Chapter 2The Price of a Delayed Train

The door slammed shut heavily.

I collapsed onto the sofa, drained of all strength.

My eyes fell on the shattered pieces covering the floor.

Remembering Ethan's phrase, "A teacher's grace is as heavy as a mountain," I let out a mocking laugh.

Exactly how shameless do you have to be...

To say such weighty words so lightly, and so self-righteously?

And exactly how much of a failure was I...

To have let my life turn out like this?

Ethan was, indeed, once my mother's student.

Back then, he wasn't the heir to the Sterling family; he was just a kid who had nothing.

Raised by a single, violent, gambling-addict father, he had a gloomy personality, terrible grades, and was a problem student that no teacher wanted to deal with.

Later, my mother noticed the bruises on him.

As his homeroom teacher, she did home visits time and time again, but they always ended in vain.

Pitying him because he was skin and bones, my mother frequently invited him to our house for dinner.

That year, we were in high school.

Two miserable kids from single-parent homes ended up crossing paths.

Those years, my mother, a senior teacher, personally tutored Ethan, helping him transform from a despised underachiever into a top student, eventually getting into a prestigious university.

This led to Ethan later following his biological mother back to the Sterling family, and with his knowledge and the halo of a top university...

He managed to earn a place and recognition within the Sterling family.

Later, he changed completely.

I asked my mother if she regretted it.

She only shook her head: "At least it gave a child a different life."

But as she shook her head, tears fell: "My only regret is letting you marry him!"

When she was critically ill, she gripped me tightly:

"If I don't make it, you should head to New York. Don't keep holding on for my sake."

"Do whatever you want to do. My Livvy shouldn't be trapped here."

Only then did I realize that my mother had known everything all along.

I forcefully wiped my face and looked at the message popping up on my phone.

[Olivia, that cruel woman who always stopped us father and daughter from seeing each other is finally gone. No one can stop you now!]

[Your little brother is still young and can't handle things. You're my only daughter. If you're willing to come home, everything I have in the future, including the company, will be yours!]

Even though we hadn't been in contact for years, the selfishness and coldness in the bones of my biological father hadn't changed a bit.

Even hearing that the wife who had shared his hardships in their youth had passed away, he didn't show a hint of sadness. He even had to kick her while she was down.

I lowered my eyes, staring quietly at the words on the screen.

I only felt it was ridiculous.

All mine?

That brother of mine was the precious son this man had longed for, the son he didn't hesitate to abandon his wife and daughter for. Would he really be willing to let me, his daughter, take half of the family fortune?

I'd be the biggest joke if I believed his nonsense.

But since leaving was a foregone conclusion, there was no reason not to use this stepping stone delivered right to my door.

I twitched my lips and replied:

[Okay, I'll go back.]