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Her eyes widened in shock upon hearing these words from the old woman. Not just her, but a clear sign of shock also appeared on the face of the woman listening. What was this woman saying? More importantly, how could this dream be so utterly absurd?

As a wave of shock wove its way into her, she heard the sound of a sob. The young girl, who had done nothing but stare and watch events unfold for minutes, was weeping bitterly in silence. She tried to imprison her sobs within the palm of her hand, pressing it tightly over her mouth. Su found no capacity in herself to be surprised by her reaction; everything in this room was beyond absurd. She was certain she was even more shocked than that girl.

The old woman had said she was pregnant. Because it was a ridiculous dream, she didn't even dwell on this part. Her only wish was to wake up soon and leave this absurd dream behind. How tangled her subconscious must be! What kind of dream was this anyway? Once she woke up, she would take a break from watching TV and reading books. She had filled her mind with such bizarre things that the bizarreness had now leaked into her dream.

The middle-aged woman closed her eyes upon hearing the news. It was clear from her face moment by moment that she did not like what she heard. She nodded heavily with an unwanted resignation. She said with annoyance, "Very well, Mother Daye. Thank you for taking the trouble to come all this way. You may leave now." The truth she had heard severely bothered her.

The old woman looked at her for a moment. Su witnessed firsthand the disgust shining in that old woman's eyes. The woman looked at her with such revulsion that she shifted uneasily in her place. She had never been subjected to such a look before, and thankfully so. If it unsettled her even in a dream, how much would it sting in reality?

The old woman slowly placed her belongings into her cloth bag, gave a heavy bow to the woman standing before her, and exited the room with the same heavy composure. Su watched the proceedings with rapt attention. How much longer would she be subjected to this nonsense?

No sooner had the old woman left than the woman whose name she didn't know, whose hair was streaked with grey, rushed toward her and dealt a harsh slap across her cheek. Su's head tilted to the side while her lips parted in shock. Her pink lips pursed into a thin 'O' shape, staying frozen like that for a moment. The stranger had suddenly marched up to her and struck her. Normally, she would have been a bundle of rage, but her only feeling right now was pure astonishment. Why on earth had this woman hit her out of nowhere?

She turned her head, looking at the woman with bewildered eyes. A stinging sensation began to tingle across her right cheek. The woman had hit her so hard that it was easy to guess the mark of her hand would show. Did physical sensations feel this clear in dreams? She remembered falling off cliffs or getting hurt in past dreams, but she never recalled feeling actual pain. Now, she felt the sting of her cheek down to her very bones. This oddness began to frighten her.

The woman's hands were trembling with anger. Her pupils dilated with fury as she glared at her with a terrifying rage. Su slowly began to grow intimidated by these looks. This woman, driven mad by anger, had struck her without mercy.

"What kind of girl are you, for heaven's sake?! What scandal is this for the thousandth time?! Ah, you are not my daughter! I am truly ashamed of you!"

Su swallowed hard at the woman's words. She was no daughter to this woman, and this woman was certainly not her mother! Why was she calling her her daughter? She opened her mouth to utter a few words, but the woman didn't allow it. Raising her hand angrily, she warned her with her eyes to shut up.

"You are a source of shame for our family! You got pregnant by a man without marriage like a whore, are you happy now?!"

Su stared at the woman in horror. What kind of nonsense was this woman babbling? What pregnancy? What unwed status? Just how much more absurd would this dream get, she wondered. She needed to remain calm and wait to wake up from the nightmare. She had no energy to react to something unreal.

The woman went absolutely crazy at the girl's lack of reaction. She knew her daughter was pleased with this state of affairs. Even though the woman sitting calmly before her was her own blood, she knew how devilish she was. She had deliberately crawled into the man's bed and gotten pregnant by him. She couldn't have calculated the exact timing of the pregnancy; even she couldn't have guessed she would conceive on the very first try. She was merely foolish enough to think that man would marry her just because they had slept together.

When she crawled into the man's bed like a cheap woman, utterly confident that he would marry her, she went berserk when he told her otherwise. That unexpected response turned all her plans upside down and utterly stained her reputation. Her name was ruined across the entire town, walking about as a cheap woman. But not even that had mattered to her. Her only concern was that the man didn't want to marry her. Whether her reputation was ruined or not hadn't crossed her mind.

During that period when she couldn't step outside out of shame and grieved because all her plans fell through, fate had finally smiled upon her. Failing to persuade the man she had trapped into marriage, she had gotten pregnant by him instead. A gift from which the man could never escape had fallen into her womb.

