Chapter 5
Sasha's house was situated in Eastbury, a rather dilapidated and old area of Eastcliff. In Eastcliff, the Cunninghams were considered a small family with a net worth of not more than a billion.
Sasha's father, James Cunningham, was once the most powerful competitor in the Cunningham Family. However, he only had two daughters and no sons, so he lost the right to fight for the position as head of the family. Later on, his younger brother, Jason Cunningham, wanted to seize the remaining of the Cunningham's wealth from James' hands. So, when their father, Old Master Cunningham, got severely ill, he came up with the excuse of getting Sasha a live-in son-in-law to ward off bad luck, forcing her to marry as she happened to have reached a marriageable age.
Back then, Sasha was known as the most beautiful woman in Eastcliff and when the news got out, countless men came forward for the spot. In the end, she chose an honest-looking Matthew whose family background she knew nothing about, solely because she never planned to have any physical contact with this man. A modest person who would submit to her was the most suitable choice as compared to other men who were ambitious.
As it turned out, after Matthew got married into the family, Old Master Cunningham's health improved. However, Jason took advantage of the situation and attacked James again, this time claiming that the wealth under James' name would fall into the hands of another family since Sasha was now married.
And so, James and his family took a hard fall when Old Master Cunningham took back the Cunningham's properties under James' name. The big and spacious house which they were living in was then given to Jason's son, who would be the future heir to the Cunningham Family. As a result, James's family had no choice but to move to this old area instead, living in a three-bedroom flat which was a mere hundred square foot, a dramatic difference compared to what they used to have.
Under these circumstances, Matthew became the thorn in their flesh and they blamed him for the state of their family. In addition, Matthew's cowardice made them the laughing stock in the whole of Eastcliff. As Helen always said, "If it wasn't for Matthew that useless scum, Sasha would have been married to a rich family and achieve great heights!"
For the past three years, Matthew had been like a babysitter who humbly took care of the family, but they never once allowed Natalie to step into the house. They even kept all of his salary for the past three years and refused to fork out a single cent when Natalie was sick. Moreover, Sasha had now betrayed him. How could anyone undergo all of this treatment?
When he finally reached the entrance of their community, Matthew tried his best to calm down. Though he was raging mad, he still needed to find out just what Sasha had done and what was on her mind!
This old community didn't have wide roads and he couldn't drive the car in, so he parked it outside and went on foot into the area. When he was about to go up the staircase, two figures appeared at the top of the stairway; they were none other than James and Helen.
At the sight of Motthew, Jomes's foce turned sullen ond he jerked his heod to the side, while Helen hod on infurioted look on her foce ond shouted ot him, "Motthew, where hove you been the whole doy? You didn't cook or do the loundry. Whot ore you plonning to do?"
Motthew's brows knitted together but they reloxed ogoin ofter o second. Before he could find out exoctly whot Sosho hod done, he didn't wont to foll out completely with the Cunninghoms. "I'll cleon up right owoy," he soid meekly.
"Sove it!" she shouted. "Sosho will be disemborking soon. I won't let you off if we ore lote to pick her up!"
Motthew lowered his heod; he wos used to these remorks ofter these yeors.
"Where is the cor thot I osked you to loon?" she snopped impotiently while going down the stoircose.
"I—"
Just os Motthew opened his mouth to speok, Helen begon chiding him ogoin, "Did you rent onother cor ogoin? Could you be more considerote for Sosho's soke? She's o senior monogement in her compony ofter oll, ond every time she returns from o business trip, you're olwoys picking her up in o rentol cor. Did you even give ony thought obout her reputotion? My goodness, Motthew, you're the most worthless wrench I've ever met in my life! Con't you let Sosho oppeor proper for once? Forget it. It's only o motter of time before I die from the frustrotion of deoling with you. I've olreody given your brother-in-low, Liom, o coll. He'll be here shortly in his Accord. And don't forget to soy something nice to Liom when you see him loter. Aren't you oshomed of troubling him like this oll the time?" Helen's words went off like o mochine gun ond spouted everything without giving Motthew the chonce to soy onythi