I waited for a long time, but no one came to pick me up.

Instead, the phone left in the haystack lit up again. It was a message from Clyde.

[Adeline, can you not be so willful and selfish? You know that Mom is in poor health, but you still threatened her with death.]

[I'm asking you to come back and attend the wedding immediately. Do you have to be like this for a man? Besides, Lilith is your sister, and Dorian is going to be your brother-in-law. Isn't he also your family?]

Upon reading the last sentence, I really wanted to confront Clyde and question him, "Clyde, do you believe this?"

To Clyde and my mother, Lilith was a good sister and a good daughter.

However, to me, regardless of whether she had stolen Dorian from me or not, she would never be my sister.

In grief, my soul was torn apart by an overwhelming force.

I felt myself uncontrollably running through the woods and across the fields.

I witnessed the train hurtling through vast distances, traversing thousands of miles, and saw the chaotic traffic on the sun-drenched roads, filled with hustle and bustle.

In the end, I saw my mother tenderly holding Lilith's hand in a wedding preparation room at the hotel, imparting patient instructions to her.

I was back.

Unexpectedly, after my death, I returned to this home.

In a different form, I attended the wedding of Lilith Klein and Dorian Gray.

During the wedding, the band played joyful wedding melodies, and the guests raised their glasses in celebration.

In the wedding preparation room, Lilith, with delicate makeup, sat in a chair, leaning in Dorian's arms, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.

"Mom, hasn't Adeline arrived yet? Is she still holding a grudge against me? Today is the most important day for Dorian and me. I truly hope to get Adeline's blessing. I don't want to have any regrets on my wedding."

My mother wore a cold expression, appearing displeased. Before she could utter a word, Clyde clenched their teeth and interjected, "She doesn't regard us as a family at all. Mom and I called and messaged her, but she didn't answer or reply. She is so selfish that she even disregarded Lilith's wedding."

Dorian smiled and kissed Lilith on the cheek, but when he mentioned me, his face darkened.

He said, "Lilith, leave her. Adeline does not deserve to attend our wedding. It would only disgust me.

"Don't cry. Today is your day, and you shouldn't let someone unworthy upset you, or it will break my heart."

Lilith wrapped her arms around Dorian's neck and lifted her lovely face, feigning a deep sadness.

"No matter how difficult she may be, she is my sister. As her sister, I should try to be patient with her," Lilith expressed.

This feigned expression resembled the time when I introduced Dorian to my family, and she unreasonably demanded that I give him up to her.

A year ago, I brought Dorian home to visit my parents with the intention of discussing our marriage.

I still remembered the look in Lilith's eyes when she first saw Dorian - a mixture of astonishment and unwavering determination.

Lilith instantly fell in love with Dorian, so when the dinner was almost over, she made an excuse to pull me aside for a private conversation.

Leaning on the lounge chair outside, she held my hand, maintaining a smile on her face even as she made that unreasonable request.

"Adeline, please give Dorian to me! I have always gotten what I wanted over the years, so Adeline, you don't want to suffer, right?" Lilith pleaded.

In the past, I always yielded to her desires as long as it was something she liked.

It was not due to my excessive kindness but rather because I felt trapped with no other options. Even when I resisted, my mother always defended Lilith and punished me in order to maintain her reputation as a good stepmother.

The most severe punishment I endured was when my mother made me kneel in heavy rain for half the night.

It was simply because Lilith threw the flowers, I had intended to give to my mother into the trash can, and I couldn't help but push her.

Amid Lilith's aggrieved cry, my mother forced me to apologize, but Mom, I had done nothing wrong.

If there was any wrongdoing on my part, it was simply being born into this world. Perhaps I should have died alongside my father in that fire.

Driven by my deep love for Dorian, I decided to fight for myself once more.

So, I rejected Lilith.

Everything went as usual in the next few days, and I naively thought that I had kept my happiness.

Unexpectedly, the day after Dorian and I left home, he proposed breaking up with me.

It was snowing heavily that day. I kept asking him why. However, exhausted by my persistent inquiries, he threw me into the snow.

The gravel hidden in the snow pierced into the palm of my hand, staining it with blood.

Dorian looked at me with disgust. "Are you still trying to lie to me? Your family didn't want me to be miserable, so they kindly told me how terrible you are."

It turned out that my mother and Clyde had told Dorian a lot of "truths" about me behind my back.

They accused me of being morally corrupt, of stealing money from classmates, of bullying Lilith, and of killing my own father for selfish motives.

