Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Four years ago, Nina had already looked into everything about her parents’ situation.
Lucy Edwards, Robert’s mother, had two sons and a daughter. Robert was the youngest.
For reasons no one really understood, Lucy had treated Robert like a thorn in her side since he was a child-always yelling at or hitting him. Worse still, even his siblings barked orders at him as if he were a servant.
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Later, Lucy’s favorite son, Charles, claimed he was starting a business, took all of Lucy’s savings, and left for the city-never to return. Feeling sorry for her, Robert and Yvonne took Lucy in and had been taking care of her ever since.
But Lucy was never grateful. She constantly caused trouble, made a scene whenever she could, and even teamed up with her daughter Rachel to squeeze money from Robert and Yvonne.
If the couple didn’t give it to her, she’d threaten to throw herself on the street and cry about how ungrateful they were. She was like a vampire, always draining them dry.
Robert frowned. “You already take everything I earn. What else do you want?”
Nina’s eyes turned sharp. She was still holding a tiny plastic pellet between her fingers-the kind used in cheap toy guns. She had just plucked it out of a crack in the front gate.
“So what if I take your money?” Lucy snapped, jabbing a finger in Robert’s face. “I’m your mother! You owe me! I can’t believe how ungrateful you are. I should’ve-Ouch!”
Before she could finish, a jolt of pain shot through her ankle and she started to fall.
“Grandma, watch out!” Nina called out.
“Nina!” Robert gasped in shock.
He watched Nina rush forward and grab Lucy’s wrist, and his heart skipped a beat. He knew better than anyone how unreasonable and reckless Lucy could be.
But Nina leaned in and whispered so only Lucy could hear, a cold smile on her lips, “You didn’t think I’d survive and come back, did you? After you dumped me at that orphanage?”
“You-“Lucy’s face turned ghostly pale. Like she’d seen a ghost, she yanked her arm free from Nina’s grasp and fell hard to the ground.
Nina let herself fall back too, the faintest trace of icy sarcasm flashing in her eyes. With her lips, she silently mouthed to Lucy: “Your payback starts now.”
It had been Lucy-Nina’s so-called grandmother-who, when Robert and Yvonne weren’t looking, had taken two-year-old Nina to that orphanage and left her there. That’s how Nina ended up taken by the organization, separated from her parents for so many years.
Robert caught Nina right away and let out a long sigh of relief. Even so, his face was still pale with fear, and his heart was pounding wildly.
Yvonne rushed out from the kitchen when she heard the noise, worry written all over her face. “Did you get hurt, Nina?”
“I just wanted Grandma to like me…” Nina lowered her head, looking hurt and timid-but her eyes were icy cold.
People like Lucy, greedy to the core, would never be satisfied. Giving in would only make her more shameless, pushing
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Chapter 3
Robert and Yvonne further into a corner and making it feel like they owed her something.
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So Nina had made up her mind: she would cut Lucy out of their lives. She’d create a way to take her parents away from this place, no matter what it took.
“I’m gonna strangle you, you lying little brat!” Lucy shouted, struggling to get up. Her chubby face twitched with rage. Nina’s earlier whisper had clearly shaken her to the core.
“Enough!” Robert suddenly roared, his voice like a lion’s-loud and furious.
Lucy froze, stunned. “You-”
The sun blazed down, but Lucy felt a chill she had never known before.
Then, from beyond the west courtyard wall, came an annoyed voice. “What are you yelling about now? Some of us are trying to nap. Why is your house always so loud?”