Chapter 5

Seeing me call out her mother, Lily instantly panicked.

Helen came out, her gaze wandering between us before finally settling on me.

She stepped forward respectfully.

I looked at Ethan and snorted coldly.

"Explain to him who the Morgan heir really is."

Without hesitation, Helen answered.

"Of course it's you..."

Lily suddenly raised her voice to interrupt her, then fell to her knees with a thud in front of me, her face already drenched with tears.

"We've grown up together. Why make things so ugly?"

"Is it my fault that Ethan fell in love with me?"

"I'm kneeling before you now, isn't that enough?"

Helen's brows furrowed tightly, her hands unconsciously clenching.

Without any warning, she pressed me hard to the ground.

"Of course it's because you're ungrateful, daring to make the Morgan heir kneel!"

I looked at her in disbelief, but the sharp pain in my knees reminded me this was no illusion.

Lily secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Ethan couldn't help but laugh mockingly.

"Aria, don't think that just because you have the Morgan surname you can pretend to be the real heiress."

"Lily, as the Morgan family's only daughter, not only treats you like a real sister, but has also paid for your tuition and expenses from childhood to now."

"You should be grateful!"

He walked up to me, crouched down, and lowered his voice.

"I received the notice to join Morgan Corporation a few days ago. Lily arranged it for me."

"If you stop making a scene, I promise you that after Lily and I get married, I'll keep you on the side."

"Except for the title of wife, I can give you everything!"

Enduring the pain, I raised my eyes to look at him.

This was the man I'd loved for four years?

I remember when we first got together, he held me and solemnly promised.

"Aria, after graduation I'll work hard to give you a beautiful future!"

Now, for the sake of the so-called Morgan heiress, he was ruthlessly abandoning me.

I slapped him hard across the face.

"In your dreams!"

Ethan's expression instantly darkened.

As if he'd already made himself the master of the Morgan household, he turned to look at Helen.

"Helen, right?"

"Although she and your family's heir are as close as sisters, you can't blur the line between master and servant!"

"If you don't give her a small punishment to make her recognize her place, she'll continue to hurt Lily without restraint in the future."

Lily's face showed conflict. She stepped forward and grabbed his arm.

"That's not necessary..."

Ethan patted her hand and gently reassured her.

"The Morgan family will be yours in the future. You're too kind-hearted. I'm teaching you how to manage a household."

Watching the two of them showing off, I just felt disgusted.

"Don't believe your own act."

"Lily, you know exactly what your real identity is!"

The hesitation in her eyes disappeared. She looked at me with venom and unwillingness.

She shouted harshly at Helen.

"What are you standing there for?"

"Take her to the courtyard and make her kneel. Don't let her get up until she apologizes to me."

Helen wanted to stop her, but in the end, her eyes darkened and she called over the servants.

Under her authority, the servants hesitantly came forward and pressed me down on the hard floor of the courtyard.

Lily walked over and patted my face. Her eyes held a calculating look I'd never seen before.

"Aria, look. Now I'm the one in charge of the Morgan family."

"Tell me, if I killed you here, based on all our years of friendship, would Uncle Morgan adopt me as his goddaughter?"

"Then I'd really be the Morgan heiress, wouldn't I?"

The scorching sun burned my skin. My knees felt like they were kneeling on hot coals.

I glared at her furiously.

"Lily, you wouldn't dare!"

She slapped me hard across the face.

"I've had enough of being given handouts by you."

"We're both human beings. You just happen to have a powerful father. I'm not willing to accept this. I'm not willing..."

She slapped me crazily and viciously, one slap after another.

As if she wanted to beat me to death right there.

As I grew dizzy, I seemed to hear Nathan Pierce's voice.

"What are you doing?"

Then came Lily's scream.