At the family reunion dinner, my father pointed at his mistress decked out in designer brands and told me to call her “Mom.” My real mother rushed in, just like in my previous life, only able to wipe away her tears. She had put on her most presentable outfit, yet still looked poor, haggard, and timid. She didn’t even dare to speak up and say she was my birth mother. My heart ached, but I restrained myself from offering her a tissue. I couldn’t choose her again, or we would both die horribly. So when Mandy, the mistress who clearly wanted me gone, fake-affectionately hugged me and said, “Emily, we’ve kept your room just as it was,” I saw my chance. I made sure the cameras were on me as I threw myself into her arms. “Mom, I’ll move in tonight!” My father was stunned, a flicker of embarrassment in his eyes. I knew he wasn’t truly looking for me – he was just using the guise of a family reunion to craft a public image and make money. When I was three, he slapped me for playing with toys that disturbed his nap. My mom quickly took me out to play, afraid I’d keep crying and get hit again. In that brief moment while she bought me candy, I was kidnapped. My always fashionable mom became disheveled after that. She handed out flyers everywhere, kneeling before strangers to beg for help. Soon my father grew to resent her. “Searching for a child is a bottomless pit – even two companies and six houses can’t fund your wasteful spending!” “Besides, you lost the child – why should I suffer for it?” My father constantly blamed my mom. When she suggested selling a house to fund the search, he finally exploded: “Let’s divorce. You leave with nothing and go search on your own!” Out of guilt, my mom really did divorce him and leave empty-handed. Not only that, she naively believed my father’s words were just spoken in anger. She thought if she found me, we could be a family again. But my father didn’t wait for us at all. He immediately married his mistress. Unexpectedly, the mistress was even more extravagant. She wore designer clothes, bought limited edition bags, and only drank $200 imported French water. In just three years, she nearly bankrupted my father. It was then that a parent went viral online while searching for their child, accidentally becoming rich and famous. My father was tempted. He jumped on that trending topic, gaining both fame and fortune. Money was so easy to make this way, my father definitely wanted to keep searching for me. To keep searching, but never actually find me. Unfortunately, I was a DNA match in the database. He had no choice but to host this grand reunion dinner. To maintain his image, he came up with this farce of passing off the mistress as my birth mother. But the mistress had her own agenda. She felt my father was already worth over $100 million – why bother making more money from netizens? Besides, she had given my father a son. She didn’t want anyone else coming to split the inheritance. “That woman in the shabby dress is your real mother…” Mandy whispered in my ear, avoiding my father’s gaze. Of course I knew the haggard woman standing in the corner, crying and smiling as she looked at me, was my birth mother. I also knew that to raise money to find me, she delivered food and collected recyclables, suffering in a basement apartment. So what? I didn’t want to live a life of poverty. My eyes stung. I pretended not to hear, hugging Mandy tightly as I cried, “Mom, I’m willing. I’m willing to officially register as part of the family.”
“What nonsense are you saying! I didn’t even ask…” Mandy was startled, her nails digging into my flesh. My father looked confused, but forced a smile and nodded in agreement for the cameras. Seeing my father nod, Mandy grew anxious. While my father was chatting with other parents searching for lost children, she secretly encouraged my mom to claim me. “Sister, you’ve suffered so much looking for your child. You should let her know.” My mom was oblivious to the manipulation, thinking this was my father’s intention. Her eyes lit up. “Emily, I… I am…” Perhaps daughters are more easily moved by their mothers. In my past life, I chose her without hesitation. And in doing so, I hurt her again. The year of the reunion dinner, I was a high school junior. To pay for my education and move us out of the basement, she worked three jobs a day. In the end, she collapsed and died while delivering food. Her funeral was hastily arranged. No one sympathized with her. My father said, “Your mom just had to prove herself. First she insisted on finding you, then she insisted on fighting for you. Look at her – no skills at all, yet she dared to defy me.” Relatives said: “Your mom brought this on herself. She gave up a life of luxury to suffer like this.” The mistress also said… She covered her mouth and whispered in my ear: “We should thank you both. If you hadn’t stupidly gotten kidnapped, if your mom hadn’t stupidly insisted on finding you, I wouldn’t be living this life of luxury now. Haha, I’m so grateful to you two idiots.” Mandy, my father’s mistress, smugly jangled her diamond bracelet. I didn’t understand – why did a mother so devoted to finding her child not have a happy ending? And