down and be my horse and let me ride you, and I'll forgive you."

A flat-out threat. Kids this small, and they already knew how to go straight for the throat.

Get on my knees and be their horse? Not a chance.

"You two, don't push your luck."

"I'm tired. I don't have time to play with you."

"Didn't your mom ever teach you to behave at home"

"Cut the crap. My mom said if anyone won't do what we say, we cry and throw a fit."

I froze cold. Some piece of work, that Charity Finch, raising kids to be like this.

The temper I'd just set down came right back up.

I was so angry I called Charity on the spot.

The phone rang for a good ten minutes before she picked up.

The second it connected, she screamed into the line.

"Who is this?! You want to die?!"

"Calling in the middle of the night and waking people up, you've got no decency."

"Ha. So you do know that calling somebody in the dead of night and dragging them out of sleep is a pretty indecent thing to do."

Hearing the familiar voice, Charity sobered up a little.

"Oh! It's Max."

"Did something happen to my kids?"

I had no patience left for her. My face went hard right there, and I laid into her.

"Oh, now you care whether something happened to your kids?"

"You've got some nerve. You dumped two little kids on me and ran off without even getting the door fixed."

"The lock alone costs three hundred to"

She caught herself saying the wrong thing and cut it off fast.

"So they didn't run off, did they?"

"Ha. No, they didn't. But my valuables sure did. The two of you stole them."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now that I don't like hearing."

"What do you mean, stole? You're my nephew. What's wrong with elders taking a few things from the younger generation?"

"You're being awfully stingy here."

"Well, since the kids are fine, do me a favor and look after the two of them for a couple of months."

And with that, before I could argue, Charity switched off her phone.

"Hello?! Charity! Charity Finch!"

I called again, and all I got was that flat, dead-machine voice telling me the line was unavailable.

I was so angry I wanted to smash the phone, but it wasn't worth it.

A sharp pain shot up my leg. I looked down and realized the older kid had just kicked me.

"Are you gonna kneel or not?"

Trash parents raise trash kids. Same rotten stock.

When I didn't answer, he shot his sister a look.

She was gearing up for a full-blown wailing fit, so I stopped her fast.

"Fine. Fine, don't cry."

And that was how I ended up half-kneeling under their threats, letting the two of them ride me around like a horse.

After that, they ordered me to go cook them dinner.

I waited on the both of them until I was ready to drop, and they still took over my bed and made me sleep on the floor.

Cross them in any way, and they'd throw a screaming tantrum at me.

The next morning, I took the day off work. Come hell or high water, I was hauling those two back home.

But the uncle and Charity had known I'd bring them back, so they'd cleared out ahead of time.

The front door was locked tight. It wasn't until I asked the neighbors that I found out they'd gone off on a vacation.

I cursed right there on the spot. "Shameless. Dump the trouble on someone else, then swan off on holiday without a care in the world."

I called my mother. "Mom, how could you let Uncle and Charity dump their kids on me?"

"Don't you know I still have a job to do?"

"Ugh, you know how your aunt is. If she doesn't get her way, she comes and makes trouble for me. And your sister-in-law can't stand it, so when your aunt gets in a mood, she takes it out on your brother."

Hearing that, a cold, sinking feeling came over me for no reason I could name.

So biased toward my older brother, and not one thought spared for me.

This was exactly why I hadn't gone home for the holidays in three years.

Other people go home to be with family. I only ever went home to be bled dry.

When coworkers asked why I didn't go home for the holidays, I never dared tell them the truth: that I came from a family of vampires.

But now the trouble had come looking for me even when I wasn't looking for it.

With no other choice, I dragged the two dead weights back to Los Angeles with me.

The moment I got home, my fiance was there, dinner already made, waiting for me.

"Maxwell, hurry up and go wash"

Her smile froze on her face.

She'd been stopped short by the two kids behind me.

"Who are they?"

I gave a bitter smile. "My uncle's kids."

"They didn't want to look after them, so they dumped them on me."

"What? So they're leaving the kids for you to raise?"

I nodded, worn to the bone, and Janet Harding let out a sigh.

"Let's just eat first."

She came over, took my hand, and led me off to wash up.

The hurt my family kept handing me, hers was the only presence that ever felt like warmth.

But when we came back out to eat, the dishes on the table had been wrecked by those two kids, the whole spread a ruined mess.

"What do you think you're doing?"

I wasn't just dead on my feet, I was so hungry I had nothing left. Weren't they even going to let me have a bite of food?

"Why are you yelling at us like that?"

