Pay for His Girlfriend? Not a Chance

For the past three years, I had been sponsoring a low-income student until he got into a top-tier university. To ensure that he could focus on his studies, I agreed to continue providing 1,500 dollars monthly to cover his cost of living. Less than a month after he started university, he texted me requesting to pay the rent for an apartment next to the university. I thought there was something wrong with my eyes. The text was quickly followed by a voice note. "My girlfriend doesn't like the fact that there are no private bathrooms in the dormitory. I've already found the perfect apartment. Help us pay the rent. It's only 1,200 dollars a month." When I did not reply, he said, "My girlfriend has to get a manicure every month and buy new clothes. I don't have enough money for her to spend. Why don't you sponsor her as well? You have the money anyway." I laughed angrily. These two morons were treating me as an ATM. If they were dumb enough to disrespect me, they would not get another cent from me. Chapter 1 [Do you know what you're saying, Eugene?] I tried my best not to lose my temper as I replied to Eugene Cormac's text. Eugene replied right away: [Of course, I do. What's wrong with it?] The text was followed by an indignant voice note. "You're a rich woman, Nadia. You should use your money to help us out, especially when you don't have a boyfriend and you're not using your money anywhere. "Both of us are still young, and we need the money more than you. You can't let me have a girlfriend without having the means to help her financially, can you?" A dainty voice was heard in the background. "This bag is gorgeous, honey. Get your sponsor to give you the money to buy it for me." I was laughing in anger when I heard her request. I could not match the man with the shameless request to the boy who lived in a small village with nothing to his name. Three years ago, I visited a village in the mountains that was cut off from civilization with a charity organization. I met Eugene for the first time there, and I remembered how he was wearing a washed-out T-shirt, standing with pride amongst the other villagers. The village chief told me that Eugene's father had passed away, and his mother was disabled. Even though his family was poor, Eugene had a lot of potential, and he asked me if I could help Eugene out. I agreed, and Eugene did not let me down over the next few years. Eugene studied hard despite harsh conditions, and he did well on the SATs, even getting accepted into a top-tier university. The villagers were happy for his achievements and called him their 'golden boy'. Yet, things had changed. Less than a month after he came to the city, the corrupting glamor turned him from an upright, determined young man into a greedy traitor. His appetite had grown too big for his own good, and he expected me to provide for him his entire life. I took a deep breath and replied with a voice note, "I only promised to sponsor you, Eugene. Your girlfriend's request to buy new clothes and have a manicure has nothing to do with me." When I saw that he was making a reply, I quickly added coldly, "Besides, a well-brought-up girl would never cross the line and covet something that doesn't belong to her. You shouldn't make use of someone's kindness to fulfill your own materialistic desires." There were several seconds of silence after I sent him the voice note, but it was followed by several voice notes that shot at me one after the other. "Just say it to my face if you refuse to give me the money. You have no right to lecture my girlfriend." "Stop throwing your weight around just because you have some money." "The day will come when you'll come crawling to me, begging for help. When the time comes, I will make sure you remember what you did to me." I did not want to argue with him. All I did was screenshot and save all of his replies to me, and compile them in a folder, but I did not report him to his university because I knew how difficult it was for a talented boy from a poor village like him to make it out here. He was just a poor lad of about 19 who had been thrust into the glitzy and enticing city, and after witnessing how others splurge wantonly, he desired the same for himself, which was normal for a kid like him. As Eugene had done right by me over the last three years by studying hard, I decided to give him a chance to apologize for what he did. Chapter 2 Eugene did not contact me for the next three days, and I thought he had finally thought things through. However, my phone buzzed with a notification on the afternoon of the third day. It was Eugene's girlfriend, Windi Lint, sending me a friend request. I rejected her several times, but she refused to give up, resending the request. In the end, I relented and accepted her request. I was about to DM her a question mark when her messages came flooding in. [Nadia, is it? You should help Eugene to the very end since you chose to sponsor him. What's the problem with giving us several hundred to pay our rent when you earn so much a month? [Eugene has gotten so depressed because you refused to give him money that he hardly eats. He's the only one in his village to get into university. Can you bear the consequence of starving him until it affects his studies? [I've compromised by being with him, and as an elder who has been helping him, shouldn't you show courtesy by giving me a welcome gift?] What a ridiculous way of riding her high horse. I did not reply right away, but checked out Wyndi's social media posts first. The pictures she posted had been carefully planned. Yesterday, she posted a picture of a tomahawk steak from a Michelin-starred restaurant that cost 250 dollars per person. The day before that, she posted a picture of herself wearing a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace with the caption: [My new decadent French nails]. I continued scrolling and even saw a picture of Wyndi posing sexily in the mirror while wearing a limited-edition dress that cost more than 800 dollars. If she was able to splurge like that, why would she come crying to me, saying that she and Eugene were so poor that they could hardly afford their meals? When I did not reply, Wyndi lost patience, and what started as a pity show morphed into frustrated verbal abuse. [Are you ignoring me? Do you think I'm not aware of the true colors of a so-called 'kind-hearted' person like you?! [How did you become rich in a big city at a young age? Which sugar daddy paid for you? How much did you sell yourself for? [It's all dirty money that you're making. Are you trying to 'cleanse' yourself by sponsoring a university student to lighten your guilt? [Give me 3,000 dollars right now, or I'll expose your fake charity and hypocritical face to the internet, and ruin your reputation!] I was not angered by the horrible messages she sent me. In fact, they sounded ridiculous and foolish. I put down my cup and replied to her calmly. [Ms. Lint, you're a university student. Don't you know the law? Defamation is a serious crime that might cost you a year in jail or billions in punitive damages. My lawyer will be in contact soon.] After that, I took screenshots of all of Wyndi's horrible messages to me and put them together in the folder that I had prepared for Eugene. Wyndi did not give up and sent me a 60-second voice note, but I did not listen to it and proceeded to block her. After I was done with this, I started to feel puzzled about why a gold digger like Wyndi would fall for a broke boy who came from a mountain village. None of it made sense to me. I used the intercom. "Lucy, come to my office." It took less than a minute for my assistant, Lucy Smulder, to enter my office. "What do you need from me, Ms. Jones?" "Help me look into Wyndi Lint. She's a finance student at Arcadia University. The sooner, the better." Lucy nodded. "I'll get to it right away, Ms. Jones." … I was sitting in my living room, watching the television at 8:00 pm, when my doorbell rang. I opened the door to see Eugene and Wyndi standing outside. Eugene was carrying a box of chocolates while Wyndi was in a little dress, holding his arm. "Sorry to disturb you so late at night, Nadia." I said nothing as I stood at the door, staring coldly at them. Chapter 3 Eugene swallowed hard when he saw that I was not planning to invite them into the house, and he tried to break the tension by being casual about the visit. "Nadia, I heard what happened this afternoon, and I'm here with Wyndi to apologize to you. She just started university, and she's young and ignorant, which is why she shot her mouth off. You're a busy woman who does important work. Please don't hold it against a young girl like her." Eugene nudged Wyndi with his elbow as he spoke, but Wyndi was taking none of it. She crossed her arms in front of her chest with her chin held high, and pursed her lips. Instead of looking at me, she kept looking into my living room, and it was clear that she was jealous and unhappy to see what I had. I tried my best to sound calm. "You should go. You're not welcome here, and I won't accept your apology." I stepped forward and looked at Eugene. "Also, I will be pressing charges for defamation and threat. My lawyer is working on it, and someone will be in touch soon about the legal proceedings." Wyndi lost it after hearing my words. "What are you begging her for, Eugene? She's just a stingy woman who can't bear to part with her money!" She proceeded to point at my nose. "You can't bully us just because you have money. You're just picking on broke students like us who have no backing! You should take full financial responsibility for both of us since you've chosen to sponsor Eugene!" Wyndi's words became increasingly horrible. "Do you think you're so great just because you're staying in a rich district? Who knows where women like you get your money from! You're just using dirty money you earned from sleeping around to parade around as Eugene's savior. "It's time you do what you're supposed to and give us your…" Wyndi was holding her hand to her cheek as her eyes widened in disbelief, and she screamed right away. "How dare you slap me, you bitch?!" She tried to claw at me, but Eugene quickly grabbed her by the waist to pull her back when he saw what she was about to do. I thought he had finally chosen to do the right thing, but what he said next disappointed me. "You shouldn't have slapped her, Nadia. That was very uncouth of you." He sighed and looked around my living room indignantly. "Let's be honest, Nadia. You don't have a husband or children, and your parents have passed away. At the end of the day, you're placing your hopes on me to help you manage your massive family business. "You should apologize to Wyndi right now and give her a few thousand as her allowance, and I'll still treat you as an older sister. Once I graduate, I promise to help you by taking over your business." I thought I had heard wrong, and Wyndi suddenly puffed up with confidence after hearing what Eugene said. She pointed at my Hermès bag near the front door and said, "Eugene's right. Give me that bag as compensation as well, or I won't accept your apology." I laughed in anger as I looked at the two morons in front of me. "I've misjudged you, Eugene. Hell will freeze over before I apologize to a bonehead like her! From now on, your sponsorship will be rescinded! Take your girlfriend and get out