Chapter 3

Oh. So he knew that he betrayed me?

When did Jacob begin having eyes only for Sully?

It could have been a year ago. It could have been half a year ago. I did not want to delve into it any longer.

Silence became my best answer. After sighing a few times, Jacob said, “Yelena, I know that you still like me, but I’m Sully’s boyfriend now.

“I like her, and she likes me. The one who isn’t loved is the outsider.

“We’ve known each other for eight years. I’m begging you, just let me go and save Sully. Don’t be such a horrible person.”

At the end, Jacob’s breathing started quickening. He was panicking due to his worry that Sully would die, but he forgot that I would be hurt too.

I tried to blink back my tears, but they still fell.

Eight years had passed?

When I first got to know Jacob, he was a fearless hooligan.

At that time, the students all treated the Godfather as their model. Jacob copied him and became an infamous, problematic student.

I often avoided him out of worry that I would end up learning bad habits from him.

Yet it was precisely because of this that Jacob started bothering me.

At that time, we were in middle school, and we were at the age where we thought might was the law. To him, all girls should love him for his strength, and I should not be the exception.

In order to show off his charm, Jacob gave me candy and protected me.

His love was as passionate as fire and became the only source of comfort during the dark days of my life.

Later on, Jacob started studying hard just to get into the same high school as me.

He did his best to prove that he loved me, and in the end, with outstanding results, he became the great black horse of our generation.

Everyone said that true love was valuable, but true love could change within the blink of an eye.

We went to two separate universities.

He once hugged me and swore that he would marry me after we finished university and were no longer in a long-distance relationship.

The train tickets back and forth and the late-night phone calls were all his acts of fulfilling his promise.

But his promise was only effective when he actually carried it out.

The times we called each other turned from every day to three times a week, and eventually, he stopped contacting me, and that change happened within a short year.

Jacob’s world was no longer centered around me, and he started sending me away with excuses that he was busy. Everything in the past seemed to have been a lie.

I did not understand why until I coincidentally ran into him once.

He suddenly became cold toward me because he cared for someone else more, and that person was Sully, the person I was not allowed to compete with or argue with.

After my parents learned about this, they even called Jacob to our house.

I thought that they would reason with him and support me, but my mother put Sully’s hand on Jacob’s right in front of my face.

“Jacob, the past is the past. You were deceived last time. So long as you understand how good Sully is now, that’s fine. Don’t believe in that brat’s lies anymore.”

While she spoke, she even gave me a warning look.

I felt such a sharp stab of pain in my heart that I shuddered.

Niel laughed and joined in the teasing fun. I was the only outsider in the situation.

Before he left, Jacob called out to me. He looked regretful and awkward, but there was no love in his eyes.

I tried to maintain my last shred of dignity, but my mother cast me a glance.

“Go to bed already! Are you standing here to seduce Sully’s boyfriend?”

Who exactly was the seductress? I could not understand.

We had loved each other for so many years, and it was gone just like that?

Was there anyone who would care whether I was suffering?

For the first time ever, Jacob no longer shielded me. He just cast me a disgusted look and went off to say soothing words to Sully.

His guilt came and left like a flash of lightning, just like his love for me.

My eyes stung. Perhaps I had been a bad girl over the years, but I did my best, no?

I could have gone to the university Jacob went to, but my parents stopped me.

They tore up my original application letter with stormy looks on their faces.

When Niel saw this, he fanned the flames and said that I was trying to run away from the family and Sully.

It seemed to flick a switch in my mother’s head. She kicked me down and started stomping on me.

“Yelena, you think you’re all grown up now and can be independent? I’m telling you now, never!

“You’re going to serve Yelena for the rest of her life and be her walking blood bank.

“You owe her this much, do you hear me?”

My body was hunched over at that point as I did my best to raise my head.

“I’ve never said no when Sully needs my help. I only want to study at a university to have a better future. Don’t you want me to live a good life?”

I was full of hope at that time that my mother would say yes.

But my mother just sized me up in disgust.

“Stop pretending. You’ve been horrible since you were a child. You ran away just so that you didn’t have to give blood to Sully, and you’re doing the same thing now. You’re not leaving this house.”

The textbooks all spoke of mothers being the most gentle of angels, but my mother was like a demon.

She hated me and wanted me dead immediately.

I could not help it. I cried. My voice even trembled. “Mom, sometimes, I really wished that you didn’t give birth to me.”

I was punched in the face for that. This time, it was from my father. He punched me hard, and it hurt so much that I wanted to puke.

“Enough. It is already settled. Even if she wants to go to that university, it doesn’t count. It’s pointless to continue with this argument.”

I shut my eyes as despair filled my entire being.

Ever since Sully moved in, all that I had and could get were given to her.

My parents’ love, the beautiful dresses, my bed, and even my health.

My arm was covered in needle marks. I could never be full. My body was emaciated.

I thought that if I worked hard, I could pay back all that I owed.

But I was wrong. Those were two lives. Even if I offered my own life, it would not be enough.

Even so, no one cared that I was also human and had my own dreams and thoughts.

On the day that we were supposed to submit our applications, I thought about sneakily choosing the university I wanted, but my parents decided to follow me, even though they were always so busy.

It was as if they were keeping an eye on a criminal and would never let their eyes stray from me for even a second.

The teachers had tried to dissuade them multiple times to change my joke of a life, but my mother crossed her arms in disdain.

“This is a family matter. Don’t stick your noses into this.”

Those words decided my entire life.

I cried till my eyes were swollen, but I did not dare fight back. The dull pain I felt was the best reminder.

The moment I stepped out of the school, the sun shone on me.

It was a bright, sunny day, but I just felt chills all over my body.

My mother brought out a bag of chips from somewhere and started munching on them as she sneered. “You owe Sully two lives. We’re just asking you to go to another university. Why are you so sad?

“You were born to live a lowly life, and you still want to climb up the social ladder?”

I wanted to say, “After Sully’s parents died, didn’t I make it up to her by giving you two to her?”

From that moment on, I was the one unloved, no?