Chapter 4After my sister got pregnant before marriage, she cried and asked me to accept my husband's child. Don't blame me for not remembering the old feelings.

"Congratulations! It’s a healthy baby boy, over nine pounds! What a blessing! He’s the first boy born here today!"

Everyone rushed forward, eager to hold the baby, utterly smitten. Skylar, pale and exhausted, was wheeled out, but no one paid her any mind. She weakly raised a hand, then slowly let it fall.

A baby weighing nearly nine pounds was delivered naturally by petite Skylar, simply because Mrs.

Stone insisted that naturally born babies are smarter than C-section babies. Skylar, eager to please her, actually gritted her teeth and went through with it. Now, she must have been utterly drained.

After Skylar was moved to a regular room, unable to get out of bed, Mom and Mrs. Stone agreed to take turns looking after her. But within a few days, the cracks began to show in their seemingly solid alliance.

Mom resented Skylar constantly ordering her around, harboring a simmering anger. Mrs. Stone found Skylar too high-maintenance, insisting on having three different colored basins for washing her bottom, her feet, and her underwear.

"Who needs all that fuss?" she'd complain. "A basin is a basin! What’s the point of just looking good if you can’t manage a household? Such a spendthrift!"

Soon, everyone found excuses not to come. Even with her strong pride, Skylar was helpless against the postpartum discharge, letting them handle her as they pleased.

Brandon didn't come to see her either. All she could do was watch the loving, happy couple in the bed next to her, silently weeping.

New mothers are naturally prone to emotional fluctuations, and with the baby crying every night, Skylar’s once delicate features were gone. Her proud, waist-length hair was falling out in handfuls during the nightly ordeal.

Watching this, I couldn't help but find it amusing. So, this was the "happiness" Skylar had embraced by betraying me.

But perhaps Mom also realized that leaving Skylar alone in the hospital room wasn't a good idea.

She called me, her voice sharp with command: "Your sister's in the hospital. Go stay with her, now! Don’t make me angry! I’m only telling you once!"

Silence. A long, drawn-out silence. The person on the other end of the line, hearing no response from me, grew increasingly agitated.

"Are you deaf?! Your mother is talking to you! Don't you know how to answer when you're spoken to? Who taught you such bad manners?"

"Both of you are giving me so much trouble! Did I make a mistake raising you? Did I raise enemies instead?"

"I'm your mother! No matter how much you dislike it, you have to listen to me!"

I put my phone on speaker and tossed it aside, ignoring the furious rant from the other end. I was happily lying back in a beauty salon, enjoying the most expensive treatments.