YOU STILL OWE ME!

His stepmother scoffed. "You? Will you make me experience hell?" She laughed as if she were very amused. Then she stood up and slowly walked closer to the boy with daring eyes. "Aren't you scared of me? Aren't your knees trembling every time I get angry?"

As soon as they were just a step closer to each other, Jia looked very angry already. "YOU ARE JUST A USELESS AND HELPLESS BOY. I BROUGHT YOU UP, BUT YOU? THIS IS WHAT YOU'LL GOING TO PAY ME?" Her every word was stressed and very clearly expressed.

Lay suddenly looked cold. He heard those words again, which always stabbed his heart. He is useless and helpless, and that has been true since Jia and her son Jeo came into his life and stole his father's love. But everything is different now.

"Yes, my great stepmother. You raised me up in hell, and I'm surely going to let you experience the way you treated me if you get into my nerves again." He smirked, and his aura just completely changed into a dangerous one, like he suddenly became a monster.

Jia was so shocked to see how he looked, and with Lay's cold tone, his words just seemed to have frozen her nerves. She suddenly felt nervous in a way she had never felt before, and she even held her chest.

Before the woman could react and say something more, Lay had already started to walk away. "Son of a b***tch!" She mumbles.

He headed towards his Dad's room and immediately opened the door without even knocking.

"Dad!?" He looked startled to see how thin and pale his dad looked while sitting on the bed and trying to reach the glass of water from the side table.

Lay quickly helped him get the glass and let him drink. His Dad was so weak, he couldn't even stand up and leave his bed.

Lay put back the glass of water on the side table and sat on the bed, facing his father, who is now leaning on the headboard.

"You have come back. I know you will!" His voice is husky and low.

"Dad!" Lay doesn't know what to say. He just kept on staring at his dad's face, his eyes full of pity and anxiety.

"Don't be sad!" He smiled and wanted to comfort his son, but then he immediately coughed so hard.

Lay immediately gets closer to him and pats his back. "You're very ill. I will send you to the hospital."

But his father just sighed and held his hand. "No need!"

"I'm not asking for your permission anyway!" Lay hugged him. "I miss you, Dad. We haven't met each other for so long, and I can't just let something wrong happen to you, especially now that we can be together already."

"Listen, son." He started to gently rub his son's head like he used to do even when he was just a kid. "You know that I have been fighting against leukemia all these years. Unfortunately, it is stage 4 now, and my days are numbered already."

Lay clenched his hand a bit upon hearing what his father said. He didn't want to accept it and was determined to save his father and get him treated in a good hospital. However, he just let his father speak in the meantime and just listened. He doesn't want to be willful and upset him too.

"I have nine branches for our bakeshop already in the other cities, but our business is probably going to be bankrupt soon. I want you to handle it with your stepbrother. Four years have passed, and I can see that you've grown up already as well as your stepbrother. He's not angry with you anymore, and I'm sure that your stepmother will be good and help you too. Our little business is the only thing I could leave to you, son; you must take care of it."

"You're so naive, dad," he said in his head, knowing how cruel his stepmother and stepbrother were towards him. Each and every scheme, frame-up, and beating he endured from the two were all still fresh in his mind.

Lay stopped hugging his Dad and went in front of him. "Don't worry, Dad. I will make sure that nothing wrong will happen to our business," he seriously said.

His Dad immediately smiled. "I know that you've suffered a lot these past few years, but I don't feel sorry at all because I know that all the hardship you encountered just made you mature and strong like the way you are now. It's just that we missed such a very long time in which we could have been together, and I'm deeply sorry about it."

Lay sighed and bitterly smiled. "I would be lying if I said that I don't feel any resentment towards you and your decisions sometimes. But don't worry, Dad, I completely understand."

"You've grown up already. Great! Great! I feel like I can rest in peace now." He leans on the headboard again with a smiling face, and though his lips just curved a little and he still looked very weak, the utmost joy can be seen in his eyes.

"Don't say that, Dad. I still need you! You still owe me those times we haven't been together and you haven't taken care of me. So just fight, okay?"

Lay's Dad married Jia when he was just 8 years old, and since then, he has felt like seeing his Dad is the hardest thing to happen and being with him is the most expensive time he can hardly afford. Their closeness was broken too because of Jeo, who always bullied him and played like a victim.

He held his father's hand. "Let's make up for the time we have missed together. I can surely find a great doctor who can cure you."

But by then, his father's hand had just slipped out of his grasp. His eyes slowly closed, but the little smile on his face remained as his head seemed to drop a little on his shoulder.

"Dad!" Lay called him with a cracking voice. "Don't scare me, Dad! Open your eyes. Let's eat dinner together tonight. Okay?" But the old man didn't move anymore—not breathing, no heartbeat.

"Dad!" His voice is low and full of pain. He gripped his hand and shook him a little. "Dad! Wake up! Wake up!" Tears started to fall from his eyes. He knows that his Dad is dead already, but he still doesn't want to accept it.

"Dad!" He screamed in pain, and it echoed in the whole room. The tears were racing down his cheeks. "Dad! Wake up! Dad!" He started wailing in pain, unable to accept that he just saw his Dad after four years of being separated, but then he suddenly left.

The door thuds! Jia rushed in, asking, "What happened?" And she immediately pushed Lay away from his Dad. The grieving young man just let himself fall to the floor, still crying.

She checked the old man's pulse and confirmed that he was dead, but instead of crying, a cunning smile flashed on her face.