Following my daughter Nicole Ford's stumbling figure, my soul arrived at Vivian's ward.

Vivian was comfortably lying in her single ward while I was casually left on a stretcher in the hallway. She leaned against the head of the bed, looking weak and eating the fruit my mother cut.

"Grandma, where's my mom? I miss her," Nicole said.

Nicole's babyish voice rang out, seemingly shocking Vivian, who recoiled and said with reddish eyes, "Mom..."

My mother glared at Nicole impatiently. "You're a troublemaker like your mother. Vivian needs to rest. Who brought you here?"

Breathless, the nanny ran over. "Nicole said she saw her mom being sent to the hospital on TV and insisted on seeing her."

My mother looked at Nicole with disgust. "Don't play the victim like your mom. If you don't learn well when you're young, you'll give birth to a love child like your mother when you grow up."

Nicole was reprimanded mercilessly. She stood aside, feeling aggrieved and too scared to speak.

The ward door was pushed open. My father hurried to see Vivian before he could clean the dust on his face.

When Nicole saw my father, her eyes lit up. "Grandpa, did you save Mom?"

His expression darkened as he kicked away Nicole, who wanted to get close to him. "Don't call me 'Grandpa'! Your mother is just good at pretending to be dead and missing. She doesn't need me to save her!"

I bit my lip to swallow my sobs.

My parents had always thought that all I did was play the victim and pretend to be dead. Even the daughter I had worked so hard to raise was considered a love child.

Vivian secretly smiled. "Nicole is just anxious to find her mother. Yvette sure is something. She disappeared and left behind such a young child." She pretended to hold Nicole's hand intimately as she spoke.

Nicole felt pain and bit her wrist.

Vivian shook Nicole away with force, lowering her gaze to hide the hatred in her eyes. "Looks like Nicole doesn't like me, just like Yvette. I shouldn't have joined this family in the first place..."

Familiar words rang in my ears.

When I was in high school, my aunt and uncle died in a car accident, and Vivian was brought home. My mother gently told me, "You must take good care of Vivian from now on."

However, Vivian, who was well-behaved in front of my parents, would secretly tease me and set me up as part of her daily routine. She always cried and complained to my parents, saying, "It's normal that Yvette doesn't like me, but she pinched me so hard that it hurt."

Looking at the bruises that Vivian left on herself, my parents punished me by making me kneel all night.

Vivian was now using the same trick on my daughter. As expected, my mother coaxed Vivian with distress.

My father pushed Nicole out of the ward. "Get lost with your mother and don't disturb our family!"

I wanted to help Nicole up, but I could not touch her and could only watch the nanny leave with Nicole, who kept looking back. Closing my eyes, I tried to suppress the pain in my heart. I looked at the happy 'family of three' in the ward.

My father's big hands which used to caress the top of my head were now peeling oranges for Vivian. Meanwhile, my mother gently looked at Vivian and fixed the hair at her temples.

As Vivian said, I did not belong to this family.

After Vivian was taken back to my house, my face was no longer in the family photos on the wall, and I was no longer my parent's good daughter. Unloved people were outsiders to the family.

The flood overwhelmed the hospital. Unidentified bodies could only be kept in the morgue, where they would wait to be claimed by family members.

Nicole waited at home for me to return but still failed to resist running to the hospital to find me.

Vivian smiled maliciously. "Nicole, your mother is dead. You'll never see her again."

Nicole looked at her warily. "You're talking nonsense. Mom would never leave me!"

Vivian sneered, "Go to the hospital morgue and have a look. Your mother is there!"

Nicole saw my blueish stiff face in the morgue, but no matter how she called out to me, I could not sit up and hold her in my arms. Nicole finally burst into tears. No matter how sensible she was, she was only a four-year-old child.

Her crying caught the doctor's attention, and she was brought to my mother. Nicole threw herself on my mother's lap.

Her face was covered with tears, looking pitiful. "Grandma, I saw Mom. She's lying there motionless. Grandma, I'll take you to see Mom. Will you wake her up? Mom said you used to wake her up when she was attending elementary school."

Mom froze as if recalling something. Seeing a reaction out of her, I seemed to be anxious.

'Is she going to the morgue?' I wondered, but my illusions were shattered in the next second.

My mother's face was full of disgust as she rolled her eyes at Nicole with annoyance. "Children learn behaviors from their parents. You've learned to lie at such a young age. You have no manners. You said your mother died. That's good. I wish I didn't have her as a daughter!"

Seeing Nicole crying, my mother pushed her to the ground.

I looked at the blood oozing from Nicole's knees with sorry and could only clench my hands and dig my nails into the flesh.

"I didn't lie! Mom just fell asleep!"

My mother tutted and called the security guard over. "Don't just let anyone in. Get her nanny to pick her up."

Nicole was her granddaughter, but my mother was unwilling to give Nicole even a hint of affection. Back in the ward, my mother glanced at my father, who was feeding Vivian oatmeal, and said with a sneer, "Your darling daughter teamed up with her little love child to play dead."

My father pursed his lips. "I don't have a daughter like her!"

