chapter 3

Noah's pov

"WOW!" I looked at the pile of paper money that had come out of the bag on her reading table

"Yeah, it's a lot of money" Willow said laughing at my surprised expression

Will had asked me to join her in her room after dinner, said she had something to show me that would definitely blow my mind. And she wasn't kidding, I'm mind blown…!

"How do you have so much money with you!?" I asked suddenly aware that my kid sister might possibly be richer than I am presently.

"Savings. You know how I used to spend a lot at school before…"

Oh that I know.. all too well.

"Tell me about it, you'd use up your allowance and then borrow mine. Most of which you haven't paid back btw."

I said narrowly eyeing her and we both laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, sometime ago, Tara dared me to try saving up for the month, then whatever I saved at the end of the month, she'd double it for me. Long story short, I saved only a dollar."

That doesn't surprise me at all

"Now that is the Willow I know" I said laughing and ruffling her hair

"Stop that, I'm not done talking." She laughed and pushed my hands away

"Well, she kept her word and gave me a dollar but I felt really ashamed. So, I heard there's a savings club in school and I joined. I started paying 2$ every day of school. We're supposed to only take the money during the summer holiday or Christmas break but dad usually gives us money for those, so I left mine untouched untill yesterday.

"Will, that's amazing" It probably wasn't easy for a spender like her to put away two dollars every day from her allowance

I'm so proud of her..

"Yeah I just got it back. The cashier said I need to empty it since I've graduated from middle school, plus with the recent development, I figured we kinda need it now."

"How much you got?"

"About 500.."

"You have up to 500 in there!? Woah!"

I felt proud. I mean Willow had inherited my mum's expensive taste and was a huge spender... But looking at her now, I realized she's grown up a lot and gotten wiser too.

"We can actually pay off this debt faster than I thought" I said excited

Willow 's eyes widened and then dimmed almost immediately

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I had wanted to give this to you when we came from the hospital for your treatment and whatever but now look, I might be getting married and may not be able to see and laugh at your bald head" Willow said smiling at me sadly

"You don't need to worry about that, I could send you pictures to humiliate me how ever you like" I winked at her and poke her cheek, making her laughing in return

"But it won't get to that anyway. I mean the money in this box plus whatever amount dad has left in the bank coupled with mum's jewellery..'"

"Of course" Willow snickered

"...has already given us a lot more than I thought we could get at this time, with the short time that we have. I should have about two hundred thousand in my savings too, then if there's any that we couldn't gather after all that, we can just work to complete it. Before Christmas it should be paid completely"

"Are you sure!?"

"Triple sure"

"Okay I'll trust you, but don't overexert yourself ok?" She said concerned

"I promise"

"Good night then" she hugged me and I kissed her hair in response

"Good night sis"

I helped her turn off the lights and left the room.

_______________&&&________&&&_______________

It's Saturday and the tension from yesterday's fight still lingers between everyone in the house. As usual, we have the children vs the parents right now

After a very awkward breakfast, Dad took mum back to their room to find a contact that they could sell the jewelries and paintings too. While Willow and I went to her room to put our savings together and hand it to our parents.

"I still don't think we should give it to them though. They might spend it!" Willow tried to disusde me as we moved to our parents room with the money.

"They won't sis, not if they still love us. Besides, there's no way they won't spend money on others things before the debt gets cleared" I reassure her while silently praying it doesn't happen myself

"Still… We ask them to use a different account for this seven million we're about to gather cause, I need to be extremely sure of whatever happens to the money" she argued

Her fears are understandable, so I just nod. "I'll bring it up when we go in later" I say to her.

Knock knock

"Come in" Dad said from inside and we did.

"Dad, what's wrong?" I asked when I noticed the sadness in the room

"No one wants to buy the jewelry son. I've called every single person I know, even those that can not afford it, I called them all but they refused" Dad said frowning

"I mean, most of the women in my club were certainly envious of the topaz bracelet your dad bought me a few years ago. But right now, mine of them are keen on buying it" Mum says with tears in her eyes

"Could they be lying?" Willow whispered to me with a frown as she looked between our parents. I almost laughed but held it in when realized it would be offensive to them

"So you haven't sold anything on your own?" I asked and the shake their heads

"Do you think he threatened people not to buy anything from us?" Will asked, loudly this time.

We looked at Dad. " It very possible he did that so we won't be able to pay. Because, he was so keen on you being his son's wife and I didn't expect him to go this far!" Dad said apprehensive.

