My favorite song was playing in the room, and the bathtub was filled with hot water. It had been a long time since I had such a comfortable bath.
There was a period when I was terribly afraid of water, and during that time, Ethan stayed by my side day and night.
Before I turned eighteen, my life was filled with my father’s beatings and verbal abuse, full of tears and pain.
My father was a gambler, and he pawned everything of value in our home to pay off his debts.
Whenever he won money, he would stay away from home for long periods. Those were the happiest days for my mother and me. She would use the money she had saved to secretly buy me food and take me to the amusement park while my father was away..
She would always gently stroke my head and tell me to grow up slowly.
My father only came home when he had lost money. At first, he would ask for money politely, but when he couldn’t get any, he would take out
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his frustrations on my mother and me.
Every time we were beaten, my mother would use her frail body to shield me.
She was beaten black and blue, her bruises and wounds never having a chance to heal.
When my father got tired of beating us, he would drink, and after drinking, he would sleep.
My mother would hold me in her arms and softly sing me to sleep.
“On the high green mountain, the daylilies bloom,
I pick one for my little girl, so sweet and fair.
I’ll pin it in your hair, hold it close to my heart,
And watch you grow up to be a beautiful bride…”
Her gentle voice was like a cool breeze on a hot summer day, one of the few beautiful moments in my sparse childhood memories.
Even though life was in tatters, my mother was always trying to patch things up for me.
But this life didn’t last long.
One day, my father bought a floral dress for my mother. He said he had won money gambling and wanted to come home to live a good life, promising he wouldn’t gamble anymore.
He sounded so sincere that both my mother and I were fooled.
That night, my mother went out with my father and didn’t return until the next morning.
When I asked my mother where they had been, she took out scissors and cut my long hair, which I had been growing for years, into an uneven
mess.
She also cut the floral dress my father had bought into shreds.
No one knows what happened that night, but from that day on, my mother seemed to become a different person. She wouldn’t let me wear dresses or make myself look pretty.
I looked like a tomboy, and was mocked by my classmates at school every day.
When I was fifteen, my father bought another floral dress, this time for me.
He said if I wore the dress and went with him, our days wouldn’t be so hard anymore.
My mother desperately tried to hold me back, not letting me go, while my father was determined to take me away.
“I beg you, Natalie is still young. You can’t ruin her like this. I’ll go in her place, just don’t make her go!” my mother cried, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing while clutching my father’s trouser leg.
My father viciously kicked my mother. “What do you know? They said they want a virgin. You’ve been used by so many men, you’re worthless now.”
At that moment, I finally understood. My father was trying to sell me for money.
My mother cried so hard her whole body shook. The last bit of dignity she had in front of her daughter was trampled under my father’s feet.
“Natalie is still young, she doesn’t understand anything. I’ll go. I can even be with multiple men.”
9
That night, my father let me off.
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O
THE PH
On the small single bed, my mother held me in her arms.
“Mom, I’ll go in your place. You should run away, far away. Dad is a liar.”
I clutched tightly at my mother’s clothes, my tears soaking the pillow.
“Silly child, if Mom leaves, she’ll definitely take you along. Don’t be afraid. Be a good girl and go to sleep. When you open your eyes tomorrow, it will be a brand new day”
She gently patted my back, lulling me to sleep as she had done on countless nights.
“At the far end of the sky, the daylilies bloom,
Each one a reminder of my love for you.
Let them line the road as I wait for you to come home,
As if I’ve never left your side at all.”
The next day, my mother’s body was fished out of the river.
She was completely naked, her death horrifying.
My father cried for a long time by her body, crying until even he couldn’t tell if it was because he still loved her or because he had lost his money–making tool.
I no longer had a mother.
From then on, every beating fell directly on me, with no one to protect me anymore.
As I grew older and my looks developed, I could clearly feel my father’s gaze on my body, full of anticipation.
He was hoping I could fetch a good price.
But I didn’t comply with his wishes. No one could save me from this hell, so I had to find a way to save myself.
I noticed Ethan at school. He was a year ahead of me, but he was very famous, always surrounded by people.
I secretly investigated him and found out that his family background was very well–off, and he was known for being devoted to one person.
Rumor had it that he had a first love who had drowned in an accident, and he had never gotten over it.
Everyone has a weakness, and that deceased first love was Ethan’s biggest weakness.
I followed him for a few days and learned that after school, he would always go to the seaside alone to sit and stare into space.
He was thinking about his deceased first love.
So I took advantage of his distraction and walked step by step towards the deep sea.
But my fear of the sea had never disappeared. Every time I approached this area, I would be reminded of how my mother died.
