At my own birthday party, I was made to wear the late lady of the house’s sapphire necklace. The moment my ten-year-old son saw it, he shoved me down the stairs. He glared down at me, his eyes burning with hate, and ordered the butler to take the necklace from me. “I knew you were up to no good! You pretend to be so gentle and kind, but you’ve always wanted to replace my mother!” “Just wait until Dad gets home! I’ll make him throw you out!” Warm blood trickled from my forehead, a stark contrast to the ice forming around my heart. I looked at the child I had cared for for a decade. With a sigh of release, I nodded. “You don’t have to wait for him. I’ll leave now.” … Taking the towel our housekeeper offered, I pressed it to the gash on my head and started to go upstairs to change. But Ryan spread his arms, blocking the staircase. “Didn’t you say you were leaving? Then go! Why are you still going upstairs?” he snarled, his eyes wide with contempt. The face I knew so well was twisted with hatred. “I need to change my clothes,” I said, my voice calm. My gown was torn and spattered with blood. It would be humiliating to walk out like this. Ryan’s eyes raked over me, and he scoffed. “You’re so greedy. You wouldn’t even be wearing a dress that expensive if it wasn’t your birthday. What else do you think you deserve to change into?” “You sit at home all day doing nothing! All you know is how to ask my dad for money to buy this and that! And now you’re stealing my mom’s necklace!” “You want to leave? Then get out! Get out now!” Seeing his resolute stance, I sighed again. “Fine. I won’t change. Just let me go up and get Daisy.” Daisy was a cat I had rescued. When I found her in a storm, her umbilical cord was still attached. It took a great deal of effort to nurse her back to health. Ryan blocked me again. “You’re not going upstairs! The cat? I’ll get it for you!” He stomped up the stairs and quickly returned with the cat. He stood on the second-floor landing, holding Daisy out over the railing. A malicious grin spread across his face. “What if I just drop her from here?” he taunted. “You rolled down the stairs and didn’t die. The cat probably won’t either, right?” Before the words had even faded, he let go. Ignoring my own injuries, I lunged forward, trying to break her fall. Daisy was usually so gentle, but now, terrified, her claws shot out, scratching deep lines into my arms and chest. She screeched, scrambled out of my arms, and fled to a corner to hide. Seeing me clutch my bleeding wounds, my face contorted in pain, Ryan burst out laughing from the top of the stairs. “Hahahaha! Serves you right! Who told you to catch that thing? It’s just an ugly stray. Only trash like you would care about it.” I stared at Daisy, trembling in the corner, and said nothing. I had raised Ryan until he was seven, when his father, Ethan, suddenly took him away. He said Ryan was starting elementary school and that I, a high-school dropout, wasn't qualified to educate him. He sent him to live with another woman. Seven years had woven that child into the very marrow of my bones. Tearing him away was an agony I could barely survive. After my pleas went unanswered, I snuck out to see him on his birthday. When I got there, I saw Ryan sitting on the other woman’s lap, cooing and kissing her cheeks. All the stubborn defiance he showed me was gone. The moment he saw me, he buried his face in her neck, clinging to her as if terrified I would drag him away. Ethan emerged from his study and immediately reprimanded me. “Who let you come here? Leave. Now.” They were a family of three. I was the outsider. It was during the rainstorm on my way home that day that I found Daisy. Her companionship over the next three years slowly began to fill the hollow space in my heart. I silently walked to the corner, soothed Daisy, and picked her up to leave. But Ethan was standing in the doorway. I don't know how long he'd been watching. The same annoyance was etched on both the father's and the son's faces. Seeing my disheveled state, he frowned with impatience. “Alright, that’s enough. Go change your clothes, and then apologize to Ryan.” “Make sure you wear a long-sleeved gown.” “If the guests see your injuries and start gossiping, you’ll embarrass me again!” “And one more thing.” “Don’t you ever touch Lydia’s things again. Or I’ll throw you out of this house for good.” Like father, like son. Even their threats were identical. Blood dripped from my forehead. The scratches on my arms were stark and red. They didn’t ask if I was okay, only that I be presentable for the rest of the party. When I didn’t move, Ethan’s tone softened for some reason. “Fine. I’ll buy you a new set of jewelry tomorrow. Now go and take care of your injuries.” His gaze shifted to the cat in my arms. “That’s not a purebred, and it’s clearly not tame. Get rid of it. I’ll buy you a new one.” His tone, as always, allowed no room for argument. Just like when he had suddenly taken Ryan away, and just as suddenly brought the boy, now full of hatred for me, back home. He had never given me a chance to object. But suddenly, I was tired. For the first time, I refused. “No.” The air went still. Ethan looked at me as if he couldn’t believe his ears. His voice rose. “What did you say? No?” I