Chapter 180: I Never Forgot
Lily stared at Yuniceโs expression and froze. Owen turned away and began rummaging through the medical kit.
Yunice met Lilyโs gaze and said steadily, โYou donโt love me. Stop forcing yourself to pretend you do.โ
Lilyโs lips trembled; tears slid silently down her cheeks. No one could say how much of it was genuine.
Yunice let her pant leg fall and said softly, โYou say you care about me, that when you threw that vase, you didnโt aim it between Owen and Paul. You threw it at me. You love me but didnโt want the shards to hit Elsie, so you stood protectively in front of her bed.โ
Lily shook her head and rushed to explain, โThatโs not it; I was just so angry I lost control. I didnโt mean to hurt youโฆโ
โMaybe you didnโt mean to hurt me. But thatโs the thingโcalculations. You thought about everyone elseโs safety but mine.โ
Paul frowned. โYouโre blowing this way out of proportion. Madam Lily just didnโt think that far.โ
โShut up,โ Yunice snapped. โYouโre an only child. Youโll never understand what itโs like to grow up in a family with more than one kid.โ
โYou really think your grandfather didnโt favor your dad over Wyatt? You donโt know the answer to that?โ
Paul fired back, โWyattโs a bastard. Of course, itโs different.โ
But the moment the words left his mouth, Lilyโs face went pale, like sheโd been stabbed right through the heart.
Realizing what heโd said, Paul stiffened awkwardly. โMadam Lily, I didnโt mean it like thatโฆโ
Elsie was born from a kidnappingโtechnically a child of sin. She wasnโt any different from Wyatt.
Lily closed her eyes, then opened them slowly. Her voice trembled, scattered. โI loved all of you the same. How could I not? When they first took me into those mountains, I was terrified and hopeless, but I couldnโt stop thinking about you. You were only four days old. Every day, I cried and cried, wondering if a baby that tinyโwho couldnโt move or speakโwas screaming from hunger. Was anyone feeding you without me there? I still had milk, but I was so scared and anxious it nearly dried up. And I thought, noโI have to hold on. What if Iโm rescued? I need to be able to feed you. So I forced myself. I did everything I could to keep the milk flowing. Eventually, I started bleeding. Do you have any idea how painful that is? Do you know what it feels like to have mastitis?โ
Tears streamed down Lilyโs face as she clutched her chest. โI got a fever from the infection. I wasโฆ a bastard rolled me up in a mat and left me there to die. I could barely breathe, but even then, I kept repeating your names. It was the thought of you three that kept me alive. Do you understand that?โ
Even Paul was moved by the pain in her story. He looked over at Yunice, frowning in disapproval. She had tears in her eyes, tooโbut her face remained distant, unreadable. Even after all that, she stood like a block of stone.
โNo heart,โ Paul muttered under his breath.
Just then, Owen finally found the first-aid kit. Hearing Lilyโs story had him in tears; he rushed over, dropping to a crouch in front of Yunice. He quickly opened the iodine and gauze, ready to treat her wound.
Choking on his emotions, he said, โYunny, let me take care of this. Once itโs wrapped, it wonโt hurt anymore. I care about you. Mom cares about you. Weโre familyโwe should all be okay, alright?โ
Yunice couldnโt tell if Owen was crying for Lily or for her. She quietly moved her leg away, refusing to accept a meaningless gesture of compensation.
Owenโs hand, still holding the cotton swab, froze midair like her avoidance had genuinely hurt him.
Yunice took a breath. โIโm not saying you never loved me; Iโm saying that love changed. Time and fate moved it somewhere else. Itโs just not with me anymore.โ
โMaybe you did love me onceโbut we only spent three days together. Three days of motherly affection canโt compete with fifteen years by Elsieโs side. I only have one mom, but Iโve never been your only daughter. That โloveโ you talk about? It feels more like duty youโre supposed to give me just because youโre my mother. But do you really love me? Do youโlike, somethingโeven know me at all? When you testified against me, you said Elsie was quiet and gentle and I was wild and hyper, so it mustโve been me who caused the injury. But was I really wild and hyper? The scar on my handโthat was from shielding you from falling debris. Do you even remember that? What about the day I broke my finger? I was lying there in pain, asking if you were okay. Do you even remember what you said to me?โ
Lilyโs eyes went blank; she couldnโt recall.
But Yunice remembered perfectly. โYou didnโt answer. You had your back to me. You were busy fussing over Elsieโchecking to see if she was hurt.โ