Chapter 3

Quinn locked arms with Mom. She shot a disdainful look at me before fixing a guilty expression on her face.

"If I hadn't insisted on combining the room on the second floor with mine so I could have my own walk-in closet, Charlotte wouldn't have to stay in the guest room. Why don't I let her have my room instead?"

Dad immediately rejected her idea before I could even get a word in.

"That's your room. She has no right to steal your things from you right after rejoining us."

He then turned to me, wanting to berate me for being petty, but I was already gone.

The door to the guest room slammed shut, leaving Dad to stand awkwardly where I had left him. A long time passed before he finally murmured, "What a rude child."

I wasn't intentionally trying to be rude. I simply had no desire to live.

I lay on the bed that was neither cramped nor spacious, sighing over the fact that there were no beams installed across the ceiling of the room.

I could have taken my life with just a roll of rope if there were. I wouldn't have to watch them play favorites with Quinn.

…

Although Mom and Dad didn't have a good first impression of me, I was still their biological daughter. Thus, they transferred me to the same private high school that Quinn was attending.

I had no doubt that Quinn was going to bully me.

However, she didn't do anything even after two days had passed.

My classmates weren't too enthusiastic about befriending me because of the cheap clothes that I wore, but they didn't show any signs of wanting to bully me.

…

One day, Mom and Dad suddenly told me that they were going to personally drop me off at school when they had always expressed their dislike of me.

It was a brand new experience for me.

Ray and Holly had always doted on their actual son more than me, so they had never personally sent me to school in the past.

I couldn't help but wonder why Mom and Dad suddenly had a change of heart and accepted me. Although I had my doubts, I still got into their car.

No one spoke during the car ride.

I finally broke the silence when I noticed that the car was heading in the opposite direction from the school, asking, "I think you're going the wrong way, Mr. Emerson. Why are we going onto the highway?"

My question seemed to anger Dad, and he slammed his foot on the brake.

I gritted my teeth and swallowed my cry of pain when I lurched forward and hit my forehead.

"Charlotte Griffin, the only reason we brought you back is that we didn't want a member of the Emerson family to wander around on their own away from home. You're not supposed to use your status as our actual daughter to intimidate and ostracize Quinn in school!"

I had no idea what Dad was talking about. I tried to explain myself, but I was interrupted when Mom tossed her phone at me.

"No need to come up with excuses. You're the one who uploaded these posts, right? We never told the public about how we brought the wrong daughter home. You're the only one who knows about it!

"Did you really believe that we have so much free time on our hands to send you to school? We just wanted to punish you a little. Get out of the car right now. You can walk back home from here."

It seemed that I had been caught in a trap.

I knew that Mom and Dad wouldn't believe a single word that I said because they didn't love me, so I decided to do as they said and get out of the car.

However, I wasn't planning on walking home. It was much too upsetting to continue staying in that villa.

An idea formed in my mind as I glanced at the cars speeding along the highway. I sprinted onto the road when a huge truck was getting close.

"It's fine!" I shouted. "I was tired of living anyway!"

Mom and Dad were completely caught off guard.

The driver hastily spun his steering wheel when he saw me, narrowly missing hitting me by an inch. Unfortunately, the tail end of the truck slammed into Mom's and Dad's car, which was parked on the side of the road.