Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Ivy! What have you done?!"

Arthur's voice thundered through the silence of the mansion's upper floor, sharp and filled with blazing anger. The man strode toward Sarah, who was now sitting on the corridor floor while covering her face, which was wet with fake tears.

Before Arthur, Sarah's left cheek was visibly red, bearing a conspicuous mark from the slap. Seeing it, Arthur's jaw immediately hardened. The veins in his temples tensed as he struggled to contain the anger that had already reached its peak.

Jensen and Redy, who had followed behind, immediately went upstairs as well. Jensen stared at Ivy with disgust and accusation in his eyes, while Redy quickly knelt down to embrace Sarah, who continued to sob softly.

"Brother... hic... don't be angry with Sis Ivy," Sarah whimpered in a deliberately trembling voice, hiding a victorious smirk behind Redy's shoulder. "It was my fault... I only meant to help tidy up Sis Ivy's belongings, but Sis Ivy misunderstood..."

"Liar!" Ivy retorted breathlessly, her chest rising and falling as she struggled to contain the overwhelming wave of anger and disappointment. "She slapped her own cheek right in front of me! She was only looking for trouble so that all of you would blame me!"

"Enough, Ivy!" Arthur shouted forcefully, glaring at her as though he wanted to devour her alive. "How long are you going to keep lying and treating Sarah cruelly, huh?! Her cheek is clearly red from the slap of your hand! Don't humiliate yourself by making pathetic excuses!"

"Why do you never want to believe me?!" Ivy's voice trembled violently, tears once again streaming down her cheeks. "I never slapped her!"

Jensen stepped forward toward Ivy, straightening his suit with a cynical gesture before speaking in a cold, piercing tone. "Believe you? How can we believe an egotistical girl who is constantly seeking attention? Listen, Ivy, Sarah never asked for this room to become hers. This decision was made after consideration by the three of us—me, Arthur, and Redy."

Jensen stared intently at Ivy, delivering the most devastating words that shattered the last remnants of the girl's pride.

"This master bedroom was always supposed to belong to Sarah because she is actually our biological sister," Jensen continued mercilessly. "And you? You're only an adopted child we've taken in as a replacement all this time. It's time you realized your place and stopped whining like a little child."

Ivy slowly shook her head. Those words spun around inside her mind, striking her consciousness until she felt as though her entire world had truly collapsed. For fourteen years, she had believed that they were her real brothers who loved her unconditionally. It turned out that her status was nothing more than that of a replacement for a shadow.

Amid her sobs, Sarah lifted her head from within Redy's embrace, hiding a cunning smile on her lips as she saw how completely Ivy's defenses had crumbled before the three brothers.

As the atmosphere became increasingly suffocating, a white paper folder tucked among Ivy's scattered belongings suddenly fell, landing directly in front of Sarah, who was still curled up in Redy's embrace.

Sarah stared at the folder lying open on the floor. At a glance, her eyes caught sight of the private clinic laboratory report written on the top sheet. With a quick movement, the girl grabbed the paper before anyone had a chance to pick it up.

Sarah narrowed her eyes as she read the doctor's diagnosis written across the paper. Her heart beat faster, not because of fear, but because a malicious idea suddenly crossed her mind.

"Huh...?" Sarah deliberately hissed the word loudly enough to draw the attention of the three men around her. She stared at the sheet with a deliberately shocked expression before looking up at Ivy with a nauseatingly pitying gaze. "So... Sis, you're sick with leukemia?"

Arthur, Jensen, and Redy immediately turned toward her. Arthur's brows furrowed deeply as he stared suspiciously at the folder in Sarah's hand.

"What is that, Sarah?" Arthur asked coldly.

Sarah bit her lower lip, pretending to hesitate before speaking. "This... is a hospital examination report. It says Sis Ivy is suffering from acute leukemia..." The girl then covered her mouth with her hand, staring at Ivy as though she could not believe it. "But... is this really true? Or perhaps you're only pretending to be sick like this just to get our attention again?"

The words flowed so smoothly, striking Ivy directly in the pit of her stomach.

Before Ivy could open her mouth to defend herself or snatch the paper back, Arthur moved quickly. The man roughly snatched the laboratory report from Sarah's hand. Arthur's eyes scanned the contents of the paper sharply before shifting to Ivy, carrying a flash of anger far darker than before.

To Arthur and his two younger brothers, the severe diagnosis sounded like yet another cheap act Ivy had staged to reclaim their attention, which had begun shifting toward Sarah.

Riiip... srrrt!

Without mercy, Arthur tore the important medical record into several pieces before casually throwing the fragments onto the corridor floor at Ivy's feet.

"Don't think you can use a cheap trick like this to gain our sympathy or divert attention from what you did to Sarah!" Arthur shouted, his voice booming as he struggled to contain his anger.

Jensen also scoffed cynically, folding his arms across his chest while looking down disdainfully at the helpless Ivy. "What a cheap trick. You used all kinds of excuses to throw tantrums before, and now you're even faking a diagnosis of a deadly disease? Disgusting."

Redy slowly shook his head, staring at Ivy with a disappointed expression filled with pretense. "We truly never thought you could sink this low, Ivy."

Ivy stared in shock, looking at the scraps of paper on the floor containing the genuine diagnosis of the disease eating away at her body. They did not believe her. Even when she was truly dying on the brink of death, her own family considered it nothing more than a lie to seek attention. The tears that had already dried up began to well again, streaming down her cheeks, which still stung from the slap earlier.

Arthur took a deep breath, trying to calm himself even though his jaw remained tense. He stared expressionlessly at Ivy, who had been shattered into pieces.

"Ivy, enough..." Arthur's voice softened slightly, yet it sounded even crueler to Ivy's ears because of the hypocrisy behind it. "We'll still consider you part of this family... but please, don't put Sarah under any more pressure with your dramas."

"Brother! Enough!" Ivy screamed.