"Knock... knock, excuse me," The real estate agent, named Sarah, stepped inside, guiding her customer. Dylan stood between Sarah and Ellie, who was standing behind Dylan, holding his hand. Meanwhile, Dylan's other hand was visibly typing on a holographic keyboard underneath. When the agent, Sarah, entered, she immediately greeted them,
"Hello, sir, ma'am, I'm Sarah from Bless Real Estate. Allow me to introduce this..."
Suddenly, the man behind Sarah rushed forward and approached Ellie without waiting for Sarah to finish, but Dylan remained standing in front of Ellie, and the man ended up staring at Dylan, who was staring back. The man's face shifted slightly, as if he recognized Dylan.
"You... Steven's son?" the man asked.
"That's right, sir. You still remember me?" Dylan asked.
"Of course, I remember. The last time we met was at your parents' funeral. Excuse me, but could you step aside? I need to speak with Ellie," the man replied firmly.
"I recognize your face, sir, but I've forgotten your name," Dylan replied.
"Okay, my name is Alex. I was partners with your father. We founded a company together. Now, could you please move? I need to speak with my daughter," Alex replied.
"You can talk here, sir. Ellie is right behind me," Dylan replied.
Alex looked annoyed, but seeing Dylan didn't budge, he finally looked at Ellie standing behind Dylan.
"Ellie, what do you mean by selling your dad's house?" Alex asked, getting straight to the point.
"Uh... are you the owner of this house?" Sarah asked, confused, genuinely not knowing anything.
"Yes... the house deed is in my name... I want to move and don't want to live here anymore. I don't want to be with Dad," Ellie replied.
"What are you thinking? The house deed is in my name! You can't just do whatever you want like this! You're just like your mother, always impulsive and wanting your own way," Alex retorted angrily.
Dylan shifted slightly while continuing to stare at Alex. He showed his smartphone screen to Sarah and winked at her. Suddenly, Sarah stepped forward.
"Um... excuse me, Mr. Alex, but as the agent, I've seen the deed, and this house is indeed in Ms. Ellie's name," Sarah interjected.
"Be quiet! Cancel the sale of this house! Take the listing off your company's website, or I'll speak directly with your company owner," Alex snapped at Sarah.
"Go right ahead, sir. I'm telling the truth. We wouldn't accept the listing if there was any issue with the deed or if the deed wasn't in the seller's name," Sarah said.
"Show me proof that the deed for this house is in my daughter's name!" Alex yelled.
Without further delay, Sarah pulled out her smartphone and showed a photo of the deed copy she had taken when Ellie gave her the listing. Alex's face changed, and his mouth silently commented, "No way."
"This is fraud... you changed the name on the deed without your father's knowledge, Ellie! Did you forge my signature? You know the consequences, right? You're an adult, and I can report you," Alex snarled.
"No, the house deed is actually in my name! Grandpa himself gave it to me when he passed away. It's written in his will. Go ahead and ask Mr. Robert," Ellie snapped back.
"Ms. Ellie, Mr. Alex, let's sit down and discuss this calmly," Sarah urged.
"You're an outsider, stay out of this!" Alex barked.
"Mr. Alex has a point, Ms. Sarah. It would be better if you just drew up the sales agreement, because I'm the one who will buy this house," Dylan interjected.
"Snap," everyone immediately turned to look at Dylan so sharply their necks cracked, including Lena, Amy, Maya, and especially Ellie.
"Wh-What are you saying?" Ellie asked.
"I'm buying this house," Dylan replied once more, his voice loud.
"Ha! You're joking! Do you even have the money?" Alex asked, looking down on Dylan.
"Gee, I wonder whose fault it is that I don't have money, huh? So, you do know I haven't had money all this time," Dylan teased.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked.
"This," Dylan showed his smartphone screen to Alex. Alex's eyes widened when he saw the document for the transfer of a 45% share from Steven to Alex due to Steven's death, complete with proof of the funeral. After that, Dylan swiped the screen, showing the deficit financial conditions of several companies owned by Alex, which were on the verge of bankruptcy.
"H-How did you get that data?" Alex asked.
"I have my ways... the important thing now is that you're afraid of losing this house because you have nowhere else to live, right? That's why when you saw the ad for this house for sale, instead of scolding Ellie, you tried to ambush her, so Ellie could be blamed for your bankruptcy all this time, like the daughter who always wastes her father's wealth, and then you would sue Ellie for forgery, fraud, and emotional distress, and after that, Ellie would work hard to pay the sanctions, court fees, and fines for you. Isn't that right?" Dylan asked, smiling.
