Chapter 3

I expressionlessly walked out of the banquet hall.

I had long gotten used to it; no matter what I did.

David’s heart would always belong to Lily.

And Emma would always see me as the sinner who took her mother’s place.

“Do you really have to cause a scene today?”

Father quickly walked up to me, his voice full of anger and disappointment.

“Father, what more do you want from me? Haven’t I done my duty for nine years? Is that not enough?”

I had grown tired of these repeated explanations.

“You and Lily are biological sisters, wasn’t it only right for you to tolerate her child? If Lily were still here, she would never have been so unaware of reason!”

He scolded me sharply.

I shrugged, having lost all patience for today’s farce:

“Well, it’s too bad, Lily is already dead.”

Father raised his hand to strike me.

I grabbed his wrist:

“Father, it was you who changed the marriage partner, after Lily died, it was you who forced me to help continue this marriage, so now what do you still want? Do you try to force me to do something that harms the family’s interests?”

Father yanked his hand back, disgustedly looking at me:

“Do as you wish, Ashley! This is why no one will ever love you, not even your own mother wants to see you!”

He turned and left.

A sharp pain pierced my heart, leaving me dazed.

I hadn’t seen my mother in nine years.

Since she lost her favorite daughter Lily, she had never come to see me, not even at the family dinner.

I felt immense pain, and no wonder others thought I was jealous of Lily.

Because I truly had nothing.

“Sorry, I’ve prepared a gift for you.”

A childish voice came from behind.

I turned around and saw Emma standing there, a naive smile on her face, holding a wrapped gift box.

Looking at her, she had some resemblance to David, and I couldn’t help but feel a twinge in my heart. I smiled and said:

“You don’t need to be so polite.”

Emma giggled:

“I’m happy to give you a gift, open it and see!”

I took the gift box, opened it, and was immediately hit with a foul smell.

Inside the box lay the corpse of the little bird I had raised, a bullet hole through its body.

It had already lost its life.

“If you don’t leave me and Dad, next it’ll be you!”

Emma’s face wore a harmless smile, as if her threat was nothing but a childish joke.

My body went weak, and I felt the coldness and lifelessness from the bird mirrored in my own self.

I wanted to touch it, but my hands trembled and froze in place.

It was the only thing in this house that belonged to me.

For these nine years, I had poured all my loneliness and sorrow into it.

“Don’t make me angry, and don’t let Dad get upset with me!”

Emma’s true face showed as she spoke with a menacing tone.

Watching her stomp off, I focused on the gun that had been used on my bird.

The gun Emma had was still the one I gave her, a gift I had specially picked out for her.

Just because she admired the gunmen who transported goods in the family.

My attempts to please, to make peace, had turned into a weapon to hurt me.

Looking at it now, I couldn’t hold back the tears in my eyes.

“Why are you standing in the cold? Ashley, don’t catch a cold!”

David’s voice came from the door.

He immediately walked up behind me, draping his coat over my shoulders, but I threw it off immediately.

“What’s wrong?”

He asked, puzzled.