THE RETURN OF THE INVINCIBLE SON INLAW

ANDREW

The hot chicken soup shocked his almost dirty but handsome face with steam, carrying it with his bare hands without caring about the burns he would get from it.

Andrew, a man with a rugged appearance and faded shoulder shirts, pushed open the door with a warm smile.

"I brought your favorite chicken soup, Dora," he said, his smile spreading from ear to ear.

However, as he scanned the room, his eyes froze on the empty bed, and his heart sank. "Dora! Where is Dora?" he exclaimed, his mind racing with panic.

Just a few weeks ago, his daughter had been diagnosed with kidney failure, which had been ravaging her tiny body. His wife, Lisa, had been working tirelessly to pay off the mounting bills, while Andrew did his best to assist with the expenses.

Shaking off his thoughts, Andrew rushed out of the room, his face drenched in cold sweat. "What could have happened to her?" he wondered, his mind filled with dread. "No, no, nothing bad has happened to Dora," he assured himself, trying to stay calm.

As he paced anxiously, he spotted the doctor walking towards him with a somber expression that sent shivers down his spine.

****

"Early as always," Doctor Williams said with a smile, trying to calm Andrew down, but his anxious expression betrayed his reassuring words. "Where is Dora? Tell me!" Andrew almost yelled, his mind racing with worry.

"I advise you to calm down, Mr. Genius. Dora is fine, at least for now," the doctor said, his tone deepening as he spoke, his voice measured and calm. "She went into a coma this morning, and although we were able to revive her, we cannot delay her surgery any further. We need to act quickly, as her condition is critical."

Andrew's heart skipped a beat as he processed the doctor's words. "Days? Not even a month or weeks?" he thought aloud.

"Three days is the longest I can assume," the doctor added with a deep sigh, his expression somber.

"I knew it would come to this, but I didn't think it would be so soon," Doctor Williams said, his voice tinged with sadness. "We've got to hold on until payment is made. Her bills are already overdue, and that's the most I can do."

Andrew's voice was low and concerned. "How much?"

"The total amount needed to cover the bills is five hundred dollars," the doctor replied. "However, if we're looking at a deposit for further treatment, we're talking about three hundred thousand dollars." Andrew was taken aback, stunned by the enormous amount. It was a fortune, and he knew it would take a while to come up with such a sum.

A thought suddenly occurred to him. When he first heard about the delayed surgery, he offered to donate his kidney to reduce the transplant cost.

Knowing the process would be expensive, he started saving up by taking on various odd jobs, no matter how difficult. He even took out a loan, but his limited assets weren't enough to cover the bills. With a desperate tone, he pleaded with the doctor once again.

"Doctor, please, can you reduce the initial deposit to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? I'll try my best to find the rest as soon as possible," Andrew pleaded, almost begging on his knees.

Doctor Williams thought for a moment, rubbing his hands on his head, before finally responding, "Alright, that works for me." He smiled reassuringly.

Andrew let out a sigh of relief as soon as he heard the doctor's words. "Thank you so much, Doctor! You have no idea what you've done for me. I'm truly grateful," he said, pulling out a small card from his pocket and handing it over.

"I'll do anything to save my daughter," he added, feeling fulfilled that he could at least proudly do something good for his daughter this once.

The doctor nodded and took the card from Andrew, walking over to the terminal to process the payment. However, instead of the expected confirmation, a red light flashed, and the words "Insufficient funds" appeared on the screen.

Andrew's heart skipped a beat as he felt utterly confused as to how his money had vanished. He was certain that he had deposited enough money into the account, and it should have been more than enough to cover the initial deposit.

A lump formed in his throat as he struggled to comprehend the situation. "How is this possible?" he asked, his voice laced with concern. He was sure that he had checked his account balance recently, and it should have had a sufficient amount.

Doctor Williams tried to reassure him, "Don't worry, let's check your balance instead and see what's going on." The doctor reinserted the card and checked the balance, revealing that Andrew had only a few cents left in the account.

Andrew's heart raced as he began to panic. He knew that only two people had access to this account - him and his wife.

With time running out and his daughter's life on the line, Andrew couldn't afford to waste any more time. He dashed out of the doctor's office and rushed back to the mansion to know exactly what was going on.

The Hooke family Villa was a dying one, that was once filled with all the luxuries that anyone could think of.

A few years ago, the sudden and unexpected change in the economy led to the downfall of their stocks, and currently, they were an average family trying to recover from the financial crash they had fallen into, but it wasn't easy.

Andrew walked in, only to be met with a deadly glare from his wife that made him take a step back. It was obvious that from the redness on her face, she had been crying again, and this time, he couldn't tell exactly why.

