Chapter 3

The flood overwhelmed the hospital. Unidentified bodies could only be kept in the morgue, where they would wait to be claimed by family members.

Nicole waited at home for me to return but still failed to resist running to the hospital to find me.

Vivian smiled maliciously. "Nicole, your mother is dead. You''ll never see her again."

Nicole looked at her warily. "You''re talking nonsense. Mom would never leave me!"

Vivian sneered, "Go to the hospital morgue and have a look. Your mother is there!"

Nicole saw my blueish stiff face in the morgue, but no matter how she called out to me, I could not sit up and hold her in my arms. Nicole finally burst into tears. No matter how sensible she was, she was only a four-year-old child.

Her crying caught the doctor''s attention, and she was brought to my mother. Nicole threw herself on my mother''s lap.

Her face was covered with tears, looking pitiful. "Grandma, I saw Mom. She''s lying there motionless. Grandma, I''ll take you to see Mom. Will you wake her up? Mom said you used to wake her up when she was attending elementary school."

Mom froze as if recalling something. Seeing a reaction out of her, I seemed to be anxious.

''Is she going to the morgue?'' I wondered, but my illusions were shattered in the next second.

My mother''s face was full of disgust as she rolled her eyes at Nicole with annoyance. "Children learn behaviors from their parents. You''ve learned to lie at such a young age. You have no manners. You said your mother died. That''s good. I wish I didn''t have her as a daughter!"

Seeing Nicole crying, my mother pushed her to the ground.

I looked at the blood oozing from Nicole''s knees with sorry and could only clench my hands and dig my nails into the flesh.

"I didn''t lie! Mom just fell asleep!"

My mother tutted and called the security guard over. "Don''t just let anyone in. Get her nanny to pick her up."

Nicole was her granddaughter, but my mother was unwilling to give Nicole even a hint of affection. Back in the ward, my mother glanced at my father, who was feeding Vivian oatmeal, and said with a sneer, "Your darling daughter teamed up with her little love child to play dead."

My father pursed his lips. "I don''t have a daughter like her!"

Vivian''s eyes glimmered as she sighed softly and said sadly, "Is it because you all chose to save me first that Yvette is playing dead to get your attention?"

My mother looked at Vivian''s red eyes and comforted her, saying, "Darling, you matter the most to me. You''re in poor health, so it''s only right that she give in to you! Your father and I won''t believe her act."

My father nodded and echoed, "That woman must be hiding to watch what unravels next. Vivian, don''t worry about her. Your health matters the most."

My parents'' words of concern were particularly harsh. They were like sharp swords that wanted to pierce me.

Vivian''s usual pitiful act worked every time on my parents.

In my second year of high school, Vivian deliberately locked me in the bathroom while I was bathing and turned off the water heater. I was freezing and had no choice but to kick the door open.

I complained to my parents, but Vivian said pitifully, "Yvette, you already bully me at school every day. Now, you''re even slandering me at home."

That night, my furious mother beat me up and forbade me from eating or drinking. I had a high fever in the middle of the night. My mother was shocked upon learning that and urged my father to take me to the hospital.

Vivian then said leisurely, "I wondered why you took a cold shower today. Turns out you wanted your mom to care about you."

My heart gradually sank and fell into an endless abyss when I met my parents'' disappointed gaze. From that day on, I never heard a word of concern from my parents.

At school, Vivian teamed up with the hooligans she knew to deal with me. I would find dead rats in my schoolbag, and my homework and test papers would be ripped up. My grades also began to decline. I went from the first in my grade to beyond the top 100.

My parents only frowned when they saw me. "You fool around instead of studying. Can you be more like Vivian?"

Vivian, who joined my family as a pitiful girl, gradually replaced my position in my parents'' hearts. They began to call Vivian their daughter, but Vivian was still not content. She wanted me to lose everything, and now, she finally did it.

I lost my parents'' love and the opportunity to go to a key university. I even lost my life, but no one believed that I had died.