I didn’t have a happy ending either. Working part-time through college, I finally graduated and landed a job at a Fortune 500 company. But Mandy was afraid I’d come back for the inheritance since I studied law. She hired some thugs to gang rape me to death. Not only did she turn it around and say I was promiscuous, she spread photos everywhere. And so I died at my most humiliating moment – filthy, degraded, without even getting revenge for my mom. My heart clenched. I couldn’t repeat those mistakes. I couldn’t bear to look my mom in the eye. I tugged on my father’s sleeve. He hadn’t noticed Mandy’s scheming, and instead scolded my mom for being inconsiderate. “Stop crying. You’re just here to see her once, don’t push your luck.” Afraid of being exposed if we stayed too long, he quietly threatened my mom. “Leave quickly. You don’t want to affect her college entrance exams, do you?” My poor mom still harbored illusions about my father even now. She kept looking back as she left, hoping my father would call her back out of concern. But of course, my father couldn’t see how thin she had become. He rushed back to the table, focused only on serving food to Mandy. When the meal was almost over, someone asked if my father had prepared a gift for me. Only then did he pretend to be generous and ask what I wanted. I couldn’t ask for too much at first. I acted shy and mumbled, “I’d like a laptop for studying.” I knew my father couldn’t refuse me in public. But to my surprise, he only bought me a $400 off-brand laptop. Who would believe this was the tycoon who had offered a $3 million reward to find his daughter online? I realized this way of getting money was too slow. I took a photo of the laptop and posted it online with the caption: “My first ever laptop. Thanks, Dad.” My father knew how to play the internet game, but so did I. As expected, netizens didn’t disappoint me. Not only did they curse my father for being stingy and hypocritical, they also dug up Mandy’s identity as the mistress…
My father was furious, blaming me for posting the photo online. I cried silently, “The buyers weren’t nice to me. I just wanted to show off some fatherly love I never had before.” Blood is thicker than water after all. My father hesitated, then couldn’t bring himself to blame me further. He thought staying silent would cover up the truth, and ordered me to delete the photo. But as soon as I deleted it, netizens had more to say. “The old scammer won’t clarify anything, just forces his daughter to delete the photo! That woman at the reunion dinner was definitely the mistress!” My father not only lost a million followers, but his company’s stock price also fell. Because netizens not only found my mom, but also dug up her impoverished living conditions. Now the deceived netizens were truly angry! They rained fire on my father and Mandy. “You heartless bastard! How dare you make your daughter call the mistress ‘Mom’! Have you no conscience?” “Homewrecker! You stole someone’s husband 14 years ago, now you’re stealing their daughter! Have you no shame?” “Damn, they even have a son!” The all-knowing netizens uncovered 5-year-old Tyler. Unexpectedly, this gave Mandy an opportunity. She seized on it to try and take the money and run. “What should we do? They know about our son now. Will they harm Tyler?” “I don’t care, I want to emigrate. I want to live abroad.” When it came to his son, my father hesitated. But he was reluctant to let years of hard work go to waste. He decided to send me to find my mom and put out the fire. My mom was surprised to see me. Her eyes held a glimmer of hidden hope. She nervously wrung her hands, hesitantly asking, “Emily, why are you here? Did your father…” Even at a time like this, she was still fantasizing that my father would take her back and we’d be a family again. I had to be cruel and tell her the truth. “Mom, my father and Mandy have a son. They’re preparing to leave the country.” “Can you help me fight for some of the inheritance?” I knew it would be hard to change my mom’s mind quickly. So I had to use harsh medicine to make her give up hope. In my past life, she washed dishes during the day, delivered food at night, and collected recyclables in her spare time. No matter how difficult or tiring it was, she never asked my father for child support. Because she didn’t know he had a son. She firmly believed my father would feel sorry for her, feel sorry for his daughter. If she had asked for money before that, it would have cheapened her in his eyes. Only then did I learn that my father had lied to my mom. He had promised her he wouldn’t have more children, that all his assets would be left to me… My mom finally woke up. She took out a loan to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit. That lawyer was incredibly skilled and knew how to use public opinion to our advantage. My father was clearly in the wrong. After consulting many lawyers, he had no choice but to curse and grumble as he gave my mom three houses and $750,000 in cash. To my father’s current net worth, this was a drop in the bucket. But it was enough for my mom to start over. After getting the money, my mom eagerly asked me, “Emily, now