The seawater was bone–chillingly cold. I wasn’t sure if Ethan had seen me, but I was already crying and gradually losing strength.
The water rose past my chest. I submerged my entire body in the seawater, and the feeling of suffocation overwhelmed me.
Mom, so this is how painful it was for you.
10
I had gambled correctly. Ethan rescued me from the sea immediately.
He quietly listened to my story, pondered for a moment, and then personally took me home.
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Just as we arrived, my father was coming back with a bottle of alcohol.
The moment he saw us, he raised his hand and slapped me. “You slut! Did you sleep with him? I’m asking you, did you sleep with him?”
“Damn it, I told them you you were a virgin…”
Ethan, standing beside me, couldn’t bear to listen anymore. He stepped forward and punched my father.
My father tried to fight back, but he was no match for Ethan. Soon, they were wrestling on the ground.
Ethan’s punches landed hard and fast. My father, getting desperate, grabbed the bottle in his hand and smashed it over Ethan’s head.
Blood trickled down Ethan’s face. That night, both of them ended up in the hospital.
The Shaw family, of course, wouldn’t let my father off easily. They used their influence and money to have him sentenced to seven years in
prison.
When I heard this good news, I was peeling an apple for Ethan in the hospital.
My hand paused, and the fruit knife accidentally cut my finger.
“If you want to eat an apple in the future, just tell me. I’ll peel it for you,” he said, sitting up from the hospital bed and taking the fruit knife and half–peeled apple from my hands.
I said softly, “I wanted to peel it for you.”
Ethan cut the apple into small pieces and handed them to me, smiling as he asked, “Natalie, would you like to be with me?”
I bit my lip, my face turning red to the tips of my ears. “Yes.”
And so, Ethan and I got together.
I visited my father in prison a few times and told him about my relationship with Ethan.
He flew into a rage, swearing through the glass that the first thing he’d do when he got out was to kill me.
So I stayed by Ethan’s side, trying hard to play the role of a woman completely devoted to him.
Some people said Ethan had moved on from the shadow of his first love and had fallen completely in love with me.
But only I knew that at a drunken party, Ethan had admitted that he initially saved me only because of Lily.
“I let her stay by my side because she resembles Lily in many ways.”
He had never loved me. I had always been living in Lily’s shadow.
But I didn’t care, because I didn’t love him either.
I was playing a game of chess, and everyone was just a piece on my board.
11
“Ring ring~”
The sound of my phone ringing suddenly pulled me back to reality.
It was Ethan calling.
As soon as I answered, his anxious voice came through.
“Natalie, are you at home? Your father was released from prison today. My men couldn’t intercept him. Don’t go out, lock your doors. I suspect he’s coming to find you.”
I thought Ethan was calling to confront me about what happened, but I didn’t expect him to be concerned about me.
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It was quite unexpected.
I stood up from the bathtub and put on a bathrobe. “How would my father know my address?”
He fell silent, seemingly curious about this question as well.
I chuckled lightly. “Ethan, even pigs can walk independently now. You should be a bit smarter.”
Ethan knew who I was referring to, but he blurted out, “It can’t be Lily. She’s very weak in the hospital right now.”
Hopeless.
“Is there anything else? If not, I’m hanging up.”
I was about to end the call when my phone’s security alert notified me that a stranger was lingering at my door. I checked the camera feed and
saw a man trying to pick the lock.
Even after all these years, I could recognize that figure. That man was my nightmare.
I went to the kitchen and grabbed a fruit knife, knife, lowering my voice, “Ethan, my father is really here. He’s at my door right now.”
Ethan tried to calm me down. “Grab something to defend yourself. I’ll be there right away.”
I quickly hung up before he could finish speaking.
The man outside was furious and started violently banging on the door.
“Open up! You little bitch! I’ll find you no matter where you hide! Damn it! You sent your old man to prison and lived it up out here! I’ll kill you!”
Over the years, his hatred for me had only grown stronger with time.
If I opened the door, he would definitely kill me.
Someone wanted me dead, so they told him my address as soon as he was released, not giving me any chance to escape.
My hand holding the knife trembled uncontrollably. The cursing outside never ceased.
“You’re just like your whore mother! Damn it, you dare to fight back! I’ll kill you as easily as I killed your mother!”
My eyes welled up with tears. So it was true that my mother’s death was related to him.
Back then, she had promised that she would take me away the next day, but the next day she was found dead in the river.
Everyone said she had gotten tired of this life and committed suicide.
But I never believed it. My mother wouldn’t lie to me.
