Chapter 2After the Favor

I hailed a taxi back to the villa. The moment I stepped through the door, a sudden splash of cold water drenched me to the bone.

“Willow, I’m so sorry! I was watering the flowers and didn’t see you.” Melanie stood with the hose, only putting it down once I was soaked through.

I struggled to open my eyes. My cherished lily of the valley, which I’d nurtured for years, had been completely dug up. In its place, vibrant roses bloomed in vast swathes. The cold wind bit, and my recently operated body immediately felt awful. I swayed, nearly collapsing. But Sterling and Lance exchanged a glance, their expressions mirroring disdain. They seemed to be mocking me for putting on an act the moment I returned.

“Willow, I thought you were truly that stubborn, that you’d never come back.”

Lance scoffed, “Her mom doesn't even want her; where else would she go?”

My heart clenched painfully. I suddenly remembered the day I first arrived at the Sterling home. Lance, holding my hand, tried every trick to cheer me up. He even said, “Willow, don’t be scared. This is your home now.” Sterling, on his own initiative, cleaned out the largest, best room in the old mansion for me. Later, the three of us moved to this villa for work. Sterling remembered my preferences and meticulously decorated the master bedroom. He announced to everyone that, now and always, I was the irreplaceable mistress of this villa.

Until that day, when Melanie came to the villa, ostensibly to help Mrs. Ross. Every day, besides clinging to the brothers, she would “accidentally” break my belongings. At first, I sympathized with her hard life and didn’t make a fuss. But she grew bolder, deliberately smashing my father’s keepsake right in front of me.

My patience snapped. I stepped forward to confront her, only to be pushed away by Sterling. He frowned, “Melanie’s life is hard enough. Why do you, a pampered princess, have to pick on a naive young girl?”

Lance added, “Melanie is even younger than I am. Can’t you, at your age, be a little more accommodating?”

I clutched the broken jade pendant, feeling lost and helpless for the first time.

After that, everything changed. I was no longer the most important person in the brothers’ hearts. The housekeeper’s daughter gradually replaced me, becoming the new mistress of this villa, pushing me out.

Since that was the case, there was nothing for me to cling to. I just wanted to pack my things and leave quickly.

Walking inside, I saw all my belongings haphazardly piled in the hallway.

Sterling, with Melanie’s arm around him, looked down at me. “Willow, know your place. You’re just a parasite leeching off the Sterling family, you have no right to look down on Melanie, and certainly no right to throw a princess tantrum at her!”

“From now on, you’ll move to the maid’s room. Company matters will also be handled by Melanie. I’ll transfer you to logistics for odd jobs until you understand what it means to be a decent person.”

Lance tore up the teddy bear my mother had given me to make Melanie happy. “Willow, if you ever upset Melanie with your tantrums again, I won’t go easy on you.”

Willow, Willow dear. A single word difference, yet a world apart. The old me would have been heartbroken and sleepless after hearing such words. But now I was leaving, and I had no time to bother with them. I just said flatly, “You’re both right.”

“I’ll move out as soon as possible.”

“And you don't need to trouble yourself, Mr. Sterling, to transfer me to another department. I quit.”

Sterling sneered. “You’re truly determined to cling to the Sterling family, to be a useless freeloader.”

“Fine, for Mom’s sake, I won’t hold it against you this time.”

“Just remember your place from now on.”

I walked past Sterling, softly saying, “There won’t be a ‘from now on.’”

This place certainly held many beautiful memories for me. But ultimately, this wasn’t my home.