From then on, I spent day and night at the hospital. I had missed Mom for seven years–we were so close.
Why did it have to turn out this way?
Alaric went from patient comfort at first to cold–faced threats later.
For the first time, I stopped following his wishes and no longer stayed by his side every day. My life became a triangle between school, hospital, and
home.
After I broke free from his restraining hand once again, Alaric got angry.
“Selene, it seems I’ve been too indulgent with you.”
Alaric had the servants pack all my clothes and luggage and throw them back to Dad’s place, driving me out of the Everhart estate.
Now he was the one refusing to see me.
The always–proud young master was waiting for me to apologize to him like before, to bow my head and please him.
But I only stayed by Mom’s bedside, not initiating a single word of reconciliation for months.
I’d been placating him for seven years–I really didn’t want to anymore.
Even before Delilah appeared, the relationship between Alaric and me already had cracks.
When I heard about him again, he already had Delilah by his side–they matched so perfectly in background and appearance.
So one day after class, I congratulated him.
I was genuinely happy for him then. I said, “Alaric, I’m happy for you.”
But Alaric stopped, his face instantly darkening.
He didn’t respond to my congratulations, continuing the cold war with me.
When I was packing my bag after school to visit Mom, Alaric suddenly spoke.
His voice was cold: “Selene, do you think without my protection, you could still live like this?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but he had already pushed past me to find Delilah.
Soon Delilah’s two childhood friends, Beckett and Cassian, arrived, and I understood what he meant.
Letting me become Beckett and Cassian’s target for amusement and bullying, Alaric watched from the sidelines.
Sometimes, after so long, I couldn’t tell and didn’t dare confirm-
Was Alaric just throwing a tantrum with me, or had he truly grown to despise me?
The word “despise” was so vivid and accurate,
I was like a beautiful canary, a toy he’d enjoyed playing with.
Now that he was bored, he tossed me aside where others could step on me too.
Yes, Delilah, Beckett, and Cassian were all the same class as him–they were “people” like him.
Even if he didn’t particularly like Beckett and Cassian, he still respected them.
10-22
He’d liked me for seven years before, but he never showed me the same respect he showed them.
So I endured. My mother was still being treated at the Everhart family’s hospital. I endured.
But then Mom died.
Outside the hospital in pouring rain, I cried heartbreakingly over her body.
Before I went to find Alaric, she was already on her deathbed.
Those few days, her condition had improved remarkably. She woke up and talked to me so much.
She said, “How wonderful, my Sel has grown so big. What Mom worried about most was you.”
She said, “I’m sorry, it’s all because Mom was useless. When you were six and your father took you away, Mom didn’t have the ability to take care of
you.
Never give up work for a man and become like Mom, unable even to get her daughter back”
I said, “Mom, I don’t blame you. I’m not happy here.”
“Get better quickly, and I’ll go home with you.”
She smiled and said yes. “Yes, I’ll take my little girl home.”
But she lied to me–it was a final rally before death.
Mom said her last words to me:
“Run, Selene, run as far as you can. Mom can’t go home with you.”
She left me the money in her account and contact information for her colleagues and friends.
That day, I lost the only person in the world who loved me.
My father sold his daughter for glory, hypocritical and calculating. When I was shot, he was secretly celebrating that my actions had made the Everhart family owe us a huge favor.
He didn’t care whether I was happy or sad. I realized when I grew up that he didn’t love me at all. He was keeping several mistresses outside.
My youthful feelings for Alaric completely shattered and ended that day.
When he said, “What childhood sweetheart? She’s just a nanny.”
After the funeral, I took my ID and passport and ran away.
Afraid Dad would catch me, I didn’t dare take any high–speed trains or planes, taking a long–distance taxi instead.
My bag contained her urn as I crossed thousands of miles, finally returning to the hometown I’d left as a child.
My maternal grandparents had long since died. After burying Mom properly, not daring to stay in hotels that required registration, I found a rental in the old city district and hid for over a month.
I was Dad’s “money tree” backed by the Everhart family–he would never let me go.
They reported me to the police and still found me. In front of the police, he said I was a rebellious child who’d run away from home.
I wasn’t yet an adult. Even though I strongly expressed that I didn’t want to go with Dad, he was still my legal guardian.
After a standoff at the police station for several days, the Everhart family finally came with lawyers and forcibly took me back
Third escape attempt: failed.
I was shoved into the car with a heart like dead ashes while Dad endlessly criticized my willfulness.
“You’re being ridiculous! You even learned to run away from home! Just because Young Master Everhart said one thing to your
“Do you know how worried Young Master Everhart was about you? He’s been looking for you. Go apologize to him when you get back.”
But when I returned, I locked myself in my room seeing no one. Alaric indeed didn’t come looking for me either.
I only returned to school a month later.
I was no longer a child. This time was deeper endurance and dormancy–I was preparing for a fourth and final departure.
There were two paths before me:
Either Dad died, or I waited until I turned eighteen
Besides, I had many things to do.
Actually, since I was thirteen when Mom had her accident, I’d never stopped investigating what happened back then.
I had my channels. From the programming classes I’d taken with Alaric in childhood, I had more natural talent than him.
With a computer, the internet invisible and intangible–no matter how excellently I performed in this area, Alaric couldn’t see it.
During that escape, I actually met another person–the heir to the company where Mom used to work.
The new president who’d just taken over the corporation.
With great ambitions in my heart, these two years of humiliation seemed less unbearable.
After all, It was just listening to their cold mockery, running errands for them, writing their homework, being on call… charging by the incident.
I counted down to my eighteenth birthday–that was my distance to freedom.
But when my head hit the ground, I still couldn’t help feeling some resentment toward Alaric, whom I’d long stopped hoping for.
The person who’d promised to protect me for life in childhood.
Was the only blade that pierced me.
C
