Abandoned by All I Took It All Back novel Chapter 447

She pressed play.

The video opened with a close-up of Mrs. Clifford's face. Mr. Clifford stood beside her, his expression grim.

Mrs. Clifford’s voice choked with emotion as she began.

“I’m here today to publicly report my daughter, Wendy Clifford!”

She raised a hand to wipe away a non-existent tear, her face a mask of profound sorrow.

“My husband and I scraped together everything we had to put our daughter through school. After she graduated from university, she got a good job at a public company, making a six-figure salary.

But Wendy Clifford is incredibly stingy. To this day, she hasn't given us, her old parents, a single penny.

Now we're old and our health is failing. We're sick all the time, in and out of the hospital, but we have no money, and our daughter won't help us. We’re living in a rundown shack while she lives in a fancy apartment downtown that's worth a fortune!

We have nowhere else to turn. We’re begging the good people of the internet to help us find our daughter.”

Mr. Clifford stood beside his wife, his face cold and stony, not uttering a single word throughout the video.

The video ended.

The silence in the car was deafening.

Wendy gripped her phone, resisting the urge to hurl it away.

To force her to give them money, they were willing to lie and slander her.

What wonderful parents she had.

Wendy's eyes were filled with an icy coldness.

“They’ve gone too far. How could they say that about you? You’ve been supporting that family for years.”

Finch’s face was dark with anger, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel. Even as an outsider, he found it unbearable to listen to. He couldn't imagine how Wendy must feel.

Wendy's expression was surprisingly calm, her voice flat. “Baron’s in debt to loan sharks for over a million dollars. My mom wants me to pay it off for him.”

Saying the words again, Wendy felt nothing. Perhaps she had gone numb to the pain.

“What? That much? Did he start gambling again?” Finch had suspected Mrs. Clifford wanted money for Baron, but he never imagined the debt was so massive.

“No, don't. I'm fine. You should go home,” Wendy refused immediately.

Finch hesitated for a moment but didn't press the issue. Instead, he suggested, “Maybe you should post a video to clear things up?”

“We'll see about that tomorrow. It’s getting late, you should go.”

Wendy didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Her mind was made up: Let them make a scene. If it came down to it, they could take her life, but she would never give in.

Finch, unaware of her thoughts, offered a few more words of comfort before turning to leave.

As he turned away, a complex emotion flickered in his eyes, unseen by anyone.

The video went viral. Overnight, it garnered hundreds of thousands of likes and over a million comments.

The Graces' chat group was in an uproar, with everyone trying to figure out how to manage the crisis. But Wendy told her friends to stay out of it, insisting she would handle it herself.

Unexpectedly, some influencer, looking to cash in on the drama, had driven out to her parents' place overnight. By the next morning, they were live-streaming a 'search' for their daughter.

When Wendy arrived at work, she immediately noticed the strange looks her colleagues were giving her.