Chapter 2

My heart was pounding.

Had Penelope finally remembered—that this was the place they'd left me?

But when I met her eyes, they were only blank. "I had no idea there was even an orphanage out in a backwater like that!"

Then Barret gave a little laugh, his words full of praise for me.

"If we'd known, we could have adopted Teacher James ourselves, couldn't we?"

"I honestly can't imagine what kind of parents would abandon a child as brilliant as you!"

The words rang hollow and mocking in my ears.

So abandoning me hadn't left the faintest ripple in their lives.

They simply didn't care.

The housekeeper's voice from downstairs broke my silence.

"Sir, madam, Teacher James! The young miss and young master are back! Dinner can be served!"

I followed them downstairs.

And saw my two students.

Felicia Delgado, the daughter they'd adopted, wore a suit worth over a hundred thousand, the Delgado family heirloom hanging at her throat.

Roland Delgado had a diamond-studded watch on his wrist worth hundreds of thousands, crocodile-leather shoes on his feet.

Both of them looked at me with a trace of contempt.

Felicia clicked her tongue. "Mom, Dad, don't let yourselves get scammed. This Teacher James looks the same age as me! And you're paying her a million-a-year salary?"

Seeing my expression stay flat, not a word out of me, I rose as if to leave the Delgado house.

Barret coughed hastily and spoke with a sharp edge.

"Felicia! Apologize to Teacher James!"

"Teacher James is the last protégée of the research titan Winston James! She skipped grades and finished college at fifteen! And she was the only judge from our country at an international competition!"

Penelope looked at me with envy too.

"I hear Teacher James is about to be published in the most prestigious research journal, and she's searching for her own parents to appear alongside her. I really do envy that!"

At that, Felicia apologized to me sincerely enough on the surface, but the jealousy in her eyes only deepened.

I nodded blandly and looked at Barret and Penelope. "There's no need to envy it."

They took it as praise for how impressive Felicia and Barret were and waved it off at once. "How could the two of them compare to you? You really are the finest child we've ever met!"

But inside I finished the rest of the sentence with a cold smile.

The moment you decided to isolate me, to drive me to my death, you pushed that chance out the door with your own hands.

That's how elite families are. Always picking the best of the best.

Lily the housekeeper, quick to read the room, played up to her employers. "If you ask me, madam and sir could simply take Teacher James as a goddaughter! I think she even looks a bit like the two of you!"

The moment the words left her mouth, Barret and Penelope both turned to look at me.

Their pupils widened, as if they'd caught a glimpse of the blood tie between us.

But before long, they curved their mouths into self-mocking smiles.

"If only we could have had a daughter like this. What a shame. Our own flesh-and-blood daughter is a useless thing who can't even take care of herself! She'd have been better off dying in that orphanage!"

I drew a deep breath and let go, completely, of the last thread of hope I'd held for them.

"I don't make a habit of adopting my clients as godparents either."

Seeing me steal her parents' attention, Felicia hurried over and grabbed my arm. "Since we're on the subject of Mom and Dad's real daughter, let me tell Teacher James something funny!"

"That idiot came trotting home to claim her family, but Mom and Dad don't want her at all! So we've all agreed to stand united and teach her a good lesson about not barging into other people's families!"

"I ordered a whole batch of nonvenomous snakes, rats, and insects online, and I had cameras installed in her room. When the time comes, we'll play her terrified, pathetic reactions on a loop in the living room!"

"She grew up in an orphanage, after all, and she's got no brains, so she's bound to be a spineless little coward. If she faints from fright, well, that's her own ignorance for not recognizing those harmless little things!"

Felicia served it up as a joke meant to please me, the corners of her mouth lifting with malice.

And I finally couldn't hold back.

"It isn't funny. She's the real daughter of this family, not an outsider."