To Please a Woman, Brother Seized My House, Forced Livestreaming

You should move out. I'm getting married next month.

My brother said it calmly, casually handing me a fragrant pear.

He was so relaxed about it that I wondered if I'd misheard.

Say that again?

You. Move out. I'm getting married, and my girlfriend doesn't want to live with her husband's family!

He said it again, harder this time.

I bought this house with my own money. The down payment was two hundred thousand, and the monthly loan payments come straight out of my paycheck.

"Dean, this is my house. Why should I move out?"

I was shaking with anger.

He gave a contemptuous little laugh.

"Your house? How are you going to prove this is your house? The deed's in Mom and Dad's names. They both said sothis is my marital home."

He'd made me so angry I laughed.

"Dean Simmons, you'd better remember that bank records don't lie. Those transfer notes are going to be my evidence."

The second I held up my phone to show him,

his face changed in an instant, and he glared at me with a vicious look...

"Teresa Simmons, oh, Teresa Simmons. Who would've thought you'd spend every scrap of your scheming on guarding yourself against your own family?"

Dean's harsh scolding covered up his panic.

But very soon he composed himself again.

"Today your big brother's going to teach you a lessonabout how the thief inside the house is the hardest to guard against."

"I'll tell you the truth. Mom and Dad, to show their loyalty, already transferred the house into my girlfriend's name."

He even flashed a smug, taunting grin.

Growing up, I wore his hand-me-downs, ate the food he didn't like, and when he stole money from our parents, I was the one who got beaten.

Now that he's grown, his appetite has grown too. He's no longer content just making me take the fall for his little stunts.

Now he wants to steal the house I worked myself to death to buy.

I was about to pull out my phone and call my parents to get to the bottom of it,

when Dean smacked the phone right out of my hand.

"Mom and Dad said the only reason they had you was to trade you for a wife for me. If it weren't for me, a little girl like you would've been drowned in a cesspit the day you were born. One house to repay me for saving your lifehow are you so stingy about it?"

"Besides, when we were kids, didn't you give me whatever I wanted? How'd you get so petty now?"

"Have I been treating you too nice lately, so you can't tell anymore who's in charge in this family? Hm?"

"You transferred my property to somebody else without my consent. That's against the law!"

My eyes were blazing, ready to split, but not a single tear fell.

It turns out that when you're angry enough, there are no tears.

"With your consent? Who do you think you are? We went through the proper channelsgo check with the county recorder's office if you want."

"Never mind that I've got those transfer notes as evidencelet's just talk about the three thousand five hundred a month. Dean, it's not that I look down on you, but can you even make that payment?"

Dean was a gambler. He'd deliver food all day, cash it out first thing the next morning, then go play a couple rounds of cards and lose everything down to the underwear on his back.

Back then, my parents wouldn't let me go to college over eighteen hundred in tuition.

My mom tore up my acceptance letter.

She said girls just get corrupted by the twisted nonsense in books.

Later I caught the wave of the internet.

I became a minor influencer and made some money.

My dad said men these days can't be trustedhe was afraid that if I ever dated someone, the guy would be after my premarital assets.

So, he said, we'd buy a house and register it in his and my mom's names, so my family would always be a place I could fall back on.

These past few years I've been earning money, and my parents have treated me better and better. That's exactly why my dad managed to feed me that sweet lie.

Before, I just thought they loved me less than they loved my brotherat least they wouldn't scheme against me.

Looking back now, I was a complete and utter fool.

Just as Dean and I were locked in a standoff,

my parents came home.

"Mom, Dad, perfect timing. My girlfriend said flat out she will not live with her husband's family. If Teresa doesn't move out, she'll abort the baby in her belly. You two figure it out."

Dean sprawled down on the sofa, wearing the look of a man who'd already won...

"Dean Simmons! You little bastard! Is that any way to talk to your sister? Apologize to her!"

My mom shot him a fierce glare.

"Mom! Did you take the wrong pills? You want me to apologize to this money-losing brat?"

Dean stared at our mother's furious face in disbelief.

"Your sister streams until the middle of the night every single day for this family. Are you blind?"

"If she really cared about this family, with her looks she'd make way more as a borderline racy streamer than as a comedy streamer. Wearing a couple fewer clothes won't cost her a chunk of flesh. Go on, ask her if she's willing."

Dean curled his lip and swept a scornful look over me from head to toe.

"You animal! Was any of that even human talk?"

My dad couldn't take it anymore. He raised his hand and slapped Dean across the face.

Dean stared, stunned, at his enraged parents.