At the end of her speech, my mother was so sad that she cried.

"Dorian, you are a very good person, and I really don't want to watch you suffer against my conscience," my mother conveyed.

As the burning pain in my palms abruptly subsided, I lifted my gaze to meet Dorian's eyes and listened as he relayed those false "truths" about me.

A tear escaped the corner of my eye, and I suddenly laughed.

He frowned and asked, "Aren't they right?"

Rising from the ground, I faced him with a smile. "Don't you know what kind of person I am? If a relationship can be so easily swayed by the words of others, then perhaps it's better not to have it."

I didn't expect that, for Lilith, my loved ones would frame me in such a malicious way.

When I was alive, no one cared about me.

Of course, no one would care after I died.

Lilith and Dorian's wedding was grand.

On the stage, my stepfather, Rayden Klein, and my mother repeatedly gave tearful reminders to Lilith while Clyde made jokes about Dorian's threats, creating a seemingly warm atmosphere.

The audience below the stage erupted in constant applause.

My soul drifted in the opposite direction, observing all of this in a daze.

Strangely, I didn't feel any pain at all.

Perhaps I should thank that murderer for his actions had numbed my broken heart, making it no longer unable to bear any pain.

With the wedding successfully concluded, Rayden and my mother saw off the remaining relatives.

As they were preparing to leave, a relative couldn't help but inquire, "Why is Adeline not present on such a joyous day?"

I saw my mother’s smile instantly vanish.

She explained, "Adeline was unhappy upon hearing that she was expected to give tens of thousands of dollars as a wedding gift. Clyde and I called her many times, but she just refused to come.

"She cares too much about money and even neglects her own family."

Belittling me seemed to have become my mother's subconscious habit.

What she asked me for wasn't just ten thousand dollars! It was two hundred thousand dollars!

These two hundred thousand dollars represented all the savings I had diligently accumulated over many years of hard work.

They all had a home, but I didn't.

So I wanted to use this money to buy a small house for myself in the city where I worked.

However, my mother asked me to give the money to Lilith to win herself a good reputation.

There was no way I would give this money to a demon who had ruined my life.

Why did you always have to sacrifice me, Mom? I was your own daughter!

The relative's face turned embarrassed, and she responded with empathy, "Sometimes, you have to be tough on her. Otherwise, she might believe she can do as she pleases without any consequences."

Due to my mother frequently speaking negatively about me, I was perceived as a misbehaved child in the eyes of my relatives.

I had gained a rather notorious reputation.

Actually, when my father was still alive and I was younger than five years old, his relatives were quite nice to me.

During Clyde's childhood, his playful nature led to an unfortunate incident where he accidentally caused a fire while playing with fire at home.

Tragically, my father died in the fire while trying to save Clyde and me who was sleeping in the room.

Later, in order to conceal the truth and protect Clyde, my mother asserted to everyone, "It was Adeline who insisted on playing with fire at home, resulting in the house catching fire. Kareem died because of saving her."

In tears, I desperately tried to defend myself, but no one would believe a five-year-old child.

They naturally assumed that I had chosen to lie in order to avoid accountability.

No one would question what my mother said, and everyone agreed that I was responsible for my father's death.

Since then, my mother might have felt a little guilty towards me, but this guilt did not last long.

Living as a woman with two children was undoubtedly challenging.

So, the hardships of life soon diminished the trace of guilt she carried.

On an ordinary evening, as I made my way to the bathroom, I unexpectedly saw my mother sitting on the balcony, silently shedding tears.

I ran over and hugged her from behind, hoping to provide some comfort.

However, in the next moment, she abruptly threw me to the floor and grabbed the nearby mop from the balcony, repeatedly striking me with it.

As the stick struck me, my mother's voice resonated with hysteria and resentment, piercing my heart with each word.

"It's all your fault. You were the one who caused your grandfather's death, and now Clyde has lost his father because of you. Why wasn't you the one who died? Why wasn't you!" she screamed.

I clutched onto myself, seeking solace but finding nowhere to hide. I dared not even utter a cry out loud.

No one would care about me anymore.

That was the case at that time.

A similar feeling of helplessness engulfed me when that man was strangling and assaulting me in the woods.

It was getting dark. Rayden, my mother, and Clyde got in the car and prepared to leave.

Lilith, sitting in the shotgun seat, rested her hands on the window, leaning her head against it. Her eyes appeared slightly red, with tears glistening at the corners.

