means.” With that, she haughtily headed downstairs.
I cried in terror, “Please don’t tell them. I’m sorry, I was wrong. Liliana, I won’t play piano anymore. I’ll listen to everything you say.”
Liliana smiled and said, “That’s more like it. Remember, you’re just a stray dog. If you behave and obey, I’ll naturally throw you a bone to chew. But if you dare dream of eating meat, I won’t let you off.”
Satisfied, she stepped on my bleeding fingers: “Since you’ve decided to be obedient, I’m going to pull my trump card. Tomorrow, I’m going to run away from home. As for you, you’ll stay here and enjoy being treated as the only daughter.”
Then she grew more excited, saying expectantly, “I really want to see how frantic the family will be when I disappear.”
My voice trembled with pain as I asked, “Why would you do this?”
Liliana lifted her chin: “Why am I doing this? Of course it’s to establish my position as the Clark family’s only princess.”
She paused, her voice turning ice–cold: “You’ve been back for three years, but Mom and Dad still can’t bring themselves to kick you out. They may not be very smart, but they value blood relations. I’m feeling a bit threatened.”
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Since Liliana knew my most unspeakable secret, she didn’t care. about exposing her own ambitions. She looked down at me: “You’re their biological daughter. As long as you’re here, you’re a threat to me. The Clark family wealth is mine. I can’t let you have it.
“If you want to blame someone, blame your parents and Ezra for being too foolish. They’re so good to me, someone with no blood relation to them. Don’t worry. When I inherit the Clark family fortune, I won’t treat you badly. I can give you five hundred dollars a month. That’s much better than what you had in the village, right?”
Then she burst into laughter, laughing so hard that tears streamed down her face. I curled up in agony, the floor covered with my blood.
Liliana ran downstairs, satisfied, deliberately tripping and pretending to tumble down the stairs before shouting, “Help! Scarlett cut her hand!”
The incident became my fault–I had deliberately cut my fingers to avoid practicing piano. And Liliana, trying to stop me, had been pushed down the stairs by me.
Isaac was furious. He kicked over the piano and never looked at me again. Harper was also disappointed, thinking I had psychological problems–not only was I withdrawn, but I was also self–harming. Ezra even suggested sending me to a mental hospital. After all, someone with self–destructive tendencies
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might hurt his beloved Liliana.
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However, before I could be sent to the mental hospital, Liliana disappeared. She left a letter saying that my self–harm had deeply shocked her.
Liliana even wrote in the letter: “Scarlett has been competing with me for three years. Now she’s developed self–destructive tendencies. This is all my fault. I’ve taken everything that should have belonged to her. I’m leaving. I’m giving everything back to her.”
Her seemingly heartfelt words and the implications in the letter made me the target of everyone’s accusations. I became the villain the whole family wanted to beat.
My head was throbbing. The dream had ended, but the headache remained.
Jacob gently shook my body. “Ms. Clark, wake up.”
I weakly opened my eyes to find the lab completely silent.
Ezra was smoking irritably, Isaac’s face was stone–cold with lifeless eyes, his hands clenched into tight fists.
Harper kept crying, tears streaming down endlessly no matter how much she wiped them away.
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Chapter 3
As I slowly regained consciousness, I understood why they were like this.
They had seen my dream, witnessed the torture and bullying I endured, and saw just how malicious and vicious their precious daughter and dear sister truly was.
So I laughed.
I laughed bitterly and painfully.
My entire head felt like it was splitting apart, as if a thousand needles were piercing into my brain.
After observing me for a moment, Jacob said worriedly, “Ms. Clark’s condition isn’t good. She can’t endure another memory extraction. Mr. Isaac Clark, did you get the answers you wanted?”
He then looked toward Isaac.
Isaac didn’t respond. Ezra stood up and tossed his cigarette butt, startling Jacob who quickly rushed over to pick it up.
“Scarlett, if you’ve been suffering all these years, why didn’t you tell us?” Ezra walked toward me step by step.
His eyes still held a flicker of hope–hope that the equipment had malfunctioned, that my memories were confused, that his
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Chapter 3
beloved Liliana wasn’t that cruel.
“I told you many times, but you all chose to believe Liliana.” After saying this, I closed my eyes again.
I felt too much pain, too exhausted, with no strength left to speak.
Ezra hesitantly stopped in his tracks, his face looking terrible as he turned to look at Isaac and Harper.
Isaac remained silent.
Harper suddenly burst into tears: “Scarlett, we were wrong. I really had no idea you suffered like this. I thought Liliana was just young and mischievous.”
This statement was quite telling, because it revealed that Harper had actually noticed Liliana bullying me all along.
She just didn’t take it seriously. Or rather, she allowed Liliana to use violence against me because she thought it was just playful roughhousing–she considered it all normal.
I couldn’t help but laugh again.
People really do laugh when they reach the depths of despair.
“Scarlett, we were wrong, but you were wrong too.” Isaac stepped forward and said, “These past years, I wanted to send
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you back to the countryside many times. I could have given you money, however much you wanted, but you were too greedy.
“It was your greed that destroyed you. You wanted too desperately to stay at the Clark Villa, too desperately to be a princess.”
Isaac refused to admit fault. “Liliana tormented you for years,
up the wealth. Don’t you deserve what
but happened to you?”
you never –
Deserve it?
Hearing his words, I burst into loud laughter.
Then I began coughing violently, unable to tell if I was laughing or crying.
Either way, I felt such pain.
My head hurt so badly it felt like it would split open, and I lost consciousness again.
Jacob said urgently, “Ms. Clark can’t take any more. She’s unconscious again. If she dreams again, this could cause irreversible damage to her brain.‘
“Then should we wake her up quickly?” Harper said, wiping her
tears.
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Ezra also stepped forward.
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Only Isaac frowned and snapped, “We still don’t know where Liliana went. We have to find her. I need to re–educate her and make her correct her mistakes.”
Harper and Ezra both fell silent.
Jacob also remained quiet.
Isaac commanded, “Continue extracting her memories. You’ve already extracted her memories three times anyway–one more won’t make a difference.”
Jacob said, “But…”
Isaac said coldly, “That’s an order.”
Jacob could only respond, “Yes, sir.”
