Jonah lowered his head, unable to speak. He was truly defeated.
There was no other way out, so he could only shoot Chloe a look.
Chloe had already been awake for a while, and she immediately burst into tears. “Oh, my son! What
should I do now? Helen, I don’t want to keep living anymore! I only have my son; if something happens
to him, I… I’d rather be dead!”
Helen hastily held onto her. “Don’t worry, Chloe. I’ll find a way to help you. Please, Mr. Manning—I’m
begging you this. Can’t you help us?”
Craig looked at Matthew, and the latter gave a slight nod. After all, he knew very well that Helen would
keep dragging this out if they didn’t resolve this matter.
“I’ve explained things very clearly earlier. This is mainly a problem of compensation and whether the
victim is able to forgive the perpetrator. If we can resolve these problems, we can also try to resolve the
other remaining problems,” Craig answered.
“You hear that, Chloe?” Helen hastily asked. “No one actually died, s-so this matter is still something that
can be resolved. We’ll just have to pay a bit more, but won’t everything be okay by then?”
“W-Well, how much do we need to pay?” Chloe asked frantically.
Helen looked at Craig, and the latter was exasperated. “This really isn’t something that’s easy to say.
From my experience, I presume it will start with one million at the very least!”
“What?!” Chloe exclaimed in panic. “No one’s dead, so why do we have to pay one million to them? Isn’t
this… crossing the line?”
“In that case, do you want your son to stay in prison for a few extra years, or would you prefer paying a
little extra money?” Craig asked softly.
Chloe was tongue-tied for a moment. After a moment of silence, she burst into tears again. “W-Where
am I going to get a million?”
Demi, who had been chuckling coldly all this while, suddenly piped up and said, “Hey, Aunt Chloe—all of
you returned from abroad. I heard that those foreign countries are gold mines. How can you not even
have one million in the bank? Not only that, Uncle Jonah’s also a senior executive at a foreign company;
who knows how much his salary is? Hundreds of thousands?”
Meanwhile, James snickered as he looked at Jonah and the others in jest.
The Cunninghams had been sick of all their blabbering; ever since those four came back, they wouldn’t
shut up about how their lives were while they were overseas. Now that Demi had taken the opportunity to
snipe at them, she had earned James’ favor.
Jonah and Chloe’s faces reddened, for they felt that they were being put on the spot. Although they
boasted about spending the last few years abroad, their lifestyle was just an average one in reality.
Chloe didn’t work, and Jonah was the sole breadwinner. Once they deducted all their expenses from
Jonah’s monthly salary from his job at the foreign company, they didn’t have much left.
In truth, they had always rented during their time abroad—they didn’t have their own property. The main
reason why Jonah was able to come back and work as a general manager was only because of how
much importance the head office had placed on this project. They needed a local to handle this matter,
and Jonah just so happened to be from Eastcliff. The head office had taken note of this, and this was the
only reason why they made him return to become the head manager here.
If it wasn’t for that, he would only be a small-time manager or something at the company. How could he
have gotten such a great opportunity?
Meanwhile, their thoughts were still stuck in the past during those years they were abroad—they still had
the impression that their nation was poor and undeveloped like all those years before they left. They had
also seen the news reports; many articles had been cherry picked to paint a particular picture about how
their countrymen couldn’t even afford to buy eggs to eat, how pickles were a luxury, and how their
countrymen were only able to eat meat once a year during the new year.
To the Campbells, their home country was still as poor and backward as ever; their lives abroad could
make the local tycoons’ lives look like a mere peasant’s. That was the reason why they obnoxiously
tooted their own horn when they returned to their home country; they had made themselves out to be
better than others, and they wouldn’t shut up about how life was overseas.
In truth, this was all just an act. While their lives looked dazzling on the surface, their pockets were
actually empty after they returned from abroad. Scrounging up 300,000 would be a herculean feat, let
alone a million!
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda