When my parents decided to divorce, my sister and I had to choose which parent to live with. In my previous life, my sister chose to live with our mother. Despite the hardship and poverty, she became a pottery artist. I chose to follow my father and eventually became a well-known socialite in high society. This time, my sister quickly grabbed our father’s clothes, crying, “Dad, I can’t bear to leave you. I want to go with you!” Her eyes gleamed with mockery as she looked at me. “Julia, go ahead and enjoy your miserable life. Wealth and glory belong to me now!” I just smiled faintly, thinking how naive she was. She didn’t know that I had grown tired of that cautious life where I had to watch my every step. I no longer cared about becoming the so-called premier socialite. ***** When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day of my parents’ divorce. My mother, Maddison Francis, held out the divorce certificate, looking at my sister Sofia Watson and me with reluctance in her eyes. “We’re divorced now. Julia and Sofia, come with me, and I’ll take good care of you both.” Before I could speak, Sofia had already stepped forward and tightly grabbed our father William Watson’s clothes. “Dad, I can’t bear to part with you. Please take me with you.” Maddison frowned, her face filled with concern. “Sofia, your father is unemployed right now. If you go with him, you might not even have enough to eat. Come with me. You’re my own children, and I’ll always treat you well.” Hearing this, Sofia smirked disdainfully. “So what? Just because Dad doesn’t have a job now doesn’t mean he’ll always be unsuccessful. When he makes money in the future, don’t expect to get any benefits from it.” She then looked up at William with hopeful eyes. “Dad, I believe in you. I’m willing to start from scratch with you. I know we’ll have a good life together!” William’s face lit up with pride as he patted Sofia’s head like he was rewarding her. Maddison sighed helplessly, disappointment evident on her face. I quietly took Maddison’s hand and said obediently, “Mom, I’ll go with you.” In my memory, Maddison had always been good to us. She would cook and do laundry for us, while William rarely came home and never inquired about our lives. Given Sofia’s personality, she should have chosen to go with Maddison without hesitation. As I pondered this, I noticed the mockery in her eyes as she looked at me, her lips curling upward uncontrollably. In that moment, I realized she had been reborn too. After the decision was made, Maddison and William went upstairs to sign the divorce agreement. Sofia glanced at me contemptuously. “Julia, how did it feel to be a socialite? Living a carefree life, being pampered by everyone—wasn’t it nice? Well, too bad. This time it’s my turn to live that life. You can stay in the mud pit with that incompetent mother of yours!” As Sofia happily left hand in hand with William, I almost couldn’t hold back my laughter. She was celebrating too soon. In my previous life, she had chosen to follow Maddison because she despised William for being unemployed, thinking life would be better that way. However, when Maddison took her to our grandmother Megan’s house in the countryside, she was completely stunned. Megan’s home was extremely remote, nestled deep in the mountains with no neighbors nearby—just their family living there. The living conditions were incredibly primitive: a few wooden posts supporting a grass-covered roof—that was their dwelling. Megan and Maddison made a living by creating pottery. In good months, they might sell a few pieces; in bad months, they struggled to put food on the table. Maddison brought her there to learn pottery from Megan. Sofia would wake up at four every morning, walk ten kilometers through mountain paths to attend the only school, and return home at ten at night, only to practice pottery for another two hours. The word “rest” didn’t exist in her life. Every day, she could only deal with mud—digging it, mixing it, molding it. This reality was completely different from the life she had imagined. She had thought she would become a rich young lady without any worries.