Just how powerful is that Mr Barnet guy? To be able to scare people—especially those snobby women—away from buying these things from us, will take a very great man.

"What do we do now?" Mum asked no one in particular and we all stayed quiet

"Let's sell it outside our circle then! We could even give third class jewelry retailers to sell for us, that way we may get more money?" Dad said

"Are you sure that will work? They may not buy it at the apporiate price" Mum said

"There's not much we can do about that dear. Besides, I've already estimated the money to be a little above three million" He said

"Woah… what about when selling it to the rich snobs?" Willow asked

"You do know you're a 'rich snob' too right?" Mum asked with a smile

"I am nothing like them Ma. I may be rude once in a while, but it's all favorite child syndrome. Nothing else.." Willow argued and I laughed while dad shook his head in amusement.

"To answer your question princess, maybe five or four point five? Any way, we're still a little on track with three million so don't worry about it" Dad said as he continued to silently go over other stuff in his head

"There's like a whole 1.5 mil. difference between those amounts you just called dad and every cent is important right now. We need to come up with another solution" Willow said and the rest of nodded

If the money was just three million, coupled with our seven hundred thousand, it won't be much. But 4.5 will bring the amount to 5.2? If I'm right, then that's a lot of money we can't afford to loose.

"Willow is right Dad. We should find another way the sell the jewelry that will either get us the estimated amount or more. We shouldn't settle at a time like this" And he nods

"So what about the paintings?" I asked

"Well, since only two are not very popular originals, the Winstons art gallery decided to buy one for two mil" Dad said with a huge smile

"WOW" Willow smiled then said "Aren't they scared of offending Mr Barnet?"

"The way I see it, it's the gallery that wants to buy it for their collection so even if they are really trying to help us, Mr Barnet doesn't have much evidence since it'll be hung on the wall of their gallery" Dad replied

"So that's why you said the three million was enough, because with this also, we can get five million all together" I smiled at him and he returned it

"I'm glad Dad didn't loose his smarts when he lost the money…"

"That's good then… but still, we should try another way that can get us more money abd if that doesn't work, we will just go with what you said Dad" I said and everyone agreed

"Meanwhile, we have something to give to you" I took out the money from hoodie pocket and handed it to mum who took it with pooing eyeballs

"What's this?" Dad asked and went closer to mum on the bed

"It's money. Where did you get this much money from?" Mum asked with dread

"From our savings" Willow said with a frown

"Wow.. you both were able to save this much already? How much is here?" Dad asked happily

"Seven hundred thou…"

"Seven hundred!? O my God! This.. this… wow!" Dad shot up from the bed and shouted

"You're over reacting dad, not as much as it's supposed to be" Willow said bashfully

"Oh I know, but I'm proud of you both. You didn't allow our lousy upbringing to ruin you. You were able to save so much in your younger years, that's pretty awesome" he beamed making us smile subconsciously

"I'm proud of you both too. I know we haven't been the best example to you both yet you continue to amaze us with your studies and your extra curriculars. And now this. I think once this is over, we should increase their allowance so they can save more" Num said to dad abd he nodded

"I totally agree honey"

"Well, since that's settled and since we're earning special privileges from our good works, can I make I request?" I said

"Of course"

"Anything you want some, just say it"

"Okay. Mum, can you not allow Mr Wilfred to experiment with our taste buds and stomachs any more?"

Everyone started laughing at my request.

"I'm being serious!" I say through flushed cheeks "I don't think even Asians with my type of stomach will agree to eat sushi as often as he makes us to"

"Yeah.. and you too mum, can you stop making those weird 'inventions' of yours? Some of the pastries are nice though, it's the food that's my problem" Willow laughed along with us when she mentioned mum's culinary inventions

"I second that. We should eat like normal people from now on" I say solemnly and we all laugh again

"Fine fine.. I won't make strange dishes for you all again. But you can't asked me to stop trying to invent foods, after all someone came up with the ones you enjoy now" Mum said smiling

"True" Will shruged in agreement but didn't give in making dad abd I laugh again

"Alright, I'm really glad we an all joke and laugh with each other again despite the circumstances around us now. So, we can say this is an ice breaker right?" Dad asked staring at Willow and I

"Sure"

"Whatever" We chorused abd smiled

"Then let's all go do whatever it is we do during weekends. I'll call you guys down when it's time for lunch." Mum said and began to push Willow and I out of the room

"Come on mum… we just got here" Will whined

"Nope… go have a bath young lady you stink" I laughed because neither of us had taken a bath before that "meeting" but I guess Mothers will always be