“Sir, take me right over here.” Lila showed the taxi driver the address on her phone.
“Oh, that looks like a distant neighborhood.” The driver spoke the Barnes dialect fluently, and when he
saw the address, he was obviously grossed out.
Lila was accustomed to living in the rich area and had never left downtown. She knew nothing about this
address and as she furrowed her brows, she asked, “Really?”
“That neighborhood happens to be both poor and messy. I know for a fact that the people living there are
all poor families and hooligans. Why would you ever want to go there?” The driver glanced over at Lila.
She was dressed from head to toe in elegant attire and didn‘t look like someone who would live in such a
bad neighborhood at all. With a dry smile on her face, Lila told him, “I don‘t think that‘s any of your
business. Just take me there.”
The Gillian family‘s house was far away from the downtown area. The driver drove the cab into a
dilapidated neighborhood.
As soon as Lila got out of the car, she could make out a broken and small apartment building, which
looked really like the haunted houses in those horror movies. The walls looked very shabby and yellow
unknown liquid was all over the mottled walls. In the corridors were piles of garbage that looked like it
had been there for a very long time. With her hand covering her mouth, Lila‘s heart sank in her chest.
She wanted to burst into tears, but she couldn‘t right then. She could only hold back the feeling of
nausea and find the apartment unit where her parents lived. After that, she knocked on the rusty iron
door.
“Who is it?” A man shouted irritably from inside the apartment and the door was opened with a loud
squeak. A man with stubble on his chin and a big mole on the corner of his mouth poked his head out.
He stank like an alcoholic.
“Who the hell are you?”
Lila was frightened by this man and she proceeded to take two steps back. She hesitated and said, “I...
I‘m looking for Glenn and Eva Gillian.”
Beal had told Lila that these were the names of her biological parents.
Glenn looked at her up and down, and suddenly, it seemed like he had come to his senses. Then he
shouted excitedly at the woman in the room, “Honey, our daughter is home!”
A middle–aged woman ran out of the kitchen right away. The floor was shaking slightly when she was
running out. Her voice was rough and with a strong local accent, she said, “Lila? Is that my Lila?”
At the sight of Lila, the middle–aged woman embraced her daughter excitedly, “It‘s so good to have you
back.”
Glenn and Eva had both learned from Beal that Lila was going to come back They had originally
planned to let their daughter enjoy a lifetime of glory and wealth in the White family. Now that Lila had
been kicked out of the Whites‘ house, they were both disappointed but at the same time happy that she
was now coming home to them. Lila looked at them disgustedly. When she smelled the pungent and
strange smell on Eva, she wrinkled her nose and
pushed the woman who was her mother away.
“What‘s that smell?” She wasn‘t happy at all since she walked into the room. This house was both dirty
and shabby. Also, the whole apartment wasn‘t even as big as her bedroom in the White family
residence.
Obviously, they were very poor folks. She had heard from Beal that her biological father, Glenn, was an
owner of a small business. At first, Lila thought that he would at least have some money. However, it
turned out he was only an alcoholic and untidy man.
As for her biological mother, Eva, she was totally a country bumpkin. They were no match to the likes of
her adoptive parents Beal and Johanna. Lila was growing desperate. She could hardly believe that she
had been born from such a woman. Eva wiped the sweat off her forehead and neck awkwardly and
bowed her head down in shame.
“I just came out of the kitchen and haven‘t had the chance to take a shower yet. I shouldn‘t have grabbed
you like that. I was too excited just now.”
She looked at Lila carefully, with moist eyes. “You look exactly the same as me when I was younger.”
After hearing this, Lila became angrier and cursed in her heart. Was this fat bitch trying to humiliate her?
Tears of joy began to well up in Eva‘s eyes. She nervously wiped her sweating palms on the apron and
said, “Since Lila is home now, let‘s go ahead and have dinner now.” Glenn scolded her, “Our son has yet
to return.”
As soon as he finished saying that, the door was opened from the outside with a key. A young man, who
had his hair dyed red, walked inside from the door. He glanced over at Lila, shrugged his shoulders, and
said in a rather frivolous manner with chewing gum still in his mouth, “Are you my sister?” He turned to
look at Lila‘s Hermes bag and asked her, “Is that bag real? It‘s not a fake, is it?”
Lila really wanted to roll her eyes. The young man before her was just some punk. The Gillian family was
so poor, but he was wearing all brand–name items. He must be very spoiled. And what was with that
arrogant attitude of his?
Lila was about to go crazy. Everything in this house was an eyesore.
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda