Chapter 4

Vanessa told Ethan when and where they would meet next, along with the amount she would pay him, and then left.

Ethan kept looking around. Only after Vanessa had gone far away did he let Chloe out of the car.

The moment Chloe emerged, she slapped him without saying a word and walked away.

“Chloe, I’m sorry! Listen to me! She’s a relative!” Ethan shouted as he chased after her.

I thought they would break up.

But somehow, Ethan managed to sweet-talk Chloe into staying with him.

Over the next few days, the campus message boards were filled with photos of Ethan and Chloe being affectionate in the woods.

Everyone envied him for winning the campus beauty’s heart.

Later, people even photographed Ethan buying Chloe luxury goods.

Chloe really knew how to choose. Any single item probably cost Ethan several nights with Vanessa.

Ethan had suddenly become rich, and people around him began to suspect something.

He claimed that his family business had recently become profitable and that he had only pretended to be poor before.

Some people actually believed him.

If I hadn’t occasionally helped him out, he would have been eating scraps half the time.

My father still hadn’t noticed anything strange, so Vanessa must have been using her own money to pay Ethan.

I was becoming more and more curious to see everyone’s expressions when the truth came out.

My father returned from his business trip, and I moved back home to watch the show.

“Oh, you came back? Even at your age, you already know how to run off with some blond boy.”

I didn’t know whether my father had learned that line from Vanessa or Vanessa had learned it from him. