Part 2The Condo My Uncle Gave Me 16 Years Ago is Now Worth $865,000.

The next day, the doorbell rang loudly and urgently.

Looking through the peephole, I saw the anxious face of my mother-in-law, Susan.

I knew Mark's "reinforcements" had arrived.

I opened the door, and Susan pushed past me, charging straight in.

"Oh, my poor boy, what happened to you? You look awful."

She grabbed Mark's hands, looking him up and down as if he had suffered some massive injustice.

Mark immediately cooperated, putting on an exhausted, helpless expression.

Susan turned her head, her gaze landing on me like a spotlight.

"Chloe, I heard the news."

"Your uncle is trying to borrow money from you?"

The probing tone in her voice was prickly as a needle.

I gave a flat response. "Yes."

"How much?"

"Over three hundred thousand."

Susan gasped, her voice instantly turning shrill.

"Over three hundred thousand?! Why doesn't he just go rob a bank!"

"He's trying to hollow out our family!"

I looked at her coldly. "Mom, that is my uncle. He is family."

"Also, it's just a loan to get through an emergency. It's not a handout."

Susan plopped down on the sofa, slapping her thigh and starting her theatrics.

"Loan my foot! Lending money to broke relatives is like throwing meat to stray dogs—it never comes back!"

"Chloe, Chloe, you can't be this ungrateful!"

"You married into the Miller family now, everything you have belongs to the Millers!"

"That condo of yours, even if you bought it before we met, you married my Mark. That makes it Miller family property!"

Her logic was simply the logic of a bandit.

I was so angry I laughed.

"Mom, what you're saying is very interesting."

"Since when did my condo become Miller family property?"

Seeing I wasn't playing along, Susan's face changed.

She put away the fake tears, revealing shrewd calculation.

"Chloe, look, how about this."

"Just to be safe, and to make your uncle give up hope entirely."

"Add Mark's name to the deed."

"That way, the condo becomes joint marital property. He won't be able to scheme for it so easily."

Finally, the fox showed its tail.

This was the real reason she came today.

I rejected her without a second of hesitation.

"No way."

Those two words were like a bucket of ice water on her scheming.

Susan's face instantly turned the color of raw liver.

"You! You ungrateful wretch!"

"Our family must have had the worst luck in the world to marry a traitor like you!"

Mark, who had been silent this whole time, finally found his opening.

He stood up, walked over to me, and looked down at me.

"Chloe, what exactly do you think of me and my mom?"

"We are a family!"

"Why are we dividing things into 'yours' and 'mine'?"

"You’re being so defensive, have you been planning an exit strategy this whole time?"

Every accusation felt like he was forcing a selfish, greedy hat onto my head.

I was shaking with anger.

"Family?"

"My uncle is waiting for life-saving money right now, and what are you doing?"

"Have you treated them like family for even a second?"

Susan jumped up from the sofa, pointing her finger right at my nose.

"Whether your uncle's son lives or dies has nothing to do with the Millers!"

"Why should we use our own money to fill their family's sinkhole?"

That sentence exploded in my brain like a thunderclap.

I looked at the mother and son in front of me. At their entitled, cold-blooded, ruthless faces.

For the first time, I genuinely considered divorce.

This wasn't my home.

They weren't my family.

They were just two leeches attached to my property, hoping to suck me dry.

I took a deep breath, suppressing the rising nausea in my chest.

"Get out."

My voice wasn't loud, but it carried undeniable finality.

Both Mark and Susan froze.

They probably never expected that I, usually so compliant, would say something like that.

"What did you say?" Mark's eyes widened.

"I said, get the hell out of my condo."

I enunciated every single syllable clearly.

Susan snapped out of it and tried to lunge at me, ready to throw a tantrum.

"You little bitch, you dare kick me out! I'll kill you!"

I dodged to the side and used all my strength to shove the two of them toward the door.

Mark was still trying to reason with me, or rather, threaten me.

"Chloe, you're crazy! You're cutting ties with us over an outsider?"

I didn't answer.

I just forcefully shoved them out the door.

Then, with a heavy slam, I shut it.

I turned the lock. Deadbolted.

The world was finally quiet.

I leaned against the cold door, my body sliding down until I hit the floor.

But a voice inside my head was incredibly clear:

This condo, this final shred of dignity, no one is taking it from me.