And what she imagined was my life—though in reality, my life was even more luxurious than she had pictured. While she walked mountain paths to school, I sat at my desk waiting for private tutors to come to my home. While she worked in the fields with dirt and soil, I studied nail art, makeup, and hairstyling, eventually opening my own salon. And while she worried about daily expenses, I had already become a top fashion designer. Many people said that Sofia ruined her life by following Maddison, who was born in the countryside. Meanwhile, I chose William and lived a life of wealth. Even Thomas Powell, the rich young man Sofia had secretly loved for years, was just one of many ordinary suitors pursuing me. She hated me for this. She believed I had stolen what should have been hers—the wealth, the status, and the man she loved. She also hated Maddison, unable to understand why Maddison had taken her instead of me. In her rage, she smashed all of Megan’s pottery. One night, she set fire to Megan’s thatched cottage. Maddison and Megan, who had been sound asleep, suffered severe burns and were rushed to the hospital. After doing all this, she happily planned to seek out William, but before she could even meet him, his servants threw her out onto the street, mistaking her for a beggar. As fate would have it, I was shopping with Thomas that day when we ran into her on the street. Blinded by jealousy, she completely lost her mind. She charged at me frantically, shoving me toward the busy road. Just as a vehicle was about to hit me, I grabbed her hand with all my strength. In the end, we both died, only to return to that moment when we had to make our life choices. This time, she didn’t hesitate to choose William—who currently had nothing but would eventually become the greatest philanthropist in the business world. I thought, “Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to let her experience my life firsthand.” ***** After a bus journey that lasted over ten hours, Maddison finally brought me to Megan’s home. Standing at a distance, I saw Megan sitting on a small stool, skillfully working with clay on a pottery wheel. Maddison spoke up, “Mom, we’re here.” Megan merely glanced at us before continuing her work. “Good. Wash your hands and let’s get started,” she said. Without even the most basic pleasantries, she instructed us to begin learning pottery. I followed her directions, washed my hands, and sat beside her, carefully observing her every movement. Kneading, rolling, pinching, squeezing, pressing—in no time, an ordinary lump of clay transformed into a vase in her hands. When she finished, Megan turned to me and asked, “Are you sure you want to learn these crafts from me?” Looking into her eyes, I nodded firmly. “Alright,” she said. “Starting today, you’ll stay here and learn pottery from me, with no time off. If you find it too difficult, you can leave now.” “I’ll study hard,” I replied. No matter what happened, I didn’t want to return to William. Those memories felt like a nightmare I never wanted to experience again. Wearing cheap clothes and straw sandals that Megan had woven, I walked twelve miles of mountain roads to school every day. While studying, I used every spare moment to complete my homework, and when I returned home, I learned pottery at Megan’s side. On rainy days, I would lie on my wooden bed, watching water drip through the cracks in the thatched roof onto the floor, finding even this amusing. On weekends when I had time, I would browse through Megan’s study notes in her room. Despite this intense pace of learning and living, I didn’t feel exhausted. Instead, I felt I had more time to discover the beauty in life and appreciate its simple pleasures. This peaceful existence continued for several months, until the arrival of those two people disrupted everything.
That day, I had just returned home from school when I saw William and Sofia getting out of a custom vehicle. They were covering their noses, their faces clearly showing disgust. William said, “What kind of living environment is this? If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was a pig farm.” Sofia replied, “I don’t want to stay in a place like this for even a second. These shoes are custom-made, and this is absolutely not a place where I can linger.” William wore a perfectly tailored black suit, his hair neatly combed back, with an expensive watch on his wrist. He looked every bit the successful businessman. Sofia was dressed in a custom outfit, impeccably styled from head to toe. Looking at me, she said, “Isn’t this Julia? It’s only been a few months since we last met, how did you end up looking like this?” She looked me up and down, her eyes clearly showing disapproval. “Julia, what are these clothes you’re wearing? You look so sloppy.” William said, “See? Without me, you and your mother can’t do anything right.” His tone was full of superiority, as if in their eyes, I was completely worthless. I smiled slightly without explaining anything. How they thought of me was irrelevant; I was content with my current peaceful and fulfilling life. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Sofia’s fingers. Despite her decorated nails and elaborate manicure, I immediately recognized that the spaces between her nails had been pricked with needles. I had experienced the same thing. In my previous life, after leaving with William, I discovered he was only using me as a money-making tool. He locked me in an iron cage in the basement, forcing me to read ten books every day, with people specifically assigned to question me afterward. If I couldn’t answer or failed to complete his assigned tasks, he would whip me, stick needles between my nails, pour salt on my wounds, let insects bite my injuries, and lock me in a cage without food or water. Even when I fainted from hunger, he never cared. Beyond that, he strictly controlled every aspect of my life. My existence was in his hands; with the slightest pressure, I could lose my life. According to his requirements, I could only take three bites of any dish, had to show exactly six teeth when smiling, and my smile had to be proper and graceful. At 170 cm tall, I had to maintain a weight of 45 kg, and my nails couldn’t exceed 3 cm in length. Even the frequency of waving when greeting someone, the length of my steps when walking, the angle of my arm movements, and even my breathing rate while sleeping—all were under his surveillance. Any slight deviation would result in extremely cruel punishment. The pain still makes me feel suffocated whenever I think about it. I was certain Sofia was experiencing the same things now. Her fingers trembled slightly as she held her phone, unable to grip it firmly due to the pain between her nails. She wore elaborate clothes that covered her body completely, without an inch of exposed skin. Her face was covered with thick foundation, but red streaks were still visible if you looked closely. The so-called “high society socialite” only appeared glamorous on the surface, while behind the scenes, she lived a life like hell. Thinking about this, my gaze toward her unconsciously filled with sympathy. Sofia said, “Dad, weren’t you supposed to discuss something with Grandma and the others today? Why don’t you go in first? I want to chat with Julia for a bit.” After William left, Sofia walked over and slapped me across the face. I was momentarily stunned by the blow.
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MyFiction” app 🔍 search for “397811”, and watch the full series ✨! #MyFiction #B×G
Leave a Reply