Chapter 180
Posted on May 02, 2025 ยท 1 mins read
Listen to this chapter:

Chapter 180: I Never Forgot

Lily stared at Yuniceโ€™s expression and froze. Owen turned away and began rummaging through the medical kit.

Yunice met Lilyโ€™s gaze and said steadily, โ€œYou donโ€™t love me. Stop forcing yourself to pretend you do.โ€

Lilyโ€™s 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, โ€œYou say you care about me, that when you threw that vase, you didnโ€™t aim it between Owen and Paul. You threw it at me. You love me but didnโ€™t want the shards to hit Elsie, so you stood protectively in front of her bed.โ€

Lily shook her head and rushed to explain, โ€œThatโ€™s not it; I was just so angry I lost control. I didnโ€™t mean to hurt youโ€ฆโ€

โ€œMaybe you didnโ€™t mean to hurt me. But thatโ€™s the thingโ€”calculations. You thought about everyone elseโ€™s safety but mine.โ€

Paul frowned. โ€œYouโ€™re blowing this way out of proportion. Madam Lily just didnโ€™t think that far.โ€

โ€œShut up,โ€ Yunice snapped. โ€œYouโ€™re an only child. Youโ€™ll never understand what itโ€™s like to grow up in a family with more than one kid.โ€

โ€œYou really think your grandfather didnโ€™t favor your dad over Wyatt? You donโ€™t know the answer to that?โ€

Paul fired back, โ€œWyattโ€™s a bastard. Of course, itโ€™s different.โ€

But the moment the words left his mouth, Lilyโ€™s face went pale, like sheโ€™d been stabbed right through the heart.

Realizing what heโ€™d said, Paul stiffened awkwardly. โ€œMadam Lily, I didnโ€™t mean it like thatโ€ฆโ€

Elsie was born from a kidnappingโ€”technically a child of sin. She wasnโ€™t any different from Wyatt.

Lily closed her eyes, then opened them slowly. Her voice trembled, scattered. โ€œI 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 couldnโ€™t stop thinking about you. You were only four days old. Every day, I cried and cried, wondering if a baby that tinyโ€”who couldnโ€™t move or speakโ€”was 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, noโ€”I have to hold on. What if Iโ€™m 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 Lilyโ€™s face as she clutched her chest. โ€œI got a fever from the infection. I wasโ€ฆ 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, tooโ€”but her face remained distant, unreadable. Even after all that, she stood like a block of stone.

โ€œNo heart,โ€ Paul muttered under his breath.

Just then, Owen finally found the first-aid kit. Hearing Lilyโ€™s 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, โ€œYunny, let me take care of this. Once itโ€™s wrapped, it wonโ€™t hurt anymore. I care about you. Mom cares about you. Weโ€™re familyโ€”we should all be okay, alright?โ€

Yunice couldnโ€™t tell if Owen was crying for Lily or for her. She quietly moved her leg away, refusing to accept a meaningless gesture of compensation.

Owenโ€™s hand, still holding the cotton swab, froze midair like her avoidance had genuinely hurt him.

Yunice took a breath. โ€œIโ€™m not saying you never loved me; Iโ€™m saying that love changed. Time and fate moved it somewhere else. Itโ€™s just not with me anymore.โ€

โ€œMaybe you did love me onceโ€”but we only spent three days together. Three days of motherly affection canโ€™t compete with fifteen years by Elsieโ€™s side. I only have one mom, but Iโ€™ve never been your only daughter. That โ€˜loveโ€™ you talk about? It feels more like duty youโ€™re supposed to give me just because youโ€™re my mother. But do you really love me? Do youโ€”like, somethingโ€”even know me at all? When you testified against me, you said Elsie was quiet and gentle and I was wild and hyper, so it mustโ€™ve been me who caused the injury. But was I really wild and hyper? The scar on my handโ€”that 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€

Lilyโ€™s eyes went blank; she couldnโ€™t recall.

But Yunice remembered perfectly. โ€œYou didnโ€™t answer. You had your back to me. You were busy fussing over Elsieโ€”checking to see if she was hurt.โ€


Please let us know if you find any errors, so we can fix them.