looked him straight in the eye and nodded calmly. “Yes. I said no.” From twenty to thirty, I had given the best ten years of my life to this family. Day after day of raising a child, caring for Ethan, slowly watching my own youth fade. And in the end, there was nothing that was truly mine. Except for Daisy. I could only take Daisy. Ethan’s face immediately turned to ice. He called to the butler standing by the stairs. “Get that cat out of her arms and throw it out. Then take her upstairs to change.” “Dad!” “That’s enough, Ryan. Be a good boy and don’t make a scene tonight. How about I take you to see Aunt Anya tomorrow morning?” “…Okay, fine. But if this woman steals Mom’s things again, you have to kick her out!” “Alright, alright.” The father and son decided my nonexistent future right in front of me, as if I wasn't there. I laughed at myself. Haven’t I always been treated this way? I was always just Lydia’s shadow. Ethan and the original Lydia had been childhood sweethearts. They married right after college. A year later, she was pregnant. But she suffered an amniotic fluid embolism during childbirth. They exhausted the city’s blood banks, but couldn’t save her. Ethan was devastated, completely incapable of caring for the newborn. Lydia’s family, afraid a new wife would mistreat the child, found me. I was desperate for money for my mother's surgery, on the verge of selling a kidney. They told me I was also her father's child—an illegitimate daughter. They offered me the money for my mother’s medical bills. In exchange, I had to go to the Ethan’s house, raise the child, and hold the position of lady of the house in Lydia’s place. I agreed. And so, I stayed for ten years. I was a mother, a nanny, a secretary. Even a bedmate. I exhaled, as if trying to expel all the bitterness and injustice of the past. Dodging the butler’s outstretched hands, I raised my voice, my tone firm. “Mr. Croft, I said, I’m leaving.” “Ryan is ten years old now. You have someone you love. There’s no need for me to stay here any longer.” “The deal we made is finished!” Ethan took a step forward, grabbing my face, his grip unyielding despite my injuries. “Elara, have I been too soft on you? Have you gotten bold?” “What is it you want? The sapphire necklace? Or the title of Mrs. Croft?!” “Mr. Croft, my name is not Lydia. It’s Elara.” Lydia wasn't my name. The family had given it to me, so Ethan would never forget the woman he’d lost. “I’m not trying to blackmail you. I truly believe there’s no reason for me to stay.” “Thank you for the birthday party. I regret that I won’t be able to attend the rest of it.” I pulled his slackening hand away, bowed my head to him in thanks while clutching my cat, then straightened up and walked towards the door. “Lydia, you’re thirty years old and still so naive! Without this family, you are nothing!” “Then I’m nothing.” The name wasn’t mine. The child wasn’t mine. The husband wasn’t mine. You see, I was nothing to begin with. My entire existence here was just a transaction. Ten years was long enough. I didn’t want to be Lydia anymore. I wanted to be Elara, the person I had almost forgotten. Just then, an angry, childish voice yelled from the second floor. “Lydia!” I hesitated, but still turned back. One last look, as a final farewell. But a toy airplane was hurtling straight for my face. I couldn't dodge in time. It slammed into my forehead. “Ah!” Fresh blood poured from the wound, and the impact sent me sprawling to the ground. From the second floor, Ryan, holding the remote control, cackled with glee, completely unfazed by the fact that the toy he’d just used as a weapon was one I had bought for him. “Hahahaha, you stupid woman! Go on, get out!” “After you’re gone, I’ll have my dad marry Aunt Anya!” “You’re a thirty-year-old hag! If it weren’t for the Crofts giving you scraps to eat, you’d be a prostitute by now! You think anyone would ever call you Mrs. Croft?” Ethan stood by, watching coldly, saying nothing. I silently pushed myself up and took one last look at the boy. Then I turned and left. Ten years, and I had nothing to show for it. After leaving the Croft estate, I had nowhere to go. My mother had passed away in my second year there. As for the Lin family, I had never been to their home, nor did I want to. With a sigh, I first went to a clinic to get my injuries treated, then took Daisy and checked into a furnished apartment I’d seen near the hospital. By the time I was settled, it was midnight. I picked up my phone and saw a dozen abusive messages from Ryan. I considered sending him an explanation about the necklace, but found I was already blocked. I had expected it, so there was no real disappointment. But my departure had been so abrupt. As Ethan’s unofficial private secretary, there was still work I hadn't handed over. Many clients were still sending files to me. The next morning, I went to Ethan’s company. “I’m so sorry, Miss… Lin,” the receptionist said, bowing with an apologetic and awkward air. “Mr. Croft just informed us this morning that you are no longer permitted to enter the building freely, so…” I gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s fine. Could you please just call the CEO’s office? Tell them I have some work to hand over…” Before I could