"Fool! What have you done? Have you gotten yourself fired again? Do you think I'm going to take care of all the bills you keep piling up?" she blurted out her frustration. It was clear that something terrible might have happened at work again, but he didn't dare dive into the details at that moment.

Before she left the office, her boss had sent her a letter to meet him at the Music hotel that night. He was ready to pay her five hundred thousand dollars instantly after the night and even give her a promotion.

But she wasn't stupid and she knew exactly what he wanted to do with her. However, there was a consequence to her refusal.

If she wasn't there by seven o'clock, then it would only mean that she was no longer interested to work in the company hence, she would not be allowed to work there anymore.

Her heart sank immediately she heard these words knowing how much she needed the job but could not get herself to sleep with her young boss.

"It's about Dora." He said calmly.

Her face lit up almost immediately staring at him.

"Dora! What about her?" She was impatient, the anxiety in her voice was visibly growing by the minute.

"She urgently needs surgery, but when I tried to access our account, I discovered it was empty," Andrew said, holding up the card.

His wife's eyes widened in shock, and she exclaimed, "What! Oh no!"

Before Andrew could explain, she erupted in anger.

"What have you done?!" she shouted, her veins bulging with rage.

"You've gambled away our money, haven't you?! And now you're trying to feed me some ridiculous lie, expecting me to believe it?" Her voice was trembling with fury, and her eyes turned red with anger.

Andrew was stunned to hear him speak this way. She knew that if anyone was to gamble, it would never be him.

"I didn't gamble away the money, I swear!" Andrew protested, but his wife's anger only intensified.

"You're a liar!" she thundered, her voice shaking with rage. "You're a snake who's been deceiving me all along! I regret the night I met you, the night I was drunk and ended up in your arms. I regret losing my financial independence and marrying you. I regret it all!"

Tears streamed down her face as she spoke, her words cutting deep into Andrew's soul. He stood there, stunned and disbelieving, as Lisa's words hung in the air like a challenge.

"How could you do this to our child?" she continued, her voice cracking with emotion. "Even if our marriage was a mistake, why would you make our daughter suffer so much?"

Lisa collapsed back in her seat, exhausted by her outburst. Andrew stood there, frozen in shock, unable to comprehend the depth of her anger and hurt. He couldn't believe she would think him capable of such a thing, and yet, her words had pierced his heart like a dagger.

Andrew attempted to comfort Lisa by placing his hands on her shoulders, but she violently shook them off.

"Don't you dare touch me with your dirty hands again!" she spat, her anger boiling over.

Just then, the sound of clicking heels and additional footsteps filled the room. A new voice spoke up, "He didn't take the money. It was us."

The couple's eyes widened in shock as the speaker continued, "He left his phone behind, and the doctor called. I knew he would try to access the account, so we took the money out after finding the details in your belongings."

Andrew and Lisa were stunned, their minds reeling from this sudden revelation. They exchanged disbelieving glances, struggling to process the truth behind the mysterious voice's words.

Two people stepped into the room, Lady Gaga, Lisa's mother and her father, Mr. Henry.

"Mum? What did you just say?" She inquired, confused.

"You heard me right." She said, "We took the money."

"All through the years, your husband has only given us peanuts as allowance after our business ran bankrupt because he is poor and unable to make good money, only eating up all our food like a better! Just look at the house that you are living in at the moment, this is a disgrace and the money we took is even nothing compared to all that we have done for him."

She took two steps forward towards Lisa and continued. "We heard about the savings and searched for the password. It was easy since it was a joint account you know. Your birthday worked easily." she added with a sly smile spread across her face.

"But what do you guys need such a large amount of money for?" She inquired, still lost in the realm of her shock.

"Isn't it obvious? Your brother would be getting married soon so he needs a car and a house so he could make a statement and get settled in."

Lisa was furious at the moment but tried to control the anger that was rising up in her.

"My daughter is lying in the hospital and that money is needed to save her life. How heartless can you ever get Mom."

"Heartless? You dare to use that word after getting married to this homeless pig. Well whatever you say, you are not getting it back cause the purchase has already been made." She announced.

That dropped like a bombshell!

Lisa was stunned and fell to the sofa while as for Andrew, his feet were still petrified.

Lady Gaga smiled. They still had the money but that was the only way to prevent them from pushing too much.

She smiled leaning forward and said.

"What's the extent of saving her life when she is going to die out of hunger anyways?" Lady Gaga snorted with disdain in his voice.

Andrew snapped out from his gaze. There was no reason for him to keep standing there.

When he walked outside, that was the moment his cell phone made a beeping sound and the caller was Mr. Patrick.

At first he didn't want to pick up but thinking about his daughter, he was eventually forced to.

"Young master." The voice streamed out from the other end of the phone.