Chapter 1

The night our daughter was diagnosed with a fatal genetic illness, Sean Gilbert cheated with his adopted sister Lydia Pruitt at a spa resort.

【A fatal genetic disease. Treatment cost: ten million……】

Mom and Dad drove through the night to reach me, and died on the way in a car crash.

All they left me was a last message that never got sent.

"Don't be afraid, sweetheart. Even if we have to sell everything we own, your dad and mom will scrape the money together. Don't go without."

On the seventh night after their deaths, standing in front of my parents' memorial altar, I signed the divorce papers and walked away with nothing.

Over five years, I sold the old family house.

I slept four hours a night and worked five jobs.

I wrung myself dry, every last cent going to my daughter's medical bills.

The final order that completed the treatment fund was a client who wanted nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine roses delivered to a spa resort.

A place I'd known five years ago, full of people I no longer knew.

I watched with my own eyes as my cremated father set up an anniversary celebration, doing all the work himself.

I watched my mother, who used to hold only me and call me sweetheart, tenderly take Lydia by the hand.

"Sweetheart, this hotel is where you and Sean first fell in love. It's perfect for this anniversary."

The daughter who was supposed to be lying in the ICU.

She had her arms around Lydia's waist, cooing at her.

"Mommy, Daddy already worked it out with the doctor. Once the last payment for my treatment comes through today, I get to fake my death on the operating table, just like Grandpa and Grandma."

Sean gently stroked Lydia's heavily swollen belly.

"From now on, all six of us will be together as one family, forever."

I leaned against the wall and gave a soft laugh.

So in this whole grand production.

I was the only one. The villainess standing in the way of their happy family reunion.

If that was how it was, then it was time for me to exit too.

1

Over those five years.

I prayed countless times that my daughter Katie Abbott would beat the illness and make a full recovery.

I longed countless times to see my dead parents once more in a dream, so they could finish the words they'd never gotten to say.

I never once imagined.

That my dearest wish would come true in a way this cruel.

The grand hall was alive with laughter and chatter.

But I felt like I was standing inside a silent film.

I couldn't hear a single sound of the celebration.

I only saw the smiles overflowing on every face, and they stung until my eyes went red.

Katie saw me come in with an armful of roses and ran over to me, excited.

"Daddy, the flowers you ordered are here. I'll take them for you."

But the moment she saw my face clearly, she gasped, clapped a hand over her mouth, and stumbled back a step before collapsing to the floor.

Mom noticed something was wrong and rushed over, pulling Katie up, asking anxiously, "Katie, what happened? Did you hurt yourself?"

Katie pointed at me, timid. "Mom's here."

When Mom's eyes met mine, she gasped too, both hands pressing to her chest.

"Mer… Meryl Donaldson, why are you here? What are you doing dressed like that?"

Mom, with her thing about cleanliness, looked at my filthy work uniform, and her face twisted into a knot.

Heat rose behind my eyes, and my nose stung until it ached.

"Shouldn't that be my question to you?"

I used to believe my parents' sudden accident was because of me.

If I hadn't lost control and called them in tears.

They wouldn't have come racing over in the middle of the night to comfort me, only to end up dead in a wreck.

Every night I dreamed, and it was always the horror of the crash.

Every time I woke sobbing from the nightmare.

I blamed myself. I grieved. I regretted.

I wanted nothing more than to go with them.

But then I would think of my daughter in her hospital bed, and I would grit my teeth and hold on.

Now I was looking at my mother standing right in front of me, perfectly fine.

A numb, suffocating feeling swept through my whole body.

So the ones who had betrayed me back then. It hadn't been just Sean.

The others heard the commotion and gathered around.

The faces that had been so cheerful all clouded over the instant they saw me.

The festive mood was like someone had hit pause.

Sean cleared his throat softly and was the first to break the dead silence.

"Meryl, why don't you head home first? I'll explain everything to you later."

"Mom and Dad have bad hearts, and Katie's still little. Don't go scaring them."

As he spoke, Sean pulled Lydia behind him.

Even Mom and Dad moved to stand on either side of Lydia, ready to shield her at a moment's notice.

Lydia wore an exquisite couture gown, a diamond necklace lending her a graceful, regal air.

She lifted her chin and looked down at me, haughty, unable to hide the smugness in her eyes.

But the next second, she softened her expression and lowered her gaze.

She braced a hand at her waist and slowly began to bend her knees, making a show of about to kneel before me.

"Meryl, I'm so sor…"

Sean caught her quickly before she could. "Lydia, don't kneel. You owe her nothing."

My temples throbbed, and the words came out before I could stop them.

"So what, I owe her?"