Chapter 2

Normally, Rachel would have yelled in Serena's face for using that tone.

But things were different now. Serena was the billionaire's daughter, her status transformed. Rachel was too busy currying favor to protest.

She edged closer, her voice sycophantic.

"Serena, just take Chloe. She's hardworking. She'll look after you. Far better than that lazy Lily!"

As she spoke, a look of pure disgust landed on me.

I didn't feel angry. If anything, a quiet relief settled in.

Serena dismissed the idea without a second thought. "No, I only want Lily with me!"

With that, she intimately linked her arm through mine. It felt like a cold, slimy snake coiling around me, suffocating me.

"Lily, please come with me. It's such an amazing chance to change your life. Why do you keep refusing me?"

She blinked, a probing look in her eyes as she stared at me.

I yanked my hand away as if she burned me, stumbling back a few steps before I regained my composure and spoke.

"I'm not going. Find someone else, or just go by yourself."

She put on a wounded expression, her eyes welling up, looking incredibly hurt.

"No, Mom and Dad always taught us to share. Now that I have a good life, I keep thinking of you, and you just keep refusing me."

"Did I do something wrong to upset you? I'm sorry, okay? Just come with me."

"You can try it for a while. If you don't like it, you can come back, okay?"

Rachel watched me, her eyes thick with an envy so potent I could taste it. She wished Serena had asked her.

I cleared my throat, firm.

"I'm not going. My life is here. I wouldn't belong there."

Serena's composure shattered.

"What life?! Slaving at dawn, pinching cents for a flicker of light at night, wearing rags until they fall apart! What is worth clinging to here?"

"Lily, look around! Every girl here is married off the moment she's of age. Is that what you want? To be sold to some stranger twice your age?"

Every accusation struck a deep, familiar chord.

I didn't want this life. It was a grinding, colorless struggle.

But I feared the mansion more than the hardship. A gilded cage was still a cage. I would not go.

I sighed, taking a long moment before speaking slowly.

"I've said it many times. I just don't want to go. No matter how good the life is, I don't want to go. How many times do I have to tell you before you understand?"

My parents shot me a look of furious disappointment, practically gnashing their teeth as they asked me.

"Then why don't you want to go? Tell us, what's so special about this place that you're so attached to it?"

I rubbed my red eyes, hesitating repeatedly before swallowing the truth, knowing no one would ever believe me.

I could only find another excuse to give them.

"I want to stay here with you, okay? If you both leave, who will take care of you if you get sick?"

Mr. Sterling's expression finally softened, and he cleared his throat.

"That's not a problem. We can take your parents with us to live a good life. Consider it our way of repaying you for raising Serena all these years."