Chapter 36
Victoria was my sister.
The biological daughter they found ten years too late.
And I was the adopted child they picked up.
At first, Mom and Dad would buy me beautiful new clothes, and whenever they went on business trips, they would bring me back a toy.
On my birthday, they would secretly plan surprises, wishing me a happy birthday.
Since I didn’t know when I was born, they chose the day they found me as my birthday, celebrating my “rebirth.”
They even took me for family portraits during their free time.
For a while, I thought I had a complete family.
But everything changed after they found their
real daughter. Mom and Dad’s attitude toward me shifted overnight.
It happened on one of the days after they brought Victoria home. She begged me to take her out to play.
While I went to buy her cotton candy, she disappeared.
Panicked, I ran home to get help.
When we finally found her, she was sobbing, saying, “I’m sorry, sis. I was wrong.”
She kept apologizing, saying she shouldn’t have. taken Mom and Dad’s love from me.This content belongs to Nô/velDra/ma.Org .
She trembled in their arms, begging me to forgive her.
At the time, I was too young to understand.
1 had never said anything like that, so why would my sister say such things?
But from that day on, Mom and Dad’s turne cold towards me.
Ding-
My phone buzzed with a few messages. I reached for it, but my hands were shaking uncontrollably.
It took all my strength to steady it enough to read the messages.
Victoria: “Sis, I’m sorry. Maybe Mom and Dad are just trying to make up for the years they missed with me, and that’s why they’ve been ignoring you.”
“After all, you were just picked up off the street It’s different from having a real daughter.”
“But it’s okay, sis. If you treat me nicely, I’ll say a few good things about you to Mom and Dad.”
“After all, isn’t their love what you crave the most?”
I tried to type a reply, but my hands wouldn’t cooperate.
I tossed the phone aside. It was a sudden falling–apart feeling of having stolen a drink only to realize it was a bottle of vinegar.
But deep down, I had always known the truth.
That snowy night when I was five, I huddled in a corner, pulling a trash bin closer to shield myself from the wind.
I had been wandering the streets for what felt like forever.
Hungry and cold, I struggled to weave through the bustling crowds.
I would wait for quieter moments and sneak leftover food from plates when the shop owners weren’t looking.
And then, they appeared before me.
Their clothes were bright and pristine, but their faces were tired.
“She looks so much like our daughter, doesn’t she?”
I didn’t understand what that meant. All I knew was that after that day, I finally had a family.
They named me Elisabeth.
When they brought Victoria home, they comforted me, saying that Mom and Dad would still love me the same as before. They coaxed me.
Later on, they asked me to be more
accommodating to my sister because she had just found her parents.
But weren’t you my parents too?
I didn’t understand why, but I learned my place.
As the praise for Victoria grew more frequent, words like jealousy, resentment, and exclusion started falling from their lips.
I began hearing about things I had never done.
At first. Mom and Dad still had some trust in me.
But soon enough, teachers and classmates. began reporting to them, hinting that Victoria might have been hurt.
That the hurt had come from me.
Our relationship gradually deteriorated.
Once the last trace of affection was gone, all that remained was their dissatisfaction with me, the adopted daughter.
I could only keep quiet, endure, make no protest, and diminish my presence in front of them.
Even so, the relationship spiraled beyond repair.
So, I moved out.