I don’t know where I found the courage, but I opened the door.
“How did you know where I live?” I asked coldly, staring at the man I had pushed to the ground.
He had aged and looked weathered. His body wasn’t as strong as before. My push had left him struggling to get up.
“Of course someone texted me your address. Looks like I’m not the only one who wants you dead.” He looked me up and down with a disgusting gaze, finally stopping at my chest.
“My daughter has grown up so much, getting prettier. It’s a pity you’re not a virgin anymore, but you’re still worth something.”
As he spoke, he suddenly lunged at me, pinning me to the ground and wrapping his hands around my throat.
His teeth were clenched, looking determined to strangle me to death.
“If your mother had just obeyed back then, she wouldn’t have had to die. But she insisted on resisting, so i just held her down in the water. It
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He laughed as he recounted the whole process of killing my mother.
“I’ve waited seven years in prison. Today, I can finally kill you.”
Seven years? I’ve been waiting for him outside for seven years too.
Back then, surveillance wasn’t as common, and they couldn’t find any evidence of my mother’s death other than suicide.
I waited for him for seven years, and finally, at this moment, I found evidence of him murdering my mother.
I raised my hand and violently stabbed the fruit knife into his chest. He howled in pain, blood splattering onto my face.
I struggled to stand up, watching him writhe in agony. But I didn’t feel the satisfaction I had imagined.
My mother had wanted me to be a kind child.
But now, I had disappointed her.
12
When Ethan arrived and saw the blood everywhere, he immediately carried me back to my room and gently wiped the blood off my face with
warm water.
“Don’t be afraid, Natalie. You did well. This has nothing to do with you. I’ll handle it.”
After cleaning me up, he changed me into clean clothes and put me to bed.
“Don’t be afraid, Natalie. Close your eyes and sleep. Tomorrow will be a new day.”
There won’t be any new days.
Since my mother passed away, every tomorrow has been stuck on the day she died.
My mother’s departure also took away a large part of me.
“He killed my mother,” I said.
Ethan froze.
I continued, “I have a camera at my door. I recorded him confessing to killing my mother.”
Ethan reacted, pulling me into his arms. His warm body temperature enveloped me, and his voice resonated through his chest.
“Natalie, I’ll handle this. We can’t let your hands get dirty.”
I gently closed my eyes. Drowsiness overcame me, and I fell asleep.
Perhaps because a weight had been lifted from my heart, I slept for a long time.
In my hazy state, I felt my hand being held tightly, and an unreal voice sounded in my ear.
“Natalie, I miss you so much. I thought I loved Lily, I always treated you as Lily’s substitute. But it wasn’t until you left that I belatedly realized my true feelings.”
“Sometime during these seven years, Thad already fallen in love with you, but I kept lying to myself, saying it was because of Lily.”
“Natalie, I’m sorry.”
It must be a dream. After all, Ethan would never say sorry.
When I woke up, it was already night.
Ethan was sitting by my bed and helped me sit up as soon as I woke.
C
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“Are you hungry? I made dinner. Do you want to get up and eat something?”
I frowned. “Why are you here? My father…”
Ethan smiled. “I was worried about you. Don’t worry about your father. I’ve taken care of everything.”
“Come on, let’s eat. You’ve been asleep all day.”
The aroma of food filled the entire room. I was indeed a bit hungry, so I didn’t refuse. I got out of bed and walked to the dining room.
기나
Ethan, wearing an apron around his waist, brought out a pot of stewed pork rib soup from the kitchen. He moved around skillfully, as if he were
in his own home.
“You always loved pork rib soup. Whenever you were sick, I would make it for you.”
Since when did Ethan become so fussy? He kept talking about our past while ladling out the soup.
“Ethan, I’m fine. You should go back to Lily.”
I stared at the bowl of soup without drinking it.
“Natalie, can we go back to how we were before?”
In the dim light, his eyes flickered with uncertainty.
I didn’t answer. Instead, I sent him the surveillance video of Lily’s visit to me last time.
After watching it, his face turned very unpleasant.
“Ethan, now you should know who repeatedly leaked my address, right?”
“Natalie, I don’t know what Lily has been through these years. She…”
The phone on the table kept vibrating. Ethan impatiently answered the call.
The voice on the other end was noisy, but I could still hear the content.
“Mr. Shaw, a man came to the hospital room causing trouble. He says he’s Ms. Sun’s husband. Please come quickly.”
Ethan frowned deeply. After hanging up, he looked at me. “Natalie, I need to go deal with something now. Wait for me to come back. I’ll give
you an answer.”
With that, he hurriedly left.
