Helen’s POV:
I had no idea how I managed to walk out of the meeting room. Right now, I was unsteady on my feet,
and I felt as if I were stepping on cotton. What was Jane doing here? Why did she have to come back
after all this time? I could not even remember the last time I saw her. I had thought that pain and
resentment would fade away with time, and I could finally move on. But when I saw Jane again, I
realized that my grievances were still there, imprinted in my heart. I could still remember everything as if
it had just happened yesterday. In the elevator, I could hear the employees gossiping to one another.
“Did you see the woman beside Mr. Affleck? I heard that she is Jane Campbell, AKA, the mysterious
product designer.”
“Oh my God! She is Jane Campbell? I never expected that she would be such a beauty. She’s so
perfect! She has an elegant temperament, and she looks stunning. Oh, and her body? It’s well-
proportioned. She’s like a model!”
“I thought she would be just another boring woman. You know, like any other product designers. I didn’t
expect her to be so pretty.”
“Actually, the gossip chat room of our company has found her background. Apparently, she and George
were childhood friends and even studied abroad together. They also took up the same major. After
graduating from college, they started a business. It seems that George was closer to Jane than
Boswell!”
“Oh my. I’m sure she’ll be the president’s future wife.”
“No wonder I didn’t see Lucy after New Year’s Day. Rumor has it that she’s George’s girlfriend. It turns
out that she’s just a mistress. Now that his real girlfriend has shown up, she probably has no face to
show in the company anymore.”
Jane’s name rang in my ears again and again. I just watched as the number on the screen changed,
indicating which floor I was on. How I hoped that the doors of the elevator would soon open. I wanted to
get away from her and everything that reminded me of her. Every second that I was in the elevator
listening to the employees’ gossip was torture. I wished to get the hell out of here as soon as possible,
but time seemed to have slowed down
Meanwhile, my phone beeped relentlessly It was messages from George
“What’s wrong?” “Are you sick?” “Where are you?”
I looked at the messages popping on the screen. For some reason, my vision slowly became blurry. The
world seemed to be coated with a layer of a blurred filter. A few seconds later, it gradually turned into
Jane’s face. The instant the doors of the elevator opened, I turned my phone off, exited the building, and
went to the subway station. Since it was not rush hour, there were many empty seats on the subway.
I just found myself a seat and sat down. I was so immersed in my thoughts that I did not notice how
many stops I had passed.
The last time I saw Jane was at the gate of Philadelphia High. “Helen, I’m just taking back what belongs
to me,” she said.
At that time, Jane was thinner than she was now. Because of this, people always took pity on her and felt
the need to protect her. But it was only a facade. Little did everyone know, she was stronger and more
vicious than
1.
I never won against her. Practically, when we fought in the past, I only scratched her face while she
chose to hit my vital parts. I didn’t bring much pain to her but she let me suffer in an undetected way.
Obviously, I got scolded a lot when I was a child. Even my own mother defended her and warned me not
to lay a finger on Jane. As for my father, he always apologized on my behalf and gave Jane a peace
offering.
At a young age, I realized how unfair the world was. My father would rather believe a stranger, and my
mother never sided with me. As a result, 1 grew up bottling up all my hatred and resentment. Every time
I had a conflict with Jane, my father never defended me. He would always ask me to apologize, even if I
did nothing wrong.
As if the trauma of having nobody sided with me was not enough, something unexpected happened. I
could never forget the day when Jane and her mother, Libby Campbell, attended my father’s funeral.
They did not even spare me and my mother a glance. Before the two of us could even react, Jane knelt
in front of my father’s portrait and called him “Dad”. For a moment, I could not breathe. In the past few
years, the memory of Jane crawling on the ground and crying her eyes out with my father’s portrait in her
arms haunted me at night.
Libby cried as well. She must have been so heartbroken that she couldn’t stand straight. She looked as if
she was on the verge of breaking down. “Bob, you’re so selfish’ How am I supposed to live on when
you’ve left us?!”
The scene was insane. My mother and I were at a loss. We could not figure out what those two were
doing
At first, I even thought they were crying at the wrong person
Three days later, Libby came to our house with the paternity test report. It was then that I found out that
Jane was my father’s love child and that they had another home.
My mother and I did not want to believe it. However, Libby took out a yellowing album from her bag and
put it on the tea table for us to see. In it were photos which showed my father holding Jane’s hand and
Libby’s. They were looking into the camera with beaming smiles. If others could see it, they would think
that they were a happy family.
My father was in every photo with Jane when she was a baby up to when she reached high school. He
looked so affectionate in them. I had never seen him look at me like the way he looked at Jane. I used to
think that my father was a reserved man. It was just that he was not good at expressing his feelings.
But it turned out that I was only making excuses for myself. Those photos were proof that he never cared
about me at all. This sudden realization was like a sharp knife, which revealed the bloody reality in front
of me. He was hard on me because he had already given his softest parts to his other child.
My mom was so mad that she passed out. 1, on the other hand, just felt as if a boulder was pressing on
my chest and trapping me in a muddy swamp. The more I struggled, the deeper I sank. I wanted to ask
my father why he betrayed me and my mother. Also, I wanted to know in all those years if he ever felt
guilty whenever he came back home to us after being with his other family. How could he put my mother
and me in such a miserable situation? Sadly, he was dead.
Getting the answer I wanted was impossible. When my mother woke up again, she trampled my father’s
portrait into pieces and flushed his ashes into the toilet. What was the use, though? My father took the
answer to his grave. Later, Libby came to us again.
“I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s just that I’ve been suffering for years. As a mother, I can’t let Jane suffer
the same way I did she could only call Bob ‘Dad’ in secret and pretend that she did not know him in front
of other people. Now that he’s gone, we just want to say goodbye, and I want Jane to call him ‘Dad just
like Helen does.”
It was casy for her to say. Since my father was dead, Libby’s motives finally surfaced. She and Janc
came to fight for the family property.
“I’ve consulted with a lawyer. The child out of wedlock is also the first her to the wheritance”
My mother seemed to have snapped back to reality upon hearing this “Bob only left us this house,” she
said through grilled teeth
“Boy is thrifty He should have some savings,” Libby calmly replied
In a fit of anger, my mother stood up and bellowed, “Shame on you! Do you have any idea how much
money he gave me in the past few years? You know where he actually spent all his money. You don’t
have a job. Who had been supporting you and Jane all these years? Should I go to the court to sue you
and take back the house you’re now living?” My mother was just an accountant. She had never fought
for anything all her life. But for my sake and her dignity, she did as she said.
Unfortunately, after the investigation, it was found that Libby and Jane’s house was not under their name
at all, but under Libby’s brother. To make things worse, it was impossible to find out whether or not my
father paid for it. It turned out that they had had everything under control and even left a way out for
themselves
My mother and I were fooled. And in the end, we got nothing. Sometime later, Jane went abroad to
study. Libby emigrated as well. While the two were having a lavish lifestyle, my mother and I lived a hard
life. The worlds of our families were different from each other.
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