After my mom left, my dad applied some cream to my arms. His eyes were red with tears, filled with guilt. "Sienna, it's all my fault for being too busy with work and neglecting you."

Looking at him like this, I felt sad too. In my previous life, my mom had brainwashed me into thinking he was a cheating scumbag who favored Oliver over me. However, it was not until I saw how my dad died on that highway trying to save me that I realized he was the one who truly loved me most in this world.

Just as I was about to comfort him, his phone suddenly rang. He glanced at it and hung up with an uncomfortable expression on his face.

Then, it started ringing again. I caught a glimpse of the caller ID and saw that it was Erin.

I immediately spoke up. "Dad, that's Ms. Brooks calling, right? It must be something urgent. You should answer it!"

He looked surprised at my words. Whenever anything involved Erin, I had always reacted with the same extreme disgust and anger as my mom.

However, that was because I had always believed she was the homewrecker who caused my parents' divorce. The truth was, in their three-way story, my mom was actually the despicable homewrecker everyone would hate.

Erin and my dad were childhood sweethearts who had already reached the point of discussing marriage. Meanwhile, my mom had been secretly in love with my dad for years and was willing to drug him just to marry into the Lawson family.

My grandparents, considering the business relationship between the two families and the fact that my mom was pregnant with me, forced my dad to marry her.

Erin was so heartbroken that she left the country immediately. It was only when she returned recently that my dad discovered she had been pregnant before they split up.

Even then, whenever he kept in touch with her, it was only because of the child. He had never once betrayed my mom.

Yet, my mom, obsessed with those toxic win-him-back romance stories, convinced herself that Erin had come back to steal her husband. Thus, she struck first and planned all of this.

In the end, I watched Erin and my half-brother, Oliver, die on the way to see me. I finally understood they never intended to take my dad away from us.

They even lost their lives because of it.

So, I continued to encourage my dad. "Dad, I can tell right from wrong. Just answer it."

When the call connected, Erin's anxious voice came through. "Connor! Oliver collapsed from anemia again. He needs your blood right now."

Both Oliver and I inherited our dad's rare blood type. If it were not so hard to find compatible donors, I think Erin probably would never have planned to return to the country.

Since I insisted, my dad brought me along to the hospital. After Oliver was out of danger, Erin breathed a sigh of relief.

When she saw me, she gently patted the top of my head and said, "Sienna, thank you for coming with Connor. I promise you that I will never interfere in your parents' relationship."

I replied, "Ms. Brooks, my parents are already divorced..."

Before I could finish my sentence, a figure rushed up to me. Then, a stinging slap landed hard across my cheek.

I looked up to see my mom's murderous expression. "Well, well! I was wondering why you'd betray me so suddenly. It looks like you've already been bought by that vixen! You couldn't wait to tell her about the divorce, could you? What? Are you hoping she'll take my place as your mother?

"Just like those ungrateful daughters in those romance novels, you'll never deserve a mother's love!"

When Erin saw my swollen cheek, she immediately stepped in front of me to protect me. "Audrey, are you insane? Sienna never did anything to betray you, and she didn't ask me to be her mother!"

However, to my mom, Erin's defense was nothing more than a smug display of victory.

She sneered and shot back, saying, "I've seen plenty of manipulative women like you in novels! You came back with your son just to steal Connor from me, didn't you? And now this ungrateful father-daughter pair is practically worshiping you!

"Mark my words, within three months, they'll be on their knees begging for my forgiveness, begging me to come back!"

With that, she turned around and left.

Erin ignored her dramatic outburst. Instead, she crouched and gently examined the marks on my face. "Sienna, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. Does it hurt? Should I take you to see a doctor?"

I shook my head. Compared to the suffering I had endured in my previous two lives, this slap was nothing.

Nonetheless, my mom's revenge obviously would not stop at just one slap.

Soon enough, she copied the heroines from her novels and adopted a girl around my age from the orphanage, Laura Greene. Somehow, she even managed to get Laura transferred into my class.

Under my mom's instruction, Laura constantly bullied me at school. The other kids, knowing that my mom had abandoned me, kept taunting me with cruel words, trying to embarrass me.

Even my teacher, Mary Doyle, once phoned her in front of me.

My mom laughed smugly and said, "Ms. Doyle, Sienna's father and I are divorced now. I'm not her mother anymore! From now on, whether she has a heart attack or gets into trouble, please don't call me anymore. By the way, my daughter is Laura. She's so much better than that ungrateful Sienna..."

She thought those words would make me sad. However, I simply grabbed Mary's phone and said coldly, "Ms. Greene, Laura broke the smartwatch Ms. Brooks bought me. It's worth 3000 dollars. Please pay me back immediately!"

Hearing me call her that must have hit her like a hammer. She instantly lost her composure.

"So it's true, you've fallen in love with money! That vixen buys you one watch, and suddenly you deny your own mother?! All these years you've eaten my food and lived under my roof, and I never charged you a cent! And now you dare ask me for money?!"

The matter eventually fizzled out. However, the next day, I spotted an even more expensive smartwatch on Laura's wrist.

When the school held a parent-child event, my mom deliberately dressed in designer clothes and showed up with her childhood friend, Matthew Klein, along with Laura, who was also dressed in an expensive princess dress.

The three of them looked loving and happy, like a perfect little family.

Seeing me standing alone, my mom hugged Laura and mocked me. "Sienna, where's your father? And where's Ms. Brooks? Why didn't they come to the parent-child event with you? Don't tell me you haven't figured it out yet. He's out having fun with Ms. Brooks and that half-brother of yours right now!

"Let me spell it out for you. It's too late for regrets now. The moment you chose to betray me, I stopped being your mother!"

When I did not respond, she leaned closer to my ear and said, "Oh, and even if your dad wants to remarry me, I won't take you back, you ungrateful brat."

She was obviously still dreaming about my dad begging her to remarry him.

"Audrey! What are you trying to do to Sienna?" My dad came running anxiously from a distance, followed by Erin and Oliver.

The moment she saw my dad, she deliberately linked arms with Mathew, trying to provoke him. "Connor, you don't know yet, do you? Matt already proposed to me."

My dad glanced at their odd family combination and frowned. My mom must have thought he was jealous and smiled smugly. "But as long as you're willing to beg me to come back, I'll still..."

Before she could finish, I pulled the marriage certificate from my dad's briefcase. "Ms. Greene, Dad and I both wish you and Mr. Klein all the best! Because Dad has already married Ms. Brooks!"