3

My heart lurched. The mansion's front gates stood wide open, with streamers and balloons stretching from the portico all the way to the gardens. Cheerful music echoed from the main hall.

I stood at the entrance, almost thinking I'd come to the wrong place—until I saw Josie wearing mother's favorite Valentino gown, standing on the staircase with a champagne flute, smiling brilliantly.

"Welcome home, Miss Blackwood!" She raised her glass toward me, as if this were her house.

Marcus and Ryan flanked her sides, impeccably dressed in suits, wearing victorious smiles. Behind them, a crew of workers busily dismantled mother's portraits, replacing them with giant graduation photos of Josie.

Mother's funeral had been less than three days ago, and they were already desecrating her memory like this.

"What are you doing?" My voice nearly trembled.

"Throwing Josie a makeup graduation party." Marcus casually adjusted his cufflinks. "Your mother's funeral interrupted her graduation celebration. We can't let her have any regrets."

I rushed upstairs and pushed open mother's bedroom door—

The beige wallpaper had been torn to shreds, furniture dismantled and scattered everywhere. Mother's photographs were strewn across the floor, covered with dirty footprints.

Several workers sat on the ground, using mother's silk scarves to wipe their sweat. Another man held her pearl necklace against his neck, comparing it while a cigarette dangled from his lips.

"Hey, this stuff's worth good money, right?" One of them grinned, pinning mother's brooch to his filthy work uniform.

"Don't touch her things!" I rushed forward, but a burly man shoved me aside.

"Get lost, little girl." He roughly grabbed my wrist. "Mr. Hayes said everything in this room is ours for the taking—consider it overtime pay."

His companion laughed loudly, picking up mother's nightgown and rubbing it against his face: "Smells real nice. Wonder what the woman who wore this was like in bed?"

"Stop it! I'm the lady of this house. You broke in here and are destroying property—this is illegal trespassing!"

The lead worker looked me up and down, impatiently shoving me away:

"Bah, I only know the lady of this house is named Thompson—she's the apple of Mr. Reed and Mr. Hayes's eyes. Who the hell are you?"

"Mr. Reed said he's an earl now, and nobles need to redecorate bedrooms for their wives. He told us to get rid of everything in this room. What's it to you? Get lost before I bash your head in with this hammer!"

It was Marcus and Ryan who ordered this? How could they treat mother this way?!

I quickly scanned the room, and a chill ran down my spine.

Mother's urn was gone!

Nausea and rage churned in my stomach. When I turned to confront Marcus and Ryan, I discovered their party had already ended.

Marcus and Ryan were waiting for me with Josie.

Josie held a broken necklace in her arms, her eyes red-rimmed—completely different from her happy expression at the party. Ryan didn't hesitate to rush over and slap me across the face:

"Catherine, you're such a malicious bitch! Just because Josie forgot to change clothes yesterday, you destroyed her mother's keepsake?! You made Josie cry!"

"Since you bullied Josie, you must pay the price. We hid your mother's ashes in the northern garbage dump. Whether you can find them depends on your skills. Go find them yourself. No servants, no police, or we'll dump them straight into the river."

Having grown up together, they knew I had germaphobia and asthma—I couldn't stay in such a filthy place for long. Yet they still wanted to use this method to get revenge for Josie.

I looked pleadingly at Marcus, trying to explain:

"Marcus, please believe me, I didn't..."

I'd never even seen that necklace before.

Josie immediately said pitifully:

"Forget it, Marcus. Sister Catherine is a noble lady after all. Someone of my status is naturally destined to be bullied. Don't make her unhappy because of me..."

Marcus's initially hesitant expression instantly turned cold and hard. He took Josie's hand and said coolly:

"Unhappy? She did something dirty—what right does she have to be unhappy?"

"Catherine, I hate people who bully the weak most. You were just born lucky—what right do you have to bully Josie? When it comes to kindness of heart, you're not worth a strand of Josie's hair. If you still want me to marry you, go in there obediently, or don't blame me for changing my mind!"

With that, he unhesitatingly led Josie away, leaving me alone.

I rushed to the garbage dump without stopping. The sky began to rain.

The dump covered dozens of acres, with mountain-high piles of black garbage bags reeking sourly in the rain. I stepped into the slippery mud, rotting vegetable leaves and broken glass sticking to my shoe soles.

The first hour, I searched through the nearest garbage piles. Plastic bags had rotted from the rainwater and tore at the slightest touch, leftover food and decaying animal organs coating my arms. Flies buzzed around my ears, some crawling into my hair.

The second hour, my fingernails filled with grime, my palms cut by broken glass, blood mixing with rainwater flowing down my sleeves.

The third hour, I began vomiting. The nauseating smell invaded my nostrils, my stomach churning with acid. I knelt on the ground dry-heaving, my throat burning with pain.

When I finally dug to the deepest part of the dump, a group of scavengers appeared. They kept shoving me, some even secretly tearing at my clothes. I fought back desperately with all my strength before driving them away.

Finally, I managed to unearth an urn from the deepest part of the garbage pile.

When I returned to the mansion, my clothes were torn to shreds, my undergarments completely exposed, my face covered in filth, my hands and knees scraped raw from the long search.

Seeing my wretched state, Marcus and Ryan's eyes flashed with shock.

Before I could speak, Josie quickly said:

"How did Sister Catherine get herself into such a state? We just put the ashes by the garbage dump entrance—it shouldn't have taken long to find. Sister Catherine couldn't have done this on purpose..."

Ryan immediately kicked me:

"I knew it! Josie specifically told the servants to put the ashes by the entrance, but you deliberately made yourself look like this, even tore your clothes off. You're just trying to guilt-trip Marcus into marrying you!"

Marcus also looked at me with disgust:

"Catherine, to get me, you'll really use any method. Making yourself look like this—do you have no shame left?"

I had no strength left to argue. I just held the urn and examined it.

The moment I opened the lid, my expression changed dramatically, and I cried out:

"These aren't my mother's ashes!"