The Abandoned Heiress,I Was Never Your Second ChoiceChapter 1
Ten years after my parents abandoned me, they finally found me.
On the first day, they spent their entire savings to buy me an eight-hundred-dollar down jacket.
On the second day, Dad worked a night shift, saying he wanted to give me a red envelope for New Year's Eve.
On the third day, Mom took an early morning job to help pay my tuition—and slipped and fell, landing herself in the hospital.
I thought maybe they really had abandoned me because of crushing debt, not because I was born slow.
I returned the jacket, made a pot of beef and rib congee, bought some supplements, and went to visit Mom at the hospital.
That's when I saw her—a stylish, fashionably dressed girl carrying a Hermès bag, walking into Mom's room.
"Mom, even if you wanted to pick me up from the airport, you didn't have to drive so recklessly," the girl said with an exasperated sigh.
"I haven't seen you in six months! I missed you." Mom smiled, clasping the girl's hand. "Cynthia, you're the most perfect child we could ever ask for. Even more precious than our own flesh and blood!"
The thermos slipped from my fingers. Beef and rib congee splattered across the floor.
My eyes stung. I turned and walked away in silence.
If you already have your perfect child...
Why did you come looking for me?
——
By the time I reached the ground floor, heavy snow had begun to fall. Cold wind sliced through my collar, and I couldn't stop shivering.
"What beautiful snow!"
The familiar voice belonged to Cynthia Henson—Mom's perfect child.
She strolled over in a mink coat, catching snowflakes in her palm. "Ten years ago, when Mom and Dad brought me home, it was snowing just like this."
My heart clenched.
Ten years ago, Dad told me to wait under a tree while he went to buy me roasted sweet potatoes.
I waited through the falling snow. I waited until dark. I waited until I couldn't feel my hands or feet anymore.
He never came back.
Now I knew why. They had gone to adopt Cynthia Henson.
"Mom and Dad said they'd spoil me like a princess!" she continued. "When I wanted to draw, they bought me hundreds of digital art tablets. When I wanted to learn music, every instrument appeared in our house the next day. When I wanted to get into a prestigious school, the invitation letter arrived that same afternoon."