Chapter 2

I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious in the dark, lifeless confessional before a loud, frantic knock jolted me awake.

Staggering to my feet, I opened the door to find an elderly omega maid standing outside.

She’d come to complain that I hadn’t taken out the trash. However, when she saw my blood-covered face, her expression instantly turned to horror.

“Oh my! Child, what happened to you?!”

Without waiting for an answer, she helped me up and took me straight to the treatment room.

After a series of examinations, she clutched my medical report, eyes brimming with tears.

“You’re suffering from chronic silver powder poisoning. It’s already reached your bone marrow!”

Looking at my pale and fragile state, she had her daughter bring over a warm herbal tonic and patiently spoon-fed it to me.

Her unfamiliar kindness touched my heart, making my eyes redden.

Maybe this was what a mother’s warmth was supposed to feel like.

She gently wiped my tears and softly comforted me. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Don’t be afraid. You’ll get better.”

I shook my head. Deep down, I knew it was hopeless.

I opened my phone and transferred the last bit of money I had meant for Kian to her. “Thank you. But it won’t work. I’m not going to recover from this.

“Here. This money doesn’t even cover what you spent on my treatment, but I’ll find a way to pay the rest back.”

She wanted to say more, but when she saw the look in my eyes, she sighed and watched silently as I left the treatment room.

As I passed a nearby psychiatric office, I suddenly heard Kian’s voice.

“Mom, you should never have brought up Lily yesterday. Now Leila’s having nightmares again. She dreamed Lily was trying to hurt her.”

Then came Leila’s voice, sobbing as she said, “I don’t want to lose you. If I can’t be with Mom, Dad, and Kian, I’d rather die!”

In the next moment, Leila and I locked eyes through the crack in the door.

She let out a piercing scream. “She’s here! She really came! She’s trying to drive me away!”

Without hesitation, she grabbed a silver dagger from the drawer and pressed it to her throat.

My parents and Kian turned pale with fear. They rushed forward, pried the knife from her hands, and held her tight in their arms.

“Leila, it’s okay! We’re here. No one’s going to hurt you!”

Once she’d calmed down, Kian finally turned to me. His face darkened as he stormed over and dragged me inside.

“Lily, you followed us? Do you really want Leila to relive the nightmare from eight years ago?

“Clearly, kneeling in the confessional every day hasn’t taught you a damn thing.”

He gestured to the smirking psychiatrist behind him. “So, you’re staying here. Let the doctor fix that jealousy and malice inside you.”

With that, he turned and left with my parents, still holding the sobbing Leila.

As they exited, Leila looked back and flashed me a meaningful smile.

The moment they turned away, my entire world shattered.

Tears burst from my eyes. A numbing cold spread from my heart to every limb.

I was their biological daughter, whose life had been replaced and suffered eighteen years of pain.

Just because of a cake laced with wolfsbane that somehow ended up at the reunion banquet, they decided to punish me with this eight-year-long lie.

Now, they were leaving me alone with a creepy psychiatrist.

“Leila gave strict instructions to use the most effective method to erase all those thoughts you shouldn’t be having.”

He pointed to a bathtub in the corner of the room filled to the brim with water.

“Water washes away all sin.

“Let’s hope you find peace there and reflect on everything you’ve done.”

The moment he finished speaking, two assistants grabbed me from behind and forced my head into the tub.

The icy water flooded my nose and lungs as panic and pain began to overwhelm me.

I struggled, only to be held down harder.

Every time they yanked me up for a brief gasp of air, they slammed me back under the next second.

My consciousness soon blurred to darkness.

Eventually, they fished my limp body out of the tub and tossed me like trash behind the clinic.

I couldn’t accept that I was dying from silver poisoning. That I was going to die at the hands of Kian’s punishment.

Just as I was slipping into unconsciousness, the elderly omega maid happened to walk by.

She saw me and immediately rushed me back to the treatment room.

I ended up staying there for five more days.

When I finally returned to the villa, the first thing I saw was Kian’s mocking smile.

He sneered, “Well, look at you, acting like a runaway just because you had a tantrum. Did you think we’d come looking for you?

“I thought maybe you’d finally grown a spine. But here you are, crawling back after just five days.”

I stared at him, my voice hoarse.

“They waterboarded me for eight hours. I only survived because I was rushed to the ICU.

“A little detail like that shouldn’t be hard for an Alpha like you to find out, right?”