Chapter 2

When my mother saw the sign for the crematorium, her face turned ashen.

“How can you come to a miserable place like this?”

She cursed. “Lluvia Lovell, tell me, are you hoping Lillian dies?”

“Mom, you seem to have forgotten something.”

I snickered. “Lillian is already dead. What am I doing wrong by bringing the corpse here? She should be sent to a crematorium.”

This time, I would not give Lillian the chance to get away by faking her own death.

Mom trembled from rage.

She grabbed a handful of my hair. I was disoriented from the pain. She slammed my head against a slab of wood.

“You’re acting up, huh?! How dare you disobey me?!” she yelled, “More of this nonsense, and I-I’ll kill you!”

Dad was not pleased with me, either. He had a ruthless expression on his face as he kicked me.

They beat me up so badly that I could barely breathe. I braced myself and fought back with everything I had, and we ended up brawling.

I knew that my parents never liked me very much. However, I decided to ignore it in the previous timeline since Lillian had died very young. I went along with everything they wanted.

Yet, they had known the truth all along.

When I asked them about it during my nephew’s celebration, they both looked at me like I was a clown. “So? What does it matter if Lillian took your admission letter? She’s more suited than you to go to university.”

“We gave birth to you so that you can take care of us in our old age. It’s not so that you can live the high life.”

“Don’t say that this is something Lillian owes you. You’re the one who tried to steal her husband. Lillian didn’t take offense at your shamelessness, so what do you have to feel wronged for?”

Every word was like a knife stabbing my heart.

Well, since they did not care for me as their child, I did not mind burning all the bridges.

“Who’s fighting over here? Let go!”

The manager of the crematorium ran over and pulled us apart.

I pointed at the motionless Lillian and said quickly, “My sister’s dead. My parents are old-fashioned and want her to be buried, so I rushed her over here.”

When they heard that I wanted to have Lillian cremated, my parents started sweating.

“Don’t spout nonsense! You can’t just go around cremating people!”

Our village encouraged the people to stop burying their dead and to switch to cremation instead. Many were against it, and it forced the village headman to put in extra work every day.

The crematorium manager thought that my parents disapproved of cremation.

“Well, since you’re already here, there’s no point going somewhere else,” he said. “Do you have a death certificate yet? If you do, I can arrange the cremation for you immediately.”

“I have it!”

Before my parents could react, I fished the death certificate out of my dad’s pocket.

They had planned their act meticulously and had even used their connections to produce a death certificate as proof to fool me. That was what made me believe it was all real before.

With this document as proof, Lillian was considered to be truly dead.

“This might seem unusual, but you’re here already. Let’s just cremate her right away.”

The cremation manager settled the paperwork quickly.

In an instant, my parents were flabbergasted.

“You horrible wretch!”

My mother took out the new sewing kit she had bought and grabbed a needle. She pointed it at my mouth like she wanted to sew it up. “Let’s see if you can still spout nonsense with your mouth sewn up!”

“Sir, you really can’t cremate her!”

Dad was so terrified that his legs went weak. “Lillian’s funeral isn’t even over. Let me take her home and have a wake. Then, we can talk.

“That way, we can have some closure. She doesn’t even have proper clothes for a cremation. She won’t go happily without them…”

The earnestness with which my dad said this touched the crematorium manager.

“Well, I guess we can stall a bit…” he mumbled.

Thinking that they had gotten their way, my parents sighed in relief. They must have been scheming about how to get back at me once we got home.

If I remained in their control after this, my life would be even worse than it had been in the previous timeline.

I forced myself to take a deep breath and tried to calm myself.

Then, I saw something from the corner of my eye at the edge of the yard.

Yes! This was happening!