He froze for a second, then cursed and stormed out, slamming the door.

For the first time in my whole life, my parents had stood up for me.

A wave of warmth surged and rolled through my chest.

In that moment, I thought I was finally loved...

After Dean slammed the door and left, my mom and dad exchanged a glance,

and suddenly both dropped to their knees with a thud at my feet.

Their sudden move sent a buzzing jolt through my head, like an electric shock...

"Teresa, your parents are begging youplease give the house to your brother!"

"Your brother may be a disappointment, but he's the only son the Simmons family has."

"You're his sister. You don't want him to end up a bachelor, do you?"

"Just agree to move out for now, and once he's brought his wife home, gotten the marriage license, and it's a done deal, you can move back in. All right?"

"Your parents aren't playing favorites with your brother. When there are two kids in a family, the one who's doing better always has to help out the one who's struggling."

"Your brother's a good-for-nothing. Once your dad and I have finished settling his big life event, our job will be done, and after that we'll devote ourselves entirely to taking care of you."

My mother's cloudy eyes shone with a pleading light, and my father's honest face was full of apology.

The refusal caught in my throat and made a turn,

and came out as "Okay."

Compared to a parent's love, what's one house?

This was the love I'd waited twenty years for.

Soon, my house became Dean Simmons's wedding home,

and my parents and I were swept out the door.

Now that I finally had my parents' love, I threw myself into work even harder.

I secretly vowed to work like crazy and hurry up and buy another house so my parents could retire comfortably.

The rental was in bad shape, so I had to go to MC Corporation, the company I was signed with, to do my streams.

By the time I got back to the rental with dark circles that rivaled a panda's,

I found my mom sitting on the couch, crying.

Only when I asked did I find out.

Even though I'd agreed to transfer the house to Dean Simmons, he couldn't come up with the monthly loan payments,

so he'd gone to my mom.

"Teresa, the money your dad and I have is in a fixed-term deposit. It's a waste to pull it out now. Why don't you cover the payment for your brother first?" My mom looked at me again with those pleading, earnest eyes.

"Mom, I stay up night after night streaming, doing PK battles with people, and when I lose I have to crawl into a trash can. Every dollar I make is hard-earned. Have you ever once felt sorry for me?"

Right then, my heart ached like a lemon that had been beaten with a stick.

"How could Mom not feel for you? I've got it all figured outwhen my fixed-term deposit matures, I'll take it all out and give it to you. That spendthrift brother of yours won't get a single cent. He and your sister-in-law-to-be haven't even registered their marriage yet, right?"

"You and I will work together to help him settle everything, and once they've got their marriage license, his wife will naturally put up the money to pay off the mortgage."

I just lowered my eyes, aching, and said nothing.

When my mother saw that I didn't answer, she coughed to cover her awkwardness,

and went on in a mild, unhurried tone:

"If you don't want to pay, that's fine too. I hear there are blood buyers outside the hospital. Your dad and I will go stake out the hospital entrance. One way or another, we'll patch up your brother's hole for this month."

"Don't you worry, Teresa. In the future, whenever you need it, your parents will just as gladly go sell blood to patch up your holes too."

With that, my mom called my dad and made to head off to the hospital.

"I'll transfer it to you."

I couldn't stand to watch her struggle like that.

I sent her the money, and she rushed over, thrilled, and hugged me.

But in that hug, I couldn't feel any love.

In the days that followed,

my mom cooked me all kinds of delicious food.

The way she went out of her way to please me made me feel guilty for a while, for getting upset with her over three thousand dollars.

The peaceful days didn't last long.

It wasn't until, after I'd streamed all night and was sleeping like the dead through the day,

my best friend Imogen's calls came in like some death-summoning demon,

that I woke with a jolt and realized my whole world had collapsed.

She told me to get online and check the news right awaymy explicit photos were plastered all over the internet!

"This girl's pretty good at faking it. Comedy is her job, being a slut is her nature, hahaha."

"Such an innocent face, and who knew she had a body like that. It got me hard just looking!"

"Brothers, I like the naughty ones, hit like so the streamer sees it!"

"Desperate for fame, huh? Posting a video of yourself in the shower onlinefirst one on the whole internet to pull that!"

"People mock the poor, not the whores. The blogger's just scared of being broke, hahaha."

My hands were shaking badly.

Just then, Imogen called again.

"Teresa, wait for me. I'm coming to get you right now, and I'll go to the police with you. Let's find out which shameless creep planted that camera! We'll catch them and throw them in jail!"

"Okay."