finish, a wave of expensive perfume washed over me from behind. The impeccably dressed Miss Anya came to a stop beside me. “No need to call,” she told the receptionist. “I’ll take her up.” In the elevator, it was just the two of us. Anya’s face wore a perfectly polite smile as she stared ahead. “Miss Lin, I thought you were a person of some dignity. I assumed that after being kicked out, you wouldn’t show your face here again.” “But you’re more thick-skinned than I imagined.” “To come back looking for Ethan, so brazenly.” “Then again, a woman in her thirties… you’re too old to even be a mistress. I suppose you have to cling to Ethan for dear life.” “But let me be clear, Miss Lin.” “I made you leave once. I can make you leave a second time.” I had heard that Anya had been in love with Ethan since they were young. She went to study abroad after high school, only to return and find him already married and then widowed. I, the substitute, was by his side. She had remained unmarried all these years, and anyone with eyes could see she was waiting for him. Ethan knew it, too. That was why he had sent Ryan to her for a time. I ignored the venom in her words and explained quietly, “There are just some work matters to hand over. I…” Anya held up a hand to silence me and answered her phone. “Ryan, sweetie! Auntie is at your dad’s office. Have you eaten yet?” “Of course! Let’s have lunch together, and this afternoon, your dad and I can take you to the amusement park, how about that?” “Auntie misses you too! Oh, by the way, your… other mother is right here with me. Do you want to say hello?” Anya glanced at me, a smirk playing on her lips as she held the phone out to me. I hesitated, then took it. “Hello…” “You witch! What are you doing at my dad’s company?! Are you hitting on my dad again? Have you no shame?!” “You talked a big game yesterday, but not even a full day later you’re already desperate for a man, is that it?” “If you want a man so badly, hang a sign around your neck that says ‘I’m a slut, I need a man,’ and go stand on the street!” “I’m telling you, Dad, Aunt Anya, and I are a family! You just get as far away from us as you can!” Anya had put the call on speaker. Ryan’s raw, unfiltered rage echoed through the small elevator. I bowed my head in humiliation, blinking back tears. Not because of his malice, but because I’d just heard him sweetly call Anya “Mom,” begging her to come see him. I remembered when he was just over a year old, the first time he had called me “Mama.” He had thrown himself into my arms, laughing, kissing my cheek. My own mother had just passed away, and it was his tiny presence that had soothed my grief. I handed the phone back to Anya and listened in silence as she said her loving goodbyes to Ryan. The elevator doors opened. Anya walked out as if nothing had happened, knocked on the CEO’s office door, and went inside. “Ethan.” Hearing her voice, Ethan’s furrowed brow relaxed. But the moment he saw me, it creased again. “What are you doing here? Didn’t I tell the front desk not to let you up?” “I brought her,” Anya said smoothly. “She claimed she had work to hand over. She looked so pitiful, I thought I’d help her out.” “Anya, you’re too kind,” Ethan said. “What work could she possibly have? A high-school dropout—can she even read? She takes the trivial tasks I gave her and acts like they’re important.” I was a high-school dropout. When I was sixteen, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. With no savings, I had to quit school to work. My homeroom teacher told me the school could raise funds for me, that it was a waste for a student with my grades to drop out. But my mother needed someone to care for her. After much deliberation, I left school. “Leo, you handle the handover with her,” Ethan commanded. “Get it done today. And then inform the entire company that she is not to be allowed in here again.” He stood up from his chair and walked towards me, his presence looming. “Lydia, you’d better mean what you say.” “If I find out this is just some ploy to get back in my good graces, don’t blame me for being ruthless.” Perhaps it was because of my injuries, but when the scent of his cologne hit me, a wave of nausea washed over me. I clamped a hand over my mouth and ran for the restroom. When I came out, Leo, his assistant, was there with a handkerchief. “Are you alright?” I nodded, wiping the water from my lips. “I’m fine. We can do the handover now.” “Of course, Miss Lin. This way, please.” Leo was as gentle as ever, not looking down on me because of what had happened in the office. He had always been like this. When others would whisper and mock me for my background and lack of education, he always treated me with kindness and offered his help. On impulse, I called out to him. “Assistant Leo, actually!” The moment the words were out, I regretted them. But under his encouraging gaze, I finished my thought. “I… my name isn’t Lydia. My real name is Elara. After today, I might move to a new city.” “So, before I leave, I wanted to tell you my real name.” Leo looked at me for a moment, and a small, genuine smile touched his lips. “Of course, Miss Elara.”
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "393977", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel