Chapter 4

Seeing her anger, Eleanor immediately softened, her voice dripping with placation. "Alright, alright, darling, don't be angry. You're right. You're Mommy's only precious darling now. You can do anything you want."

Chloe, satisfied, stepped on the pad, grinding her heel into it.

"There! Now I don't want it. It's yours."

I stared at the pad, now covered in muddy footprints. My throat felt like it was clogged with wet cotton, heavy and suffocating.

In the end, I bent down and only picked up my books.

After the party, Maria, the housekeeper, led me to the old storage room.

It was a space barely five square meters, containing only a rickety plank bed piled with junk and a single, rust-streaked window.

Maria hovered at the doorway, a conflicted look on her face. "Miss… Maya, Mr. and Mrs. Sterling do remember your good side. Once they come to their senses, you'll still be Miss Sterling..."

Before she could finish, two cockroaches scurried out from a corner and vanished.

I pretended not to notice her discomfort. "Thank you. I understand."

Maria shook her head and left, muttering softly, "They look so much alike, how could she not be theirs? Sigh..."

I sat on the plank bed, gazing blankly out at the inky blackness of the night.

It's okay. Just one more year, and I can leave forever.

That night, my lower abdomen cramped painfully.

Without sanitary pads, I had to stuff myself with toilet paper.

As I came out of the bathroom, I heard Mom and Dad's hushed voices.

"Honey, do you think Maya will hate us for this? She is our flesh and blood, after all."

Dad scoffed. "It's her own fault for always picking on Chloe. As an older sister, she never knew how to let her sister have her way. A little hardship will do her good."

"After a year, when Chloe gets tired of the game, we'll just make up an excuse, say the DNA test was a mistake. When she's restored to her place as a Sterling, she'll be ecstatic, won't even have time to be angry."

My fingertips went numb. It was absurd, ridiculous. How could they possibly think that after crushing me into dust, I would still patiently wait for them to decide my fate again?