Chapter 2

I reached out to Jenna and said coldly, “Give it back.”

But Jenna quickly ducked behind my older brother, Damian Sedgewick.

She stuck her tongue out at me before rapidly tapping on the phone screen. In a few quick motions, she exited the family group chat, unfriended my adoptive parents, and deleted their contacts before I could react.

Once she was done, she showed me the empty contact list with a smug expression.

“I don’t care about the phone. Just give me the charm,” I said.

My phone case had a small teddy bear charm attached to it. Its color had long since faded, leaving it a dull chalky white. My adoptive parents had bought it for me at a roadside stand when I was three, after some unruly children threw things at me until I burst into tears while I was scavenging for recyclables.

It was the first gift I had ever received, and I had carried it with me for eighteen years, treasuring it ever since.

A trace of malice flashed in Jenna’s eyes as she glanced at the worn teddy bear charm. Without hesitation, she threw the phone onto the ground and stepped on it.

Then, she clicked her tongue and said, “You treat something this shabby like a treasure. It’s probably crawling with germs. It should’ve gone in the trash ages ago. The Sedgewick family doesn’t keep filthy things like this. I’m doing you a favor by helping you get rid of it.”

With that, she ground it beneath the heel of her shoe several times. The once-adorable teddy bear was crushed out of shape, and its stuffing spilled out.

I paled and quickly bent down to pick it up.

However, the instant my fingers touched the charm, Jenna brought the heel of her shoe down hard on my hand. A searing pain shot through my fingers and spread through my body. I clenched my jaw and yanked my hand back. My knuckles were already swollen and badly bruised, a horrifying sight.

Suddenly, Jenna let out a cry and collapsed onto the ground.

Her eyes instantly reddened, and tears welled up on cue. She looked at Arnold and Eleanor with a pitiful expression.

“Mom, Dad, I was only trying to help Willa get rid of something filthy, but she pushed me on purpose… Do I deserve to be treated like this because I’m not your biological daughter?”

Theodore immediately stepped forward and shielded Jenna behind him before glaring at me with pure disgust.

“I only have one sister, and it’s her. A vicious woman like you doesn’t deserve to be my sister. I’m warning you. Stop making a scene, or you’ll never be allowed through the doors of the Sedgewick family ever again.”

Damian’s face darkened instantly. Without giving me a chance to explain, he shoved me hard. I staggered backward several steps before my lower back crashed into the edge of the flower bed. The pain was so intense that I could not bear to straighten up.

Damian looked down at me with icy contempt.

“Slap yourself in the face and seek Jenna’s forgiveness. We raised her with nothing but love and indulgence. No one has ever dared to cause her the slightest grievance. You’re just some stray girl we only recently brought back. How dare you hurt her?”

Only then did Arnold, who had been looking on coldly without intervening, finally speak. His words condemned me outright.

“Willa, since you pushed Jenna, you will apologize to her.”

Eleanor immediately chimed in with a sharp voice.

“The Sedgewick family values respect and proper conduct above everything else. If you’ve made a mistake, you must slap yourself in the face and admit it to show sincerity.”

None of them acknowledged my injured hand, as if they were all blind to it.

Perhaps it was more accurate to say that they did not care about me at all.

My hand still throbbed and trembled slightly from the pain, but my mind had settled into an eerie calm, even tinged with cold amusement.

There was no need to rush. Once my parents arrived, they would be the ones begging for mercy.