Chapter 3

Eloise didn't return to her parents' home, though to be accurate, she hadn't had a place to truly call home since leaving Marie. Thankfully, she'd saved up enough money over the years to buy a small apartment. At least she had a roof over her head.

Exhaustion washed over her as she opened the bedroom door. She had a long dream.

In it, the Sheffields gradually grew to shun Jonathan after the cliff incident, and they couldn't care less whether he died or lived. Eloise's biological parents did not want their precious Sonia to marry Jonathan and suffer hardship, so they devised ways to force Eloise into taking Sonia's place.

Eloise had been only 18 then. She'd shown up at her parents' residence with a cake she baked herself, thrilled and eager to please them. But the next second, she was roughly manhandled and shoved through the door of Jonathan's bedroom.

"You came back too late, Eloise. We don't feel an ounce of affection for you. Don't bother returning to the Jensen family after this. We'll just pretend we never had a daughter like you. This will be your home from now on for the rest of your life," Eloise's parents told her.

Fear, resentment, bitterness, and hopelessness filled Eloise. She couldn't understand how her biological parents could be so cruel as to abandon her. Why had they bothered bringing her back into the family, to begin with?

She curled up in the corner of the room and stared at the unmoving young man on the bed. She was panicked and terrified, and her tears wouldn't stop falling. At that point, she and Jonathan were nothing more than pitiful children abandoned by their families.

The dreamscape shifted, and Eloise was suddenly staring at Jonathan, whose mental capacity had devolved to that of a seven-year-old. She was trying her best to cheer him up.

He had become extremely capricious due to his diminished mental capacity. Each time he threw a tantrum, Eloise would rush up to him and hug him around the waist, soothing him in low, comforting tones.

The house they'd lived in was small, but it carried many of their memories, which were both bitter and sweet.

On days when the sun was out, Eloise would play tag with Jonathan, their laughter reverberating through the house. When thunder rumbled across the sky, she'd hold him tightly and cry with him.

The scene changed once more. Jonathan lost control of his emotions and threw a fit, and Eloise ended up knocking her head on the table. Blood seeped from the gash in her forehead.

When Jonathan saw the crimson blood dripping from her forehead, his towering build went still. This time, he did not helplessly break down in tears like usual, and instead gaped at Eloise before carefully pulling her into his arms.

"Silly Ellie, does it hurt? Don't be scared. I'll protect you from now on," he told her.

Eloise woke up with tears streaming down her face. She wiped them off, only to realize she had yet to clean the cut on her palm. Dirt and grime still covered the cut, courtesy of the street she'd scraped her palm on.

"It hurts, Jonathan." But this time, no one was there to blow on the cut for her or promise they'd take care of her for the rest of her life.

She saw that she had multiple missed calls on her phone. At first, she thought the calls were from her company, but they turned out to be from Jonathan. "Ellie, could you come to the hospital? I need to talk to you."

Eloise had set up a biotechnology company that was currently collaborating with the hospital run by the Sheffield family.

Upon hearing Jonathan's words, she thought there'd been a hiccup with their collaboration. She got out of bed and quickly cleaned the cut on her palm with antiseptic, then left the house with her purse.

From a distance, she saw Jonathan's bodyguard standing outside a VIP hospital room. She entered the room to find an ashen-faced Sonia on the bed.

Jonathan had claimed the caretaker's chair by the bedside, looking defensive of Sonia. A bowl with the dregs of what appeared to be chicken noodle soup was set on the table, too.

Eloise's gaze darted to the other side of the room, where her parents were seated on the couch. Everyone was looking at her, their expressions hardened. It was as though they were in a criminal inquiry.

Baffled by the scene, Eloise asked, "What's going on here?"

"I should be asking you that! What are you playing at?" Eloise's mother, Helena Norris, snapped as she stormed up to Eloise like an angry beast. "What kind of a sick psychopath would hire someone to kill her own younger sister?

"Did you want to get rid of her so you could inherit the family fortune? If you thought that would work, dream on!"

Eloise's father, David Jensen, approached her furiously as well. He did not move to strike her, but the hateful look in his eyes was enough to kill her. "How could an upstanding person like me have produced a heartless monster like you? I wish you'd die outside the family instead of disgracing us!"

These were Eloise's so-called parents. Not once did they show they loved her, but they certainly did not hold back in letting her know they hated her.

"So, did you ask me to come here to confess my sins?" Eloise's gaze fell on Jonathan. He had stood up and approached her while her parents admonished her. Now, he was looking down his nose at her.

Alas, he wasn't here to speak up for her. He looked grim, and his gaze was frigid behind his gold-rimmed glasses. "Why did you hire someone to run Sonia over? Had that car gone a little faster, did you know that Sonia might not have just gone into a shock, but worse?"

"How are you so sure that I was behind it?"