Chapter 6

Five days later, the school held a parent-teacher conference.

Orion had texted Elara a reminder to attend the conference. She decided to oblige to avoid complications before she left.

When she arrived, the auditorium was packed, but she managed to secure a seat.

Shortly after that, the principal stepped onto the stage and announced jovially with a bright smile, “Good afternoon. We’re honored to have the mother of Cliff and Emilia giving us a speech on behalf of all of the parents!”

Elara was taken aback.

She was still stuck wondering why nobody had bothered to tell her to prepare a speech when she noticed Cyrene heading onto the stage.

Cyrene reached for the microphone and started her speech. “Hello, everyone. I’m Cliff and Emilia's mother, Cyrene…”

Elara began to dissociate and did not catch a single word after that.

She watched as her two children went to Cyrene’s side with a hop, skip, and a jump.

She watched as they took pictures with their arms wrapped around Cyrene.

Her children even introduced Cyrene as “our dear mother” while their classmates looked on with envy.

It suddenly dawned on Elara how replaceable she was.

After the conference ended, she left the venue as quickly as she could.

She was passing a room when she heard a familiar voice spilling out of the room.

“Cliff, Emilia, would you two tell me the truth? Is Miss Cyrene your real mother?” their homeroom teacher asked with a frown, “I have the documents from when you two enrolled. It says here that your mother’s name is…”

“We hate her! We’ll not accept her as our mother!” Cliff protested with his fists clenched. “Aunt Cyrene always looks after us and Daddy likes her too. She'll become our mother soon enough!”

Emilia chimed in, “That's right! Daddy will marry Aunt Cyrene eventually!”

Elara listened silently. Her heart had grown numb to the pain by now.

She pursed her lips and turned to walk outside.

Just as she reached the gate, there was a thunderstorm. She had no choice but to wait under the eaves for the rain to stop.

Shortly after that, a car pulled up in front of her. The window rolled down to reveal Cyrene inside.

“Let’s head back together. It’ll be hard for you to get a ride in this terrible storm.”

Elara looked at the ride-sharing app on her phone. Its interface indicated that she was the ninety-ninth person in line for an assigned driver.

With that, she hesitantly opened the door and got into the passenger seat.

The children’s smiles dropped the moment they saw her. It was as if her sheer presence was enough to ruin their mood.

Cyrene faintly cocked an eyebrow and asked candidly while tapping her fingers along the steering wheel, “Elara, I’m so sorry about what happened today. Cliff and Emilia said you were too busy to attend, which was why I decided to step in to help. You’re not upset at me, are you?”

Elara remained expressionless. “Of course not. I’m leaving soon anyway.”

“Mommy, where are you going?” Cliff, who was in the back seat, frowned instantly upon hearing Elara say so. “We still have so much dirty laundry for you to wash!”

Emilia expressed her dissent as well, “Yes, Mommy, you have to come back as soon as you can so the house doesn’t get all messy. How are we supposed to play with Aunt Cyrene if the house is a mess?”

Elara’s expression was grim.

Just as she was about to tell them she would never clean up after them again, Cyrene suddenly cried out, “Ah!”

The rain made it difficult for her to notice a car swerving in from the side. She panicked and jerked the steering wheel the other way as hard as she could, causing them to crash into the barrier.

Elara's body was thrown forward and slammed against the windshield, causing her to pass out instantly.

When she came to, she found herself strapped inside the car, which was dangling over the edge while her vision had turned red.

In the midst of the confusion, she heard voices shouting from outside.

“The car is stuck on the bridge and is about to fall! If we try to save either of the people inside, it will tilt the car over the edge…”

“Daddy, you have to save Aunt Cyrene first! She must be terrified!”

“Daddy, don't worry about Mommy! We don’t need to save her since she doesn’t care about us anyway!”

The children's pleas stung Elara more than anything in the world.

Then she heard Orion announce gravely, “Save Cyrene first.”

“Cyrene... Is she the one who was hurt worse?”

“No,” Orion took a deep breath before saying, “She’s the one next to her.”

Soon, the rescuers dragged Cyrene out of the car.

As soon as she was rescued, the car toppled over the edge, bringing Elara down with it!