"You're the worst, cousin. Our mom's never once scolded us our whole lives."

So the big-cry routine was about to come out again, and Janet, worried for me, softened her voice and started coaxing them.

The veins stood out on my temples, I was so furious, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I'd thought about it. Whoever gave the okay to dump these kids on me, I'd just dump the trouble right back on them.

But then my mother would come demanding money from me to support my brother's family.

And the price of refusing would be her smashing my father's ashes.

A home this suffocating. All I wanted was to escape it.

For now, there was nothing left but to grit my teeth and swallow all of it.

Seeing I had no more objections, they stuck out their tongues and made faces at me in triumph.

"That's more like it."

Janet talked me down too, telling me not to get into it with the kids, that it would only wind me up worse.

So I swallowed the fire in my chest for the moment and ate the leftovers.

While we were carrying the plates and bowls to the sink, the two of them were jumping and bouncing all over the leather sofa.

I wanted to storm out and yell at them to stop, but Janet said one thing.

"If you go out there and shout, all you'll get is a screaming, thrashing tantrum."

"And then what are you going to do about it?"

She was right. Against brats like these, I had nothing.

But what worried me most was, how was I supposed to keep going to work?

I finished the dishes, then went straight to the study to work late and get the project proposal done.

I'd just finished and hadn't even had a chance to stretch when I heard Janet scream.

"Ah! Get out of here, stop filming!"

I was so startled I didn't even get my shoes on, and ran out with one bare foot.

Only to see that older boy, using his phone to film Janet in the shower.

I rushed straight over and snatched the phone out of his hand.

"How rotten can you be? Don't you know that secretly filming a woman in the shower is a crime?"

Inside, Janet was crying while she pulled her clothes on.

And in my chest, a towering hatred surged up.

But what he said next was pure arrogance: "Tch, are you trying to scare me?"

"Kids can do whatever they want and it's never a crime."

Meeting that cocky face of his, I quickly deleted every photo he'd taken.

Then I fixed him with a cold stare.

"If I tell your classmates about this, guess how everyone at school is going to look at you."

"Don't you sneer and roll your eyes at me. Once I turn mean, I don't care who you are to me."

The look of fury on me stunned him, and for the moment he didn't dare throw a fit.

When Janet came out, she didn't linger a second. She grabbed her bag and left.

The little one, though, was so happy she clapped her hands. "Yes! We finally got rid of her. Now no one can take over my room."

The older boy pulled himself back together, ignored my anger, and cockily dug out the potato chips, curling up on the sofa to eat them.

I hurried out to find Janet, but she'd already driven off.

Watching the shape of her car shrink into the distance, I dragged myself back inside, gutted.

But who would have guessed, the project proposal I'd just finished had been torn to shreds by that boy.

"Ha, see that? This is what you get for daring to cross us."

In that moment, I nearly beat the both of them senseless.

Turn my whole life into a poisoned mess like this, and nobody could keep their temper.

They just figured that since I had a mild temper, I was easy to push around, right?

Well, I'd see who begged for mercy first.

The next day, I only made breakfast, then went back to work.

I wasn't coming home at noon, wasn't cooking for them. I was going to let them go hungry, and I meant it.

I sent Charity a message saying I had things to deal with and couldn't look after her kids, but she just said it was fine, to keep them shut up at home.

Since their own mother put it that way, well, I could hardly refuse such a gracious offer.

Hungry stomachs at noon, hungry stomachs again at dinner.

I used working late as the excuse not to go back, and stayed at the office doing the project proposal.

The two kids got so hungry they couldn't stand it and called Charity.

Charity wouldn't listen. She told them to tough it out, knowing full well I was doing this on purpose.

Then I'd just play along with her: only breakfast every day, and by any reasonable measure, it was true that I only got home at night.

They cried, they raged, but by then they'd already driven me half out of my mind, and I didn't care about any of it.

By the fifth day, those two plump little troublemakers had dropped over ten pounds.

And it wasn't just that they'd gotten thin. They were so starved they'd gone outside to dig through the dumpster looking for something to eat.

That day Charity and the uncle happened to pass by nearby, and they still refused to come collect the kids and take them home.

"Honey, there's no substitute for experience."

"We dump the kids on Maxwell to raise, and we get to keep living it up out here..."

But before he could finish, he nearly walked straight into the dumpster beside them.

And by the dumpster, two little beggars were rooting through the trash for food.

"Damn it! You filthy little beggars, you almost"

"No, wait. They, they look like our own babies!"