Chapter 288
Shirley’s expression shifted instantly. “Are you abandoning me too?”
Rachel looked taken aback. “Shirley, what are you saying? You’re my daughter. How could I ever abandon you?”
“Then why won’t you help me?” Shirley practically screamed. “You didn’t used to be like this. You used to help me with everything!
“I get it. Ever since Cynthia acknowledged you, you’ve changed. Now that you have your real daughter, of course, I’m nothing to you. You don’t want me anymore. But what right do you have to despise me?
“I was born a daughter of privilege, yet I spent twenty years living as your daughter. Do you even realize what my life was like compared to Cynthia’s
Rachel slumped helplessly to the ground. “Shirley, I did everything I could all these years.” She had always felt a sense of guilt toward Shirley, especially after the truth came out when Shirley was in Grade II.
She’d learned that Shirley was not her biological daughter. But out of her own selfishness, she kept this fact a secret.
She lived with that knowledge, weighed down by remorse that grew deeper each day, making her indulgent, even to the point of enabling Shirley’s increasingly reckless behavior.
Now, knowing what Shirley had done and seeing her like this, Rachel finally understood–it was her own fault Hex guilt had made her too lenient, failing to set boundaries.
Even if she managed to help Shirley again, she knew it would change nothing. Shirley would only escalate her actions, becoming even more ruthless toward Cynthia.
Tears flowed down Rachel’s face. “Shirley, I can’t help you. I can stand by and watch you make these mistakes any longer. I’ve already helped you once; I can’t aid and abet any further.
to this to me?
Shirley lunged at Rachel, gripping her shoulders with a crazed look in her eyes, and snapped, “How could you do You can’t do this! I hate you. I’ll hate you for the rest of my life.
At that moment, the visiting room door opened, and the female officer called out indifferently, “Shirley Jones, visiting time is up.”
Shirley wasn’t willing to give up; she even started kicking and hitting Rachel.
Jones, what are you doing? The officer quickly called for backup, and two other officers came in to pull Shirley away.
Rachel sat on the floor, her hair disheveled, looking heartbroken, Shirley had been such a sweet child once, always smiling from the day she was born.
But the scars left by Dennis had run deep. Dennis gambled, drank excessively, and every time he was drunk, he would come home in a violent rage, sometimes even turning his fists on Rachel and the young Shirley.
Rachel had fought fiercely to protect Shirley, shielding her under her own body. But the violence was relentless, filling Shirley’s childhood with fear and darkness.
As Dennis refused to divorce her, Rachel’d tried to escape many times, yet Dennis would always find them, punishing her with even more brutal beatings.
With no other options, she endured the mistreatment and beatings, giving Dennis all her earnings in exchange for a few
moments of
peace.
At some point, though, Shirley’s personality began to change. She became more combative and more violent, stirring up
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Chapter 288
trouble at school. Through her teen years, she started skipping classes and getting into fights, causing endless problems.
Yet it never crossed Rachel’s mind to give up on Shirley–because she was her daughter.
After sitting on the floor, crying for a while, Rachel got up and left the room. Just outside, she ran into Selena and was stunned.
She froze, her entire body tensing up, caught in place by surprise and a surge of anxiety she couldn’t hide.
Selena was the first to break the silence. “Do you have a moment Let’s sit down and talk.”
The two women went to a nearby café. Once seated, Rachel appeared visibly uncomfortable.
Selena, too, felt a complex mix of emotions. It had been thirty years since they last saw each other. Even when the truth about their daughters identities surfaced, they had never met face–to–face.
Earlier, Selena had watched footage of Rachel and Shirley’s interaction. She’d heard everything Rachel said, which stirred up a conflicted tangle of feelings.
As Shirley’s biological mother, she was extremely disappointed with her. Countless times, she had wished Shirley weren’t her daughter. She even went so far as to secretly do another DNA test
Her feelings had gone from guilt and concern for Shirley to an overwhelming frustration and resentment. She simply couldn’t be like Rachel. Perhaps, in her mind, a parent’s love always came with conditions–whether it was toward Cynthia or Shirley.
Have you been well all these years?” Selena and Rachel spoke at the same time. An awkward silence settled between the two.
of them.
Seeing Rachel again, Selena suddenly felt that maybe she no longer hated her as much as she once did.
1
After all, it wasn’t fair to blame her; the grudges between their parents shouldn’t have involved her in the first place.
Selena studied Rachel’s face. Rachel looked at least twenty years older than Selena was, her skin weathered and sallow, streaks of gray in her hair, and deep lines at the corners of her eyes.
Selena suddenly remembered their school days. Back then, Rachel was pretty and attractive, and quite a few boys at school, secretly admired her.
“How did you end up looking like this?” Selena couldn’t help but ask.
Rachel awkwardly touched her face. “Ordinary people age like this, don’t they?”
They weren’t really old, not even fifty yet. But Rachel looked like she was in her sixties, while Selena, dressed in fancy clothes with carefully applied makeup and nice jewelry, looked no older than forty. Her skin was taut and smooth, untouched by wrinkles.
It was Selena who had caused Rachel’s fate to be changed. Back in school, Rachel had been an outstanding student, even serving as class monitor.
But Selena had caused her to drop out, and she never completed high school. Otherwise, Rachel’s life might not have turned out this way.
Their enmity went back a generation. When they were students, Rachel’s mother had been Selena’s tutor, and the two girls. had been close friends.
But then Selena’s father cheated with Rachel’s mother, and the scandal drove Selena’s mother to her death.
At that time, Selena was filled with hatred for Rachel, convinced she’d approached her on purpose to steal her father and
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Chapter 288
destroy her family. Just three months after Selena’s mother’s death, her father announced he would marry Rachel’s mother.
One week before the wedding, they both were killed in a car accident. Yet they had already been legally married, which
that Rachel was, by law, Selena’s half–sister and entitled to half of her father’s inheritance.
meant
But Selena didn’t give her a penny. With her uncles‘ support, she ensured that Rachel, now an orphan, would have no place in this city. Rachel was ostracized and scorned at school and ultimately left without finishing her studies.
For thirty years, Selena didn’t know where she had gone. This was the first time they had met since.
Suddenly. Selena said. “You hated me, so you swapped our daughters and raised mine this way. Is this your way of getting
back at me?”
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