of my house." Eugene turned pale, and he stared at me before saying viciously through clenched teeth, "Fine! You'll regret pushing me away, Nadia!" With that, he dragged Wyndi away with him while she was still hurling verbal abuse at me, yelling about wanting that bag. He even took the cheap box of chocolates with him, worth only ten dollars, and slammed the door right in my face. Chapter 4 The next day, I made a copy of the security footage from yesterday and saved it in Eugene's folder. After that, I contacted Tom Linden from the NextGen Foundation to inform him that I was stopping all sponsorship to Eugene. Tom replied with a voice note, telling me that he would take care of it. After everything was done, I changed and went to the office. I did not want to waste any more time on garbage. Just when I thought that this was finally over, Eugene and Wyndi went ahead and blew things up. … That afternoon at 3:00 pm, my meeting had reached a crucial discussion when the door was pushed open suddenly. Lucy dashed into the room and said in a panic, "Bad news, Ms. Jones! You should head downstairs to see for yourself. Eugene Cormac and Wyndi Lint are holding a huge banner outside the company!" I frowned and placed the laser pen down, and I dashed toward the lobby. When I walked out of the elevator, I saw a crowd at the entrance. Eugene and Wyndi stood in the middle of the crowd, holding a banner and sticking out like a sore thumb. The banner read, 'Unethical CEO keeping university student as sugar baby under the pretense of charity. She destroyed his future after being rejected!" Many in the crowd looked like office workers nearby, and they were recording videos of this with their phones while whispering amongst each other and looking at me with disdain. "She looked like a capable woman. I can't believe she has such a colorful private life." "A student in need of financial aid couldn't escape her claws. Rich people nowadays are rotten to the core…" When I appeared, Eugene immediately shouted, "Look, everyone! That's the woman! She pretended to sponsor me, but the truth is that she treats me as her private property. Now that I have a girlfriend, she got mad and stopped my sponsorship. She's trying to drive us to the edge!" Wyndi took the opportunity to shed some tears. She sobbed, "Please let Eugene off, Ms. Jones. We are in love. Why must you make things difficult for two broke students when you're so rich?" I felt nauseous looking at their performance. "You should stop now while you can. The police are on the way. Slander plus disorderly conduct is enough to detain you for a few days in jail." Eugene's cries for justice fizzled out when he heard that I had called the police, and his cheek started twitching unnaturally. He dashed toward me and pushed me hard on the shoulder. "Stop trying to scare me! Are you happy now that NextGen Foundation informed me that no one will be sponsoring me from now on?" I was taken by surprise by his push and fell hard on the ground. Something warm dripped from my forehead, and Eugene staggered backward when he saw the blood on my face. He started to panic. Eugene came forward to try and help me up, but Wyndi clasped his arm. She lowered her voice and said maliciously, "Are you crazy, Eugene? Why are you helping her? Thinking about her huge house and the assets under her name! "If you give it now, you'll only end up going back to your poor mountain village to farm. We've got nothing to lose now. We should do everything we can to get her money!" Wyndi's words wiped away the last of Eugene's conscience. He took a deep breath and resumed his greedy, indignant attitude toward me. "Nadia, it's humiliating for everyone for this to blow up further. If a scandal broke out about this, a huge company like yours will incur more than billions in losses if your shares drop." Eugene took out a document from his bag and gave it to me. "If you agree to three of my conditions, I'll show mercy and forgive you. "First, you should continue the sponsorship for me that you have ended, and give Wyndi and me 3,000 dollars a month as our allowance. Second, since you own plenty of properties, transfer the deed of one of your properties in the city center over to us for when we get married. "Third, which is also the most important condition, is for you to transfer 30% of your shares to me right now since you need someone to take over your company sooner or later. I will consider this your compensation for my lost youth." I pressed on my wound and laughed angrily at this ridiculous and foolish logic Eugene had. "You must be out of your mind. You're not worthy of having anything from me." Eugene lost it when I ridiculed him. "You should know a good thing when you see it, you bitch!" He raised his hand and slapped me hard on the left cheek. He used so much force that my mouth filled with blood instantly. Eugene flung the document into my face and pushed a pen forcefully into my hand. "Do you think I have no idea what rich people's weaknesses are? Sign those papers today, or I'll expose all your dirty deeds online and bankrupt your company!" I stared down at the papers strewn all over the ground, and immediately noticed the words, 'Equity Transfer Agreement'. Just as Eugene was forcing my hand down to sign it, hurried footsteps were heard coming through the crowd. "Don't you dare touch her!" Lucy had brought eight security guards with her to hold Eugene down, and she helped me up from the ground anxiously. She flung a document hard into Eugene's face and said, "Read this for yourself. You should know the truth about how you lost everything." Eugene picked up the document in a fluster from the ground, and his eyes widened at the contents.