Chapter 3

Upon hearing that, my father rushed in immediately.

Jolie was following behind him.

I felt like two sides of my brain were fighting against each other.

One was shouting for my mother to quickly open the closet.

The other was crying for my mother not to, for the fear that I would return to my own body.

Then, very soon, I would be sent to a stranger’s home.

However, no one cared about my thoughts at all.

The cake fell onto the floor from my mother’s hands.

She threw herself at the closet.

Before my father could retrieve the tools, she was tearing the metal wire apart with her bare hands.

The metal wire was sharp, and it left cuts on her hands.

However, she did not let go.

“Ruby, Ruby, talk to me! Say something!”

I floated next to her anxiously as her blood splattered on my face.

My brain had quietened down.

Only one voice was repeating nonstop

“See, Mommy’s crying for you.

“You shouldn’t have upset her and just went to the countryside, so you won’t be a burden to this family anymore.”

I hung my head.

The voice was right. I should just follow their plan.

I slowly floated back to the closet and tried to get back into my body.

At the same time, my father ran back into the room with a pair of pliers.

When he saw that my mother’s hands were covered in blood, he quickly stepped forward to stop her.

“Are you crazy? The metal wire is rusted. You have such deep cuts on your hand. What if you get tetanus?”

“Let go of me!”

My mother snatched the pair of pliers and yelled hysterically.

“Ruby’s inside! She’s not making any sound!

“If something happens to her and she has an episode, what if the family no longer wants her?

“If we can’t get the money from them, how can we treat Jolie’s illness?”

I paused in my attempt to get back into my body.

Even though I could no longer feel any physical sensations, I still felt as though my heart had dropped to the pits of my stomach.

It turned out that she was not worried if something had happened to me.

She was afraid that if something happened to me, she would not be able to sell me off at the right price.

My mother pushed my father aside.

Just as she was about to cut the metal wire, Jolie suddenly asked in a whisper, “Why is the metal wire bent like that?

“Did Ruby come out earlier? Maybe she’s hiding to scare us now.”

My parents paused at the same time.

My father seemed to have a realization before he suddenly tugged on the closet door fiercely.

The light shone through the crack and exposed my smiling face.

They knew that once I was asleep, I would not have any expression on my face.

My father’s face was immediately flushed red in anger.

“Oh, Ruby, how dare you? How dare you do that?

“Do you think it’s fun to see us panicking like this?”

He trembled in anger and kicked the closet door.

In the closet, my body swayed with the motion.

However, the expression had frozen on my face, and it would no longer change.

My mother suppressed her anger as she said, “In order to compete with Jolie for our attention, you’re willing to do anything!

“Serves you right for being a fool in this life! If you’re a normal child, I bet you’d have killed Jolie!”

My father unscrewed a few bolts and tossed them onto the floor, but he did not open the closet door.

“I’ve wasted my energy trying to put in a good word for you, yet this is how you repay me.

“Get out and apologize!”

I floated next to them as I shook my head frantically.

I was not pretending, and I was not trying to compete for their attention.

The truth was I could no longer wake up.

The bedroom was extremely quiet.

Their heavy breathing was the only sound in the room.

No one noticed that only the three of them were breathing.

My father looked even more angry.

He glanced around the room and his gaze paused on a palm-sized musical box on the desk.

They had given that to me as my birthday gift the year I let Jolie have the chance to have that treatment.

It had a wooden base, and there were a couple figurines holding a tiny girl’s hand on top of the base.

The young girl figurine was wearing the exact same dress as I was wearing.

That was the reason why I did not let Jolie have this dress.

My father picked up the musical box and weighed it in his hand.

The few figurines fell off as he toyed with it.

I dashed over with all my might, but I could only watch as the figurines fell through my translucent figure and smashed into pieces on the floor.

“Ruby, I’m counting to three. If you’re still not getting out of the closet, you can kiss your musical box goodbye!

“Three, two…”

The closet remained silent.

My father snorted and let the musical box slip past his palm. It fell onto the floor with a loud thud.

The wooden base smashed into pieces.

Some of the shards fell into the crack of the closet door.

The sharp pieces cut the corner of my mouth.

No blood oozed out.

I no longer felt pain.

It was still quiet inside the closet.

My parents exchanged a puzzled glance.

Just when they were about to step forward, my mother’s phone suddenly started ringing.

It was a call from the doctor, Sam Fowler.

She answered the call with a frown.

However, after a few seconds, her frown slowly disappeared.

“What? The last batch of medicine has really worked on Ruby?”

She put Dr. Fowler on a loud speaker, and he sounded like he was smiling.

“That’s right, congratulations! You’ve waited for this for such a long time.

“It just so happens that we have an experimental project with this batch of medicine. As long as you participate in the experiment, you don’t have to pay a single cent for the medical bill.

“At the end of the experiment, Ruby may be able to recover and become a normal person again. Besides, Jolie’s medical expenses can be reduced in the meantime too.”

My mother quickly ended the call and grabbed my father’s clothes.

“Those people… Tell them that I changed my mind…”

Before my father could respond, she turned to hold the closet door.

“Ruby, come out now. Mommy doesn’t blame you. We’ll send you to the doctor’s now.”

Seeing that I was not responding, my mother could no longer wait any longer. She opened the closet door immediately.