Chapter 3

If my current appearance hadn't been so horrifying, my mother probably would have made me kneel in the yard for three days and three nights, just like before.

My mother knew I had been kidnapped and suffered in that remote area for ten years. I had always been cautious and never blamed her for not taking care of me back then.

But now she called me malicious?

Finally, my mother left with Chloe, not even sparing a glance for me, lying on the ground, dying.

The angina and the pain of the electrode pads digging into my chest felt like less than a thousandth of the pain in my heart.

I was my mother's biological daughter. Before I was taken, I was once her cherished little princess.

But when I returned ten years after being kidnapped, I found a strange girl in our house. She also called my mother "Mom."

The gentle mother I remembered seemed to have changed overnight.

She was still as meticulous in her care, as if she'd pluck the moon from the sky for her daughter, but the daughter in her heart wasn't me, it was Chloe.

Blood already blurred my vision. Suddenly, a wave of angina brought me back to full consciousness.

I hadn't even received my heart transplant yet. How could I just die like this?

In the basement, I woke up only to faint again, over and over, no longer able to distinguish day from night. After regaining some strength, I forced myself to crawl to the iron door and repeatedly pounded on it.

"Help me... Is anyone there?"

"It hurts so much... Please let me out..."

The rough iron door scraped my hands, but I couldn't feel the pain anymore.

It wasn't until I had no strength left to lift my hands that I finally heard footsteps outside the door.

I clutched at a straw of hope, calling out for help again.

"Help me..."

But upon hearing my plea, Mrs. Davies outside the door snorted disdainfully.

"Stop shouting! If you disturb Mrs. Vance and Miss Chloe, you'll be in for it!"

"A country bumpkin from nowhere, daring to fight Miss Chloe for a heart? So what if you're the true heir? In Mrs. Vance's heart, Miss Chloe is the only heir of the Vance family. You'll never take her place."

Because of my mother's differential treatment, even the nanny in the house could insult me freely.

I swallowed the humiliation, bit by bit, and spoke through gritted teeth.

"My heart hurts terribly. I'm starting to suffocate. If this continues, I'll die."

"Let me out quickly... If anything happens to me, Martha won't let you get away with it!"

Mrs. Davies, though opportunistic, understood that I still held some sway with Martha. If I died in the basement, Martha would surely seek justice for me.

After much deliberation, Mrs. Davies decided to call my mother.

"Mrs. Vance, Lily says her heart is giving out. She's in excruciating pain. Should we let her out?"

My mother sounded a bit confused.

"She was fine when we left. How could she be dying now?"

After a moment, my mother hesitated. "Why don't you open the door first and check on her..."

I thought I heard hope, but Chloe interrupted my mother, her voice filled with certainty.

"The method of using electrode pads to strengthen the heart was something I specifically consulted a foreign specialist about. There's no way it could go wrong. Mom, if you don't trust me, don't you trust a specialist?"

Hearing Chloe's voice, laced with a hint of petulance, my mother panicked a little and quickly reassured her that she believed her.

The call continued. When speaking to me, my mother's voice reverted to its usual coldness.

"Lily Vance, you'd better behave yourself!"

"She's just trying to trick you into letting her out so she can go to the hospital and fight Chloe for the donor heart. I've already told her I'll find her another heart. Can't she even wait that long?"

"Besides, I've already strengthened her heart according to what the specialist said. What else isn't she satisfied with? None of you need to pay attention to her. If she wants to fuss, let her fuss."