At dinner, he would wait for me, even bringing my favorite fruit.
At the table, he would eagerly serve me food, hiding concern in his words:
“Rachel, eat more.”
After one such meal, he couldn’t hold back.
“Rachel, since you’ve got nothing to do at home, maybe I’ll find something for you.”
“Sure. What is it?” I set down my teacup, curious about his scheme.
“Chloe’s pregnant. With my child.”
The scalding tea burned my hand, but the pain went straight to my heart.
For a moment, my heartbeat stopped. His words were a knife, slicing me apart.
It took me a long time to find my voice, steady and cold:
“So? What do you want?”
“Chloe is just a young girl. I can’t leave her alone. Since you’re not busy, you’ll take care of her. When the baby is born, you can even be the godmother.”
“As long as you behave and cover for us, I won’t divorce you.”
Numb, I nodded. Let them bask in their brief joy.
I would make sure they understood—I was not someone to be trifled with.
From the moment Chloe moved in, she never stopped causing trouble.
Every day she demanded some new dish, forcing me to drive for hours to get it, only to toss it away with a sneer:
“It’s not fresh.”
One day, while I was serving seafood soup, Chloe rushed forward and bumped into me. The soup spilled, scalding my arm with blistering burns.
Her wrist suffered only a tiny red mark, yet she wailed that she had harmed the baby, crying of stomach pain.
Andrew panicked, fussing over her, even feeding her like a child.
Chloe sobbed:
“It’s all my sister’s fault. If the baby had been hurt, I wouldn’t want to live.”
“She can bully me however she wants, but the baby is innocent.”
Andrew’s face darkened, terrifying to behold.
“Rachel, I told you to take care of Chloe. How dare you defy me?”
“So that’s it. You’ve always hated her, and now you’re too eager to please.”
“I told you—it wasn’t me. She ran into me on her own.” I laughed bitterly.
“You two—one lies, the other distorts the truth. Truly a perfect pair.”
I turned to leave. I already had enough evidence, and my arm needed treatment.
But Andrew’s cold voice stopped me:
“Did I say you could go?”
For reasons I couldn’t fathom, looking at my wounds made Andrew restless, desperate to lash out.
“I know you still hold ten percent of Smith Corporation’s shares. Give them to Chloe—for the baby’s sake—and I’ll let this go.”