The atmosphere immediately fell silent, and that silence only made Dylan even more certain that what he had said was true.
"Don't worry, Alex, I don't want to make an issue of it. I'm not even going to make an issue of you taking the results of my father's hard work back then. Instead, I'll buy this house and give you $100,000 right now. How about that?" Dylan asked, showing his bank account balance, which was over $200,000.
Alex stared at Dylan's smartphone screen, and you could hear a lot of gears grinding in Alex's head as he thought hard.
"Fine, the house price is as listed," Alex said, suddenly changing his tune as he extended his hand.
"Of course. A pleasure doing business with you," Dylan said, shaking Alex's hand and smiling.
Sarah immediately led Alex and Dylan to sit at the dining table, while Ellie, Lena, Maya, and Amy looked utterly confused and kept staring at the back of Dylan's head with question marks all over their faces. After signing the documents, Dylan opened the customer service on his banking app to make a direct wire transfer of $100,000 to Alex's account, which happened to be exactly at his limit. After entering the code, the transfer was complete, and Dylan took a screenshot photo, then showed it to Sarah and sent it to Alex.
"Okay, since it's settled, I'm leaving now," Alex said, standing up and walking out without saying goodbye.
Then Sarah also stood up, exchanged a few pleasantries, and immediately excused herself. "Clack," Dylan snapped his fingers, and suddenly Sarah stopped walking. Her face looked confused, and she looked at the papers in her folder, then immediately turned around and walked back inside.
"Um... excuse me, who is Mr. Dylan? Could you please explain to me, sir... or Ms. Ellie?" Sarah asked, looking at the document and looking confused.
"Wow, I don't know... my name is Dylan, but I never signed any agreement like that," Dylan replied.
"Um... yeah... there's no way he bought the house... he's still in high school," Ellie added.
"Oh... I'm sorry, maybe this is a mistake... alright, I'll just tear it up and cancel it, okay? I'm sorry, Ms. Ellie, I was supposed to bring my customer here, but it looks like he didn't show up? But he was with me... maybe he didn't like it and left?" Sarah asked, confused.
"Yes, he came, took a quick look, and then left because he didn't like it, ma'am," Dylan answered.
"R-Really? I don't know why I don't remember... oh, I am so sorry for the trouble, sir, ma'am. Please don't give me a negative review," Sarah said, looking scared and still confused.
"Don't worry, ma'am, we won't give a negative review. Right, Ellie?" Dylan asked, turning to look at Ellie.
"Y-Yes, that's right," Ellie replied, looking incredibly confused.
"In that case, I'll be taking my leave now. I'm sorry again, sir, ma'am... and everyone," Sarah said, looking genuinely eager to leave in a hurry.
Finally, Sarah left. Immediately, Ellie, Lena, Amy, and Maya pulled Dylan back.
"What were you thinking? Why did you give my dad money?" Ellie shouted in a panic.
"Yeah, that was a ton of money, babe... what were you thinking?" Lena added.
"I know you meant to help Ellie... but that was too much," Amy added.
"Ugh... I don't even know what to say... but you were totally stupid this time," Maya added.
Without answering anything, Dylan simply raised his smartphone screen and showed his balance, which was still over $200,000, to all four of them. "Huh," all four of their eyes widened instantly. They looked at Dylan's face and then back at the smartphone screen.
"How is that possible?" Ellie asked.
"Yeah, I saw you make the transfer with my own eyes," Maya added.
"What are you guys talking about... I didn't transfer anything. Forget about it, okay? The important thing is don't sell this house again and stir up unnecessary trouble. Got it?" Dylan replied to Ellie.
"O-Okay," Ellie replied, still confused.
[You are truly excessive, sir. Hypnotizing the agent, hacking the financial servers of all Alex's companies and hacking the bank, then transferring money from the cyber security company account that should have belonged to your father to Alex's personal account. You showed your account but transferred from his company's account... I really like that.]
"It wasn't just a transfer, was it? The invoice was written for a house purchase in another country, and he took his own money because his signature was on the invoice. So, it's clear he embezzled a large sum from his own company, which would definitely be flagged by finance. Of course, I sent the proof to the company's executive board to support the investigation. Serves him right for taking my dad's share! Besides, he's an idiot. How could he not notice that the sender's account number was his company's account?" Dylan said in his head.
[It's all thanks to the Manipulation, Smooth Talker, Hacking, and Hypnosis skills, sir.]
"Ah...right," Dylan replied.