Chapter 399: Shameless Scoundrels

"Big Brother, Second Brother, you... What are you doing here?"

Her brothers had already started wandering around the apartment, paying her no mind.

They answered sarcastically as they looked around.

"We were just going to follow you to Grandma’s, but we never expected you to come here. If we hadn’t followed you out, we’d never have known you had a nice little hideaway like this. Amina, you have this great apartment, but you won’t let your grandma or your own two brothers live here? She has to rent a place, and we have to live at a construction site, while you enjoy this all by yourself? You’ve got some nerve."

Amina hadn’t expected them to be such hooligans.

Seeing the greedy look in their eyes, she rushed to stop them.

"What are you talking about, ’my hideaway’? This apartment isn’t mine. I just left something here and came back to get it..."

Her big brother shoved her aside.

"If this isn’t your apartment, how could you have left something here? And you have a key, you can just walk right in? Do you take us for idiots? If it’s not yours, it must be that punk’s. You two are already living together, so what’s the difference between his and yours?"

Furious, Amina rushed in front of her brother again to block his path.

"Stop looking around. Yes, the apartment is his, but it has nothing to do with me. I signed that agreement and broke up with him because of you two. It’s not like you don’t know that!"

Her brother stared at her brazenly.

"So you signed an agreement? Big deal. They tell you to break up, and you just do it? Are you that stupid? You’re just going to let him use you for nothing? Fine. You’re just a girl, you can’t win against them, you’re scared. I get it. But now your two brothers are here, and we have all our relatives, so what are you afraid of? Amina, I hear real estate in Veridia is ridiculously expensive. A place in a location this good must be worth at least three to five million. If we can just get our hands on this apartment, we’ll be set for life. We could go back home and never have to work again. How can you be so dense?"

The moment she saw them in the apartment, Amina knew they would say something like this.

She had to shatter their delusions.

"Stop dreaming. Haven’t I told you already? The Walton Family is incredibly powerful in Veridia. A few people like us can’t do anything to them. For them, getting rid of us would be as easy as crushing a few ants..."

"Bullshit! He used my sister, dumped her, and now he wants to kill us? Who the hell do they think they are? Do they own Veridia? I refuse to believe there’s no one who can take them down! Don’t you worry, Amina. Starting tomorrow, we’ll go find out how to contact the press. I don’t believe he’s got connections to every single TV station reporter. Someone will have the guts to expose them. All we need is one reporter willing to hear our story, and we’ve got them."

Amina was truly speechless.

’Greed truly does make people lose all reason.’

"I’m not lying to you. As long as you’re in Veridia, someone will be following you. You won’t even make it to a TV station before... Big Brother, Second Brother, if you want to stay in Veridia and behave, then stay. If you don’t, then hurry up and go back home. You really can’t win against them."

"Cut the crap!"

Her second brother shoved her away again and started walking toward the bedroom.

"I’m getting this apartment, no matter what. It’s worth it, even if I have to risk my life! It’s a hell of a lot better than slaving away at a construction site for the rest of my life. You’re just a woman, timid as a mouse. You don’t know shit!"

"Exactly. And the renovation is beautiful. I wish I could just move in right now. Hey, Big Brother, even if we only sell it for two million, that’s one million each. We’d be millionaires back in our hometown! We could have our pick of wives, couldn’t we? Man, Veridia is a great place."

The two of them started pushing open the bedroom doors one by one, inspecting each room.

Amina, terrified they would barge into her and Zeke Walton’s bedroom, scrambled after them.

"Stop looking! What’s there to see in an empty apartment? It’s getting late, and Grandma’s still waiting. Let’s just go. This apartment belongs to Zeke Walton. If he finds out we trespassed, he has every right to call the police. We’ll be arrested!"

"Let him call the cops! Go on, let him! Always trying to scare people by threatening to call the police. You really think I’m a pushover?"

Her big brother shoved her at the second brother.

"Look how nervous she is. There must be something valuable hidden in here. Hold her down while I take a look."

Hearing this, the second brother’s eyes lit up, and he grabbed Amina, holding her tight.

Amina’s heart leaped into her throat.

’Zeke Walton had transferred the apartment to her name at some point, and the deed was right there in the nightstand drawer. If her brother saw it...’

And just as she feared...

Her big brother casually rummaged through the drawer for a moment before pulling out the property deed.

He wasn’t very literate, but he could still recognize those few words.

When he saw Amina’s name on it, he laughed so hard he nearly doubled over.

"This is the deed, isn’t it? And it’s in your name? Amina, Amina... to think you’d hide something like this even from your own brothers. You’ve really changed. You’re so wicked, so greedy. Just watching as we struggle to find wives, while you hoard this massive apartment all to yourself."

He walked over to Amina and tapped the deed against her cheek.

"I really thought you were that much of a pushover, that stupid, letting him use you for nothing. But it looks like our cousin was right. You’re just plain heartless."

"No, that’s not it!"

Amina stared nervously at the deed.

"I’m not keeping this apartment! I’m planning on giving it back to him. I have no right to take his property. You can’t take the deed!"

Her brother sneered, "What do you mean, ’no right’? Your name is on it, and you’re still trying to fool us? We’re your own brothers! What do you think Grandma would say if she knew how cruel you are?"

The second brother’s eyes were shining. "Forget all that, Big Brother! Our dream is about to come true! We’ll sell this place, go back home, buy an apartment each, and still have a few hundred thousand to spare! The good life is finally here!"

"Sounds like a plan. I’ll call our cousin right now and see what this place is worth. Maybe we won’t have to go back to our little town. We might have more than enough to buy places in the county seat."

With that, her big brother pulled out his phone.

Seeing this, Amina’s heart sank completely.

"Don’t call our cousin! I forbid you from calling him! He’s a bad person. He’ll just cheat you out of the money! If you’re really going to sell the apartment, just find a real estate agent. Whatever you do, don’t tell our cousin!"

Her big brother, at least, hadn’t lost all sense of reason.

Hearing her say that, he paused.

"That makes sense. If we ask our cousin for help and he finds out how much we made, we’d have to give him tens of thousands just to save face. We’d just be throwing away money. Forget it, we won’t call him."

"But if we don’t ask him, how are we supposed to sell it?" the second brother asked with a frown.

Her big brother thought for a moment. "Linden is a decent guy. How about this: tomorrow, we’ll ask him to come take a look. We’ll do it behind his parents’ back. Linden likes her, so he’ll definitely help us out."

"Hey, Amina," her brother said, "since you’ve already broken up with that other guy, and Linden likes you so much—plus his family’s pretty well-off—you might as well just marry him."