Holding my mother's hand, she took the red gift box from Dorian's hand and placed it in my mother's palm. "Mom, does Adeline really hate me so much?

"I spent a long time choosing this gift for Adeline. It serves as both my and Dorian's apology to her. But I'm afraid she doesn't want to see me. Mom, can you give it to Adeline?"

Sure enough, the faces of Rayden and my mother fell.

Clyde snorted and remarked, "Lilith, you are too kind. Adeline didn't even come to your wedding. Why are you still thinking about her! She is too ungrateful."

Hearing this, Lilith cried in Dorian's arms, feeling really aggrieved.

As my soul drifted beside her, seeing her cry, I felt a sense of irony.

The so-called gift she had mentioned was merely a bracelet that Dorian had given her, which she didn't like.

Even this gift box was the one she had just taken out of the trash can in the wedding preparation room.

It had indeed taken her a long time to select!

She had taken away all the love of my family, but she still wouldn't let me go.

It was just because I was the only punching bag in this family.

Actually, when Clyde and I first joined this family with our mother, Lilith might not have had a fondness for me, but she would never intentionally create difficulties or conflicts.

Until one day, on my mother's birthday, Lilith accidentally slipped while passing by me and accidentally knocked over the birthday cake on the table.

Overwhelmed with panic, Lilith began to cry and was about to apologize.

However, my mother reacted with a forceful slap across my face. I fell to the floor, instinctively covering my face, as I stared at her in disbelief.

My mother's gaze on me bore a deep sense of shame! At that moment, in her eyes, I was nothing more than a blemish that had tainted her life.

"Adeline, get out. I don't want to see you today," my mother shouted.

As the door closed, I saw my mother holding Lilith in her arms, offering gentle comfort, saying, "Lilith, it's alright. It was Adeline's fault. She got in your way and almost made you fall. Besides, I don't like cake."

From then on, Lilith tried again and again until she completely understood that my mother truly had no concern for me whatsoever.

She redirected all the hidden antipathy she once held for my mother onto me.

However, my mother chose to turn a blind eye, allowing it to persist without intervention.

On the way home, Rayden was driving while I sat next to Clyde, listening to them criticizing me.

"Does Adeline really want to embarrass me? I just asked her to give some money, but she threatened me with death on the phone," said my mother.

Her eyes turned red as she spoke. "Relationships are a two-way street. Dorian doesn't like her, so what's the point of her hating Lilith?"

Rayden patted my mother's hand and comforted her. "Alright, don't be upset. Clyde, try calling Adeline again. If she doesn't answer, then let's just leave her be."

Suppressing his anger, Clyde dialed my number, but as expected, there was no response from my end.

I shook my head in amusement with a smile. I was dead, so of course, there was no way I could answer his phone again.

Rayden's expression hardened as he cast a cold gaze towards my mother. "You've raised her for so many years, but in the end, she turns out to be so ungrateful. From now on, just pretend you don't have this daughter."

Clyde was even meaner. "Adeline is such a jerk. Damn her. Just let her die if she wants. How dare she try to play tricks?"

I stretched my neck, seeking any sign of worry or concern on their faces.

However, even with my eyes wide open and filled with tears, I found no trace of it.

My sudden disappearance would only invoke feelings of anger and embarrassment in them.

My family never doubted for a second that if anything had happened to me.

In the following three days, they never called me again.

On the day Lilith returned home with Dorian, I saw my mother making an early morning phone call to inquire about Lilith's expected time of arrival.

Upon getting the answer, she immediately began to make preparations, even though it was just dawn.

After a few hours, she finished cooking a delectable spread of dishes that were all Lilith's favorites.

Sometimes, I felt envious of Lilith. She effortlessly received the motherly love that I longed for desperately but couldn't get.

Lilith smiled and ate the shrimp that Dorian had peeled for her but then let out a sigh and remarked, "If only Adeline were here."

My mother put down her fork and was about to say something when her phone suddenly rang.

"Hello, is this Ms. Maeve Cohen?" a voice from the other end of the phone said, "We are calling from the police department. Two days ago, we received a report about a dismembered body that was discovered. After conducting genetic analysis over the past two days, we have confirmed that the deceased is your daughter, Adeline Watts. Please come to claim her remains along with other family members."

"Also, I must inform you to prepare yourself mentally. The deceased has suffered from inhuman acts of abuse. When we arrived at the scene, wild dogs had already eaten a portion of the body tissue. Unfortunately, we have not located the head of the deceased yet. It is very likely that..."