Chapter 3

I knew Felicity had done it on purpose. I turned to her with an indifferent smile on my face and asked, "When did Lillian become your daughter, Felicity?"

Henry grabbed my arm before Felicity could respond, his voice becoming grave as he said, "You don't have to be so harsh, Whitney. Lillian likes Felicity, so it's only natural for her to call her 'Mommy.'"

Mom and Dad echoed Henry's sentiment, saying, "That's right, Whitney. Why are you getting jealous of Felicity? If you hadn't been so unkind to Lillian all this time, she would have called you 'Mommy,' too."

I had been unkind toward Lillian, huh? I stared at their impassive expressions and couldn't help but find the whole situation utterly absurd.

It was then that a plate suddenly came flying through the air. Henry quickly moved to block it with his arm. His elbow took the brunt of the impact, but some of the shards still hit me, cutting my forehead.

My eyes widened in surprise, and before I could even register what had happened, I heard Lillian yelling angrily, "You're a bad person! Get lost! You're not welcome here! Get out!"

I touched the blood on my forehead and smiled wryly. I then looked at the people before me with my bloodshot eyes and murmured, "It's fine if she doesn't think of me as her mother. I mean, I'm not her biological mother anyway, right?"

I stared at Felicity and made sure to put emphasis on the words "biological mother."

Having said that, I ran out of the house crying as everyone watched in stunned silence. I barely made it to the doorway before I collapsed onto my knees, clutching my stomach in agony. It was now riddled with tumors, but it was once home to a life.

Henry cried tears of joy when I told him I was pregnant. He had even picked out the name "Lillian" for the baby before she was even born. Unfortunately, on the way to one of my prenatal checkups, I got into a terrible accident from a faulty brake line. I used what little strength I had left to call Henry, yet he never answered.

That day, I survived against all odds, but the baby didn't make it.

Henry comforted me afterward, telling me that what mattered most was that I was still alive.

He, however, couldn't have known that the crash was the catalyst for my cancer. I had my uterus removed as a result of the accident, which completely threw my endocrine system into chaos. That, along with my subsequent depression, caused my immune system to fail, which led to my cancer.

I couldn't help but think that the years I lived afterward were borrowed time, stolen from what should have been my end.

I was sobbing uncontrollably when I was suddenly pulled into a warm embrace.

Henry tenderly wiped my tears away before taking out a first-aid kit to patch up my forehead. "There, there, Whitney. Please don't be upset. There's no point getting so worked up over what Lillian said."

His voice was so gentle, a perfect echo of the man who once loved me so deeply. His following sentence, however, immediately shattered the illusion. "If you can't get along with Lillian, then maybe we should just let Felicity adopt her."

I immediately slapped his hand away and stormed off, not sparing him a glance.

I could hear Henry's footsteps echoing behind me before he started yelling, "Why are you making such a big fuss over nothing, Whitney? It's no wonder Lillian doesn't like you!"

I stopped in my tracks, my chest heaving in fury, before I whipped around and snapped, "You'd better not call that girl Lillian anymore! You ought to know that our Lillian is already dead!"

Henry stopped dead in his tracks, a look of unease flashing across his face. It could have been because of guilt or heartache, but none of that mattered to me anymore.

I quickly wiped my tears and walked out of the house, a place that had become no less than hell to me. I was in such a rush that I failed to notice the searing glare of hatred directed at me.

Felicity stood by the window, watching as Henry watched me leave, her fingers clenching so tightly that her nails tore into her own skin.