Chapter 4

Perhaps it was written in the stars that only one of us could enter this world. Even though Mom suffered a severe hemorrhage, Juliette survived.

Sitting beside Mom's frail form, I felt as though I had gone completely numb. This was the woman who had showered me with affection my entire life. Up until a moment ago, I had held onto a final sliver of hope, telling myself she was just saying those things in the heat of the moment, that she couldn't possibly mean it.

Yet, the scene from earlier kept replaying in my mind. Mom had meant every word; she seriously wanted to kill me.

Dad stormed into the room, but it wasn't out of concern for me. "I thought we agreed this child had to be born! If you miscarry now, how the hell do you expect our company's revenue to double?"

Pointing at him, Mom shrieked, "What if the company does even better without this jinx? Don't you hate this curse of a child, too? Getting rid of him now is way less of a headache than raising him all over again! Don't tell me you actually want to raise him a second time just to watch the company slowly go bankrupt?"

Her hysteria mounted, flailing her limbs. "It's his own fault for having such a wretched fate! Why did he have to be a jinx? If he had been just an ordinary child, I could've raised him properly!"

Standing beside them, the nurse timidly interjected. "Excuse me, ma'am... You're carrying a girl. The fetus that was reduced earlier... was your son."

Mom froze for a moment before seizing a cup from the nightstand and hurling it at the nurse. "Get the hell out! I can't believe you're lying to make me keep this baby. I'm his mother. Do you think you know better than me?

"It's all your fault, you useless quacks! For the sake of a jinx, you killed my lucky charm. I'll make sure you all pay for this!"

The nurse tried to show Mom the medical report, but Dad ruthlessly drove her out of the room. He then declared, "I've already found another pregnant woman whose due date matches yours, and I've checked; she's carrying a girl. You must carry this baby to term now! I'll not allow the company's future to be jeopardized in this lifetime!"

I later learned that in our previous life, no matter how meticulously my parents groomed me to be a girl, the company's revenue never stopped spiraling downward.

Mom was eventually forced to accept reality. Yet, she was still determined to take her spite out on me.

Consequently, she would only let them inject half a bottle of the nutrition IV each time, and she barely touched her food. She also made a habit of startling Juliette, knowing that I had always been easily startled.

"In your previous life, you were born so robust and intelligent, but that was only because you stole it all from my daughter! This time, I'll make damn sure you're a sickly weakling, the kind no amount of money can cure! When that time comes, I'll have the perfect excuse to bury you alongside my daughter!"

My heart had gone numb. I wanted to leave, yet an invisible force kept me bound strictly to Mom's side.

Every day, she found new, twisted ways to torment Juliette. "Just because you survived doesn't mean you get to live the same good life you had in your previous life!"

Had I led a good life in my previous life? I closed my eyes, at a complete loss for words.

To be honest, I never liked having my hair braided, nor did I enjoy wearing princess dresses. I wanted to learn how to swim, and I wanted to roughhouse and get into scraps with the other children. However, I knew that the only way to make Mom and Dad happy was to obey their every whim.

Therefore, from a young age, I had learned to read the room and do my best to perform accordingly.

After all these years, I couldn't even remember what I actually liked anymore. All I had ever wanted was to make Mom and Dad happy. Now, knowing they didn't love me, I felt like I was finally free.

Because of her constant, self-destructive antics, Mom went into labor early. The moment she was wheeled into the delivery room, her face was bright with a manic smile. "I'm going to avenge my daughter!"

So, she deliberately refused to push.

It didn't take long for disaster to strike; she suffered an obstructed labor as the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around Juliette.

Mom, however, refused to consent to an emergency C-section. "If he dies in my womb, that's just his wretched fate!"

"But you're putting your own life in grave danger too!" the nurse cried out.

In the end, after a delay of 30 minutes, Mom was finally wheeled into the operating room. The second Juliette was brought out, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief for her sake.

The nurse held the baby up to let Mom check the baby's gender. Gathering the very last of her strength, Mom pushed Juliette away with sheer disgust. "What's there to look at with a jinx of a son? Get him away from me! He's nothing but bad luck."

Yet, the nurse brought Juliette a little closer to Mom. "Ma'am, it's a girl. However, due to severe, prolonged asphyxiation, she's in critical condition. We need a family member to sign the consent form immediately so we can rush her to the NICU!"