Vivian's eyes glimmered as she sighed softly and said sadly, "Is it because you all chose to save me first that Yvette is playing dead to get your attention?"

My mother looked at Vivian's red eyes and comforted her, saying, "Darling, you matter the most to me. You're in poor health, so it's only right that she give in to you! Your father and I won't believe her act."

My father nodded and echoed, "That woman must be hiding to watch what unravels next. Vivian, don't worry about her. Your health matters the most."

My parents' words of concern were particularly harsh. They were like sharp swords that wanted to pierce me.

Vivian's usual pitiful act worked every time on my parents.

In my second year of high school, Vivian deliberately locked me in the bathroom while I was bathing and turned off the water heater. I was freezing and had no choice but to kick the door open.

I complained to my parents, but Vivian said pitifully, "Yvette, you already bully me at school every day. Now, you're even slandering me at home."

That night, my furious mother beat me up and forbade me from eating or drinking. I had a high fever in the middle of the night. My mother was shocked upon learning that and urged my father to take me to the hospital.

Vivian then said leisurely, "I wondered why you took a cold shower today. Turns out you wanted your mom to care about you."

My heart gradually sank and fell into an endless abyss when I met my parents' disappointed gaze. From that day on, I never heard a word of concern from my parents.

At school, Vivian teamed up with the hooligans she knew to deal with me. I would find dead rats in my schoolbag, and my homework and test papers would be ripped up. My grades also began to decline. I went from the first in my grade to beyond the top 100.

My parents only frowned when they saw me. "You fool around instead of studying. Can you be more like Vivian?"

Vivian, who joined my family as a pitiful girl, gradually replaced my position in my parents' hearts. They began to call Vivian their daughter, but Vivian was still not content. She wanted me to lose everything, and now, she finally did it.

I lost my parents' love and the opportunity to go to a key university. I even lost my life, but no one believed that I had died.

Vivian was only frightened and slightly anemic, but my parents refused to let her leave the hospital and wanted her to have a good rest. No one cared if I lived or died.

On Thanksgiving, my father rushed to the hospital to accompany Vivian after he finished his rescue work.

My mother specially adjusted her operation time just to go home and make Vivian's favorite food.

In the ward, Vivian smiled sweetly as she fed a slice of cake to Mom. "Mom, it's a time of family reunion. I wonder where Yvette is."

My mother's smile froze. "Don't worry about that unfilial daughter. Even if she dies, no one will go collect her body."

Vivian frowned, looking sad. "I just want our family to be together on an occasion like this. Yvette must still be mad at me."

My father looked at her disappointed expression and took out his phone. He contacted me for the first time in years. The only response he got was the cold tone of an unanswered call.

After making several calls, he threw the phone on the table, breathing heavily. "That rebellious girl, how dare she not answer my call? Vivian, don't be upset. I'll tell Yvette to apologize to you when she shows up."

Vivian seemed to particularly enjoy hearing my parents belittle me. She pretended to be nervous. "Could something have happened to Yvette? I'm worried about her."

My mother sneered, "Troublemakers live for a long time. What can happen to people like her? Forget about her. That ingrate doesn't deserve it. Your health is more important than anything else."

They did not believe I was dead. Even though I had disappeared for several days and even though Nicole had seen my body with her own eyes, my parents still thought I was just being sulky and throwing a tantrum.

On the night of Thanksgiving, my parents were in the hospital, taking care of Vivian. My body was lying in the cold morgue, unclaimed.

"Have you heard? There's a female corpse in the morgue. She died during the flood, yet no one has claimed the body yet."

"Looks like she has a bad relationship with her family. The deputy said that the police will come over to conduct a facial comparison tomorrow."

Two young nurses gathered together and chatted.

My mother frowned and tapped the counter. "Are you that idle? What family doesn't love their children? She must have done something wrong if no one has come to claim her."

My heart tightened and ached. I pondered, 'Mom, I did nothing wrong. Why don't you love me anymore?'

The young nurses lowered their heads somewhat awkwardly.

My mother was about to turn around and leave, but she looked back and asked, "The lady who was killed in the flood—how old was she?"

One of the young nurses paused for a moment. "About 25 years old."

My mother raised her eyebrows, took a deep breath, and pursed her red lips.

Watching her walk toward the morgue, I took a deep breath and thought, 'Mom, we're finally meeting.'

Vivian's voice suddenly rang out. "Mom, I'm having a hypoglycemic episode, and my head is dizzy. Accompany me back to lie down for a while."

My mother held Vivian without hesitation and said with concern, "I'm here with you. Don't be afraid."

Looking at their affectionate mother-daughter bond, I laughed at myself mockingly. Even after I died, my parents still would not choose me.

My father had just finished a rescue mission when he received a call. "Hello, is this Mr. Hector Ford? Please come to the hospital to claim your daughter's body."

My father sighed and hung up. "There have been so many scam calls recently. How dare they curse Vivian?"

He regarded Vivian as his only daughter. I was just an ingrate who he wanted to cut off ties with, but when my father arrived at the hospital and mentioned the call, my mother's face turned pale. "I also received the same call! Could something have happened to Yvette?"