Chapter 7

I became the target of everyone's rage.

The footage went out the same day. Viewers flooded in to comfort Father and Vivienne while I was dissected and denounced by thousands of strangers. Several of my classmates set themselves up as insiders and began posting exposés — claiming that the Hartwell family funded my private school tuition, that Vivienne had endured my abuse with saintly patience for years, that I was the aggressor, always had been.

*Ungrateful little snake.*

*This is exactly why you shouldn't help people. They raise them up and get bitten for it.*

*That necklace was moonstone — Hartwell-level quality. Where would a servant's daughter get something like that? If her mother could afford moonstone, what was she doing working as a nanny?*

*Make her pay for what she broke. That was Vivienne's mother's property.*

*Vivienne looks so much like her mother. I used to follow Serena — seeing Vivienne cry is breaking my heart. If Serena were alive, she'd be heartbroken to see her daughter treated this way.*

*Serena adored her daughter. If she knew this was happening...*

Serena was my mother's name.

I read that last comment and felt a dull, deep ache.

If Mom were still alive, would she grieve for me?

If she came back — would she even recognize me?

Would she take Vivienne's side the way Father did?

After all, it was my fault she'd disappeared.

After all, I looked nothing like her.

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