I felt like every last bit of life had been drained out of me. I curled up on the couch, so scared my stomach cramped up...

Imogen came flying over and grabbed me to head to the police department.

That was when my parents blocked the door and, once again, knelt down at my feet.

Tears and words pouring out of them:

"Teresa, don't call the police. I did it. I saw the money and got greedy, and I sold the video of you in the shower to a porn site."

The last thing I ever expected was that it would be my dad who spoke up.

A farmer who works with his face to the dirt and his back to the sky, who can barely read a wordhow could he possibly understand all these high-tech twists and turns?

"It was Dean, wasn't it?"

A second before my parents knelt, I'd still thought I was being targeted by some criminal.

Now I felt like I'd plunged into a pit of ice.

The parental love I'd craved for twenty years turned out to be nothing but a front.

I couldn't stand to see them struggle, yet they were perfectly willing to shove me into the mud.

"Teresa, your brother still needs two hundred thousand for the bride-price. There's nothing we can do about it."

"Think about itwe've already transferred the house over to them and paid out the bulk of it. We can't have it all fall apart over the bride-price."

"Two hundred thousand is no small amount, and you can't come up with it right now. Your brother figured he'd use your videos to make a little money."

"They promised they'd only post it on that VIP website or whatever, but they went back on their word and put it straight out there."

"Teresa, you know the lawlet's sue that website. Maybe we can even squeeze more money out of them in damages!"

All they saw was money. They didn't see me, their daughter, sweating from head to toe with stomach cramps.

The family bond I'd propped up all by myself crumbled into ruins in that instant.

"Fine. I'll go to the company right now and find the legal department to draft a demand letter, and I'll sue the website that spread the video."

I deliberately leaned hard on the part about suing the website.

The reason I got out of that house so easily was thanks to my legally clueless parents.

They thought that winning the lawsuit meant getting even more money.

That's why they let me walk right out...

"Teresa, are you sure about this?"

Standing at the entrance of the police department, Imogen asked me gravely.

Because she knew all too well how desperately I'd once longed for my parents' love.

"Yes."

Family love is such a precious thing. It should never have become a tool for them to profit off my own flesh and blood...

My case had a huge impact on public opinion, so after I reported it, the police immediately set up a task force.

Dean Simmons was detained soon after.

My company, MC Corporation, provided me with a lawyer.

After Dean was arrested, my mother called me nonstop, so I put her on my blacklist.

Before long she was making a scene at my company.

"Teresa Simmons, aren't you something! You actually put your own brother in prison!"

My mother screamed at me, her face twisted with rage, not a trace of a loving mother left in her.

"He broke the law, and going to jail is the price he should pay!"

"Broke the law? What law did he break? His parents are getting old, and he's worried about them. What's wrong with putting a camera in his parents' house?" She dropped the act, and her sharp, spiteful face finally came out.

"The lease is signed in my name, and I pay the rent. Without my permission, it's against the law for him to touch anything inside."

"Hmph, if you ask me, you did it on purpose. You were born cheap, you just love stripping naked for people to see! And now you're slandering my son!"

My own birth mother was hurling insults at me in front of everyone,

and it instantly drew a crowd of gawkers.

Seeing more and more people gather, my mother just plopped down on the ground and threw a fit.

"What a wretched life I have, giving birth to a lowly thing like you, a jinx, who only knows how to ruin her own brother!"

She was the picture of a rural shrew, slapping her thigh as she chanted her curses.

It was truly pathetic.

Pathetic that I had a mother like this,

and pathetic that at an age when she should be enjoying life, she had to make a public spectacle of herself over a good-for-nothing gambler of a son.

"Ma'am, you're standing on property leased by my company. I'm asking you to leave immediately."

Just then, a cool, clear male voice cut off my mother's cursing.

It was Rufus Whitney, the CEO of MC.

"Who do you think you are? You say leave and I just leave? Speaking up for that cheap little bitch, are you? Got your eye on this slut? Pay a bride-price of two hundred thousand and she's yours."

"Security, throw her out!"

At Rufus's command, two guards took my mother by the arms and hauled her out.

"Teresa Simmons, you slut, ganging up with some strange man to bully your own motheryou'll die a horrible death."

Her curses kept ringing in my ears.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Whitney. My personal affairs have affected the company."

"Come with me to the service department."

He called in the head of the chief legal department, who had been on vacation.

I told the legal counsel everythinghow my parents had tricked me into putting their names on the house when I bought it, and about the monthly loan payments I'd been transferring.

"Not a problem. What's yours is yoursyou won't be shorted a single cent."