Su didn't know what to do as the young girl fell to her knees. The girl's fair skin was gradually draining of color, taking on a sickly pale hue. The mother rushed to her daughter's side and hugged her tightly. Her exquisitely beautiful daughter had been living like a walking ghost for two months. When Su looked into the young girl's face, she was forced to swallow hard at the expression she saw; the young girl was looking at her with such deep reproach that she felt an involuntary pang of shame at that moment.

The young girl, whose body had collapsed from exhaustion, looked at her sister with pain. This woman, who was not a sister but a sworn enemy, had upended her life. As if stealing the man she loved wasn't enough, she had also gotten pregnant by him. On the night she caught them together in the act, she had suffered a profound blow to her heart. When the man came to his senses and realized what had happened, he stood in horror, looking at her with agony, while the expression on her sister's face was beyond mere happiness—it was pure delight. She was proud of inflicting that wound; even when she sneaked into the man's bed deceitfully, she felt no shame, only pride. She was no human. No human could ever reach this level of baseness.

For two weeks, as she witnessed her sister's bizarre behavior, she had silently prayed for her fears not to come true. Even when her sister went to vomit over a simple food odor, she had pleaded and begged in prayer. Her poor constitution couldn't bear the thought of her sister being pregnant by the man she loved, especially after failing to digest the reality of her sleeping with him in the first place.

The mother looked anxiously at her daughter's increasingly pale face. Su, meanwhile, watched in bewilderment. Suddenly, the young girl turned faint and collapsed to the floor.

"Ali Efendi! Ali Efendi!" the mother shouted loudly, her anxiety bleeding into her voice. Su felt frightened against her will; without fully understanding what was happening, the girl who had done nothing but cry and stand at her head had suddenly collapsed to the floor. Yet, she still hadn't pulled her hate-filled gaze away from Su. Su felt the magnitude of the hatred in those eyes down to her marrow. No amount of hatred could ever permeate eyes to this degree.

The door burst open with a crash, and a middle-aged man rushed inside. He glanced briefly at the girl collapsed on the floor and then shifted his terrified gaze to the mother.

"Milady?" he breathed in shock. The mother forced herself to speak with a tone she tried to keep steady. Even though anxiety gnawed at her insides, she had to stay calm.

"Send word for the doctor to come immediately. Lisa has taken a turn for the worse again..."

Her eyes briefly shifted to her elder daughter lingering behind. She pulled her gaze away with disgust and looked back at the man. She couldn't even bear to look at her anymore.

"Call Yusuf, tell him there is urgent news. He will surely come."

Ali nodded immediately and rushed out of the room to carry out his mistress's orders. He didn't know what was going on, but just hearing the name Yusuf was enough to understand that terrible things were afoot. A major catastrophe was about to erupt, he could feel it.

Su rose to her feet in terror at the names that tumbled from the woman's lips. Prompted by her sudden movement, the mother's gaze snapped toward her. Su was forced to swallow hard.

"Yusuf... Lisa... Why do these names sound so familiar to me?" she muttered to herself. With a wave of panic settling in her heart, her hands began to tremble. She didn't even care about the mother's strange looks at that moment. A ruthless wave of dread had seeped into her heart.

"What are you babbling about, Maria?" the mother spat with annoyance. She had heard the girl's words and thought she was raving. She was used to her eldest daughter's nonsense, but babbling to this extent seemed absurd even to her.

Su's shocked gaze snapped back to the woman. "Maria?!" she gasped in horror. What Maria? What Lisa... What was this woman blabbering about? Why was she calling her Maria?

Now, the mother was truly taken aback by her daughter's state. The girl was looking around in terror, talking to herself.

"Maria, are you alright?" she asked anxiously. She was used to her daughter's caprices, but this was far too much. Had she gone mad with joy?

Su grew increasingly terrified as the woman kept calling her Maria. She wasn't Maria at all! Maria wasn't even a real person, she was just a book character! Now she was absolutely certain: she was trapped inside a massive nightmare! Her being Maria was nothing short of absurd.

As she looked around anxiously, a mirror standing beside the wardrobe caught her eye. She hurried toward the mirror and let out a horrified scream when she saw the face staring back at her. This—this face didn't belong to her. She was certain she had never seen this face before in her life. This was impossible! The body she saw in the mirror was not hers.

Who was this woman? Why did she look like this particular woman? What on earth was going on?!