chapter 22

For the sake of love, I have been humble and reserved for so many years.

All the curses that have spun around my mind a thousand times-enough to circle the earth three times-finally burst out at this moment.

Everyone present was stunned.

I clenched my fists, forcing myself not to shed tears:

“Have I only been back to the Lu Family for one or two years?”

“It’s been fifteen years!”

“I waited for you to accept me, to love me again. I waited fifteen years!”

“Yes, I can’t compare to Lu Jiajia’s brilliance and warmth, can’t compare to how approachable she is.”

“But is it that I don’t want to live with confidence and ease?”

“Is it that I don’t want to be liked without being humble and pleasing, without tiptoeing around?”

“No one ever taught me!”

After seven years of absence, of course there is distance and estrangement between us.

It takes a tremendous amount of love and care to fill that gap.

But they already had a ready-made Lu Jiajia who fit everything they wanted.

So, they were unwilling to start from scratch and raise me all over again.

So they muddled along, whitewashing peace.

Letting me live in this home with all the trappings of luxury, yet never truly become one of them.

In the end, the tears still escaped my eyes.

Sliding down my cheeks, falling to the floor.

I unclenched my fists, the deadness returning to my gaze:

“Get away from me.”

“Don’t come back here to disgust me with your so-called repentance and guilt.”

“I truly don’t want to see any of you, not even a little.”

To hell with ‘I’m sorry.’

What I’ve always wanted is for you to do right by me.

“I’m sorry.”

Abruptly.

At the back of the Lu Family Members, an ill-timed apology sounded.

With reddened eyes, Lu Jiajia stepped forward.

She knelt slowly in front of me.

The moment she opened her mouth, she was sobbing uncontrollably:

“Sister, I’m sorry.”

“I just didn’t want you to take my family away, didn’t want to be driven out.”

“I never meant for you to die…”