that Mom has money, are you willing to live with me?” Her eyes were full of longing. She wanted nothing more than to make up for all the years of lost motherly love. But Mom, you already repaid everything in your past life. This life you should live for yourself. Using the excuse of preparing for college entrance exams and it being more convenient to stay at my father’s, I gently refused her. “When I can earn money, I’ll live with you, Mom. But before then, you need to take good care of yourself. Stay healthy and beautiful.” My mom seemed to understand my meaning. She hugged me and cried for a while, then lightly nodded. At this critical moment, my father didn’t dare stop me from going back. But when I walked in, his expression wasn’t good. Seeing my father’s cold attitude towards me, Mandy couldn’t hide her glee as she taunted me. “Oh Emily, are you really on your father’s side?” “Your father trusted you to find your mom and film a video to clear things up. What did you do instead?” “You helped your mom take your father’s assets!” I definitely wasn’t on my father’s side, just like how his search for me across the country was really just traveling around with Mandy. He wasn’t on my side either. Recalling the details uncovered by netizens, I took out the video I recorded with my mom. “Dad, my mom only found a lawyer after seeing netizens’ comments. I really didn’t know…” My father was still riled up by Mandy’s words and ignored me. With no other choice, I had to take a step back. “Dad, people online are saying you didn’t really want to find me. Is that true?” Of course my father couldn’t admit his hypocrisy. He stubbornly replied, “That’s nonsense!” I seized the opportunity to advise him: “If you officially register me as part of the family, transfer me to a new school, and film a video of Mom agreeing to an amicable split, wouldn’t that disprove the rumors?” “Well…” My father felt my words made some sense. Seeing my father waver, Mandy finally dropped all pretense. She pointed at me and sneered. “It’s either her or me in this house!”
“What kind of talk is that!” Ever since returning from the reunion dinner, my father had been singing Mandy’s praises to me, saying how hard she worked to help search for me. Now that the lies were exposed, my father glanced at me awkwardly before hurriedly pulling Mandy into another room. I don’t know what they said, but when they came out, Mandy was like a different person. She enthusiastically hugged me, “Emily, welcome home.” Much later I finally learned that my father had promised her then, “All the assets will go to Tyler. We’ll just use Emily to make money.” But it didn’t matter anymore. I had finally moved into my father’s mansion and met my 5-year-old half-brother Tyler, who was cared for by two nannies. The household registration transfer smoothed over some of the online criticism. My father was pleased and bought Mandy a Hermès bag. Placated by the bag, Mandy became two-faced. She no longer gave me trouble in front of my father, but secretly schemed against me. She arranged for different thugs to wait outside my school and whistle at me. “Emily, be my girlfriend.” Memories of my horrific death in my past life surfaced. I covered my mouth and retched. I called my father: “I’m being harassed.” He just coldly replied: “A fly won’t bite a seamless egg.” That response was too ridiculous. I carefully selected a male model online and sent him photos of Mandy with her wall of luxury goods. “Want to make big money?” He instantly replied: “Thanks sis.” That weekend, Mandy dressed up beautifully to go out. The nanny happened to have a family emergency and needed time off. I thought Mandy would cancel her date, but she just dumped the kid on me. “Don’t just focus on studying. Take good care of your brother. If he gets even a tiny scratch, your father won’t let you off!” My brother was the apple of my father’s eye. I nodded obediently. In a rush to her date, Mandy warned me sternly before leaving satisfied. Although Tyler was only 5, his destructive power was shocking. He was hostile towards me, muttering “bad sister” while constantly throwing toys at me. I didn’t bother with him. I took out some homework and did my assignments while keeping an eye on him. Seeing me ignore him, he started crying and throwing blocks around with loud crashes. The noise finally woke my napping father. He came downstairs yelling: “Are you all deaf? Can’t you hear Tyler crying?” He was still as hot-tempered as ever. Remembering the slap I got at age 3, I carefully explained: “The nanny had to leave and Mandy went out.” Luckily my father saw I was studying and didn’t take his anger out on me. He tried to pick up Tyler but tripped over some toys after just three steps. This made my father even angrier. He blamed Mandy for going out. His angry appearance was too scary. Tyler cried even louder. “There, there, don’t cry…” My father clumsily comforted Tyler. Sprawled on the couch catching his breath, he finally asked me: “Emily, how… how has your mom been lately?”
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “296321”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster #现实主义Realistic
Leave a Reply