Chapter 11
Karma always hits hardest when you least expect it.
Emma, Ryan’s cousin, called me one morning.
“Guess what,” she whispered. “Ryan had a stroke.”
He’d collapsed in his hometown and was rushed to the hospital.
The doctor’s verdict? Even in the best-case scenario, he’d be paralyzed for life.
That chapter of his story was done.
Now, it was Vivian’s turn.
I’d already found out through a real estate agent that she’d rented a place in a rundown old neighborhood.
The second I had the address, I handed it over to the loan sharks.
I drove there myself, just in time to see a group of enforcers dragging Vivian-and her two sons-out of the building.
They weren’t gentle.
One of them slapped her so hard her mouth bled.
“You think you can borrow and hide? Not on our watch.”
Vivian dropped to her knees, clutching the man’s pant leg.
“Please-I’ll pay it back! I just need a little more time. I can pay!”
“Alright,” the man sneered.
“Pick a date. But if you miss it… you’ll be paying with your body.’
Vivian opened her mouth to bargain, but before she could speak, Jacob-sitting limp on the sidewalk-cut her off coldly.
“She doesn’t have the money. She spent it all on surgery. She was planning to move to Southeast Asia and become a
soft-core cam girl.”
He glared at her, full of hate.
The debt collector’s interest piqued instantly.
He grabbed Vivian’s chin and tilted her face toward the light.”Damn. That $40,000 did pay off. You’re actually pretty
hot. You wanna go overseas? Say the word. We’ve got connections.”
Vivian’s eyes widened in horror.
“No! I-I stream from home! Just let me pay you back! I swear I can!”
By then, a crowd had formed, watching the spectacle from all directions.
Chapter 11
18.33%
But no one stepped in.
Vivian writhed in panic, kicking and pleading.
“Please-I beg you! Let me go! I still have two disabled sons! I can’t leave them behind!”
That line sparked someone’s memory.
“Wait a minute… Aren’t you that abusive mom from the videos?”
“Yeah! You beat those poor boys-and now you’re using them as a shield?”
“Get the hell out of this neighborhood!”
“Scum like you don’t deserve to breathe our air!”
Vivian was dragged toward the car.
As they forced her inside, she turned and glared at Jacob with seething hatred.
“Jacob! You ungrateful little bastard! You traitor! You worthless-mmmph!”
Someone stuffed a rag in her mouth.
They shoved her into the van and slammed the doors.
I turned and walked back to my car, completely calm.
I still had work the next day. My 9-to-6 life continued as usual.
Ryan and Vivian?
They were fading out of my life-like roaches scurrying back into the dark.
A few days later, I went out shopping with a coworker. We passed through an underpass downtown when I noticed a
figure slumped by the wall.
Dirty. Hair matted. One hand curled into a useless claw, trembling uncontrollably.
The man knelt on the ground, head bowed, mumbling.
“Please… anything helps… please…”
My colleague paused, frowning.
“God, that’s so sad.”
She pulled out one dollar, ready to hand it over.
I grabbed her wrist gently.
Chap
“Don’t. It’s all fake. They’re scammers.”
I pulled her away.
But before I turned the corner, I looked back one last time.
It was Ryan Taylor.
Once the man who obsessed over his legacy, his bloodline, his pride.
Now?
A homeless beggar.
Poetic justice.
I remembered what Emma told me weeks ago:
His parents kicked him out. They were tired of cleaning up after him-he couldn’t control his bowels anymore.
Lucy’s scandal ended up bleeding them dry.
He’d been abandoned-left to rot in the streets.
A few days later, I was researching a medical paper on a foreign site when an ad popped up:
[Sexy dealer live-streaming now!]
The kind you see in scammy overseas gambling streams. Usually cheap, clickbait nonsense.
But this one…
The woman looked familiar.
Too familiar.
I squinted.
It was Vivian.
Bikini-clad, tossing fake smiles, blowing kisses at the camera.
So she really had become a cam girl. Who knows where she was now-maybe Southeast Asia, maybe somewhere worse.
As for Jacob and Jonah?
No one’s seen them since.
That winter, I went to the train station to pick up my sons.
From a distance, I saw two tall, bright-eyed young men jogging toward me, dragging their luggage.
“Mom!”
19 33
They called out in unison, waving.
And in that moment-
I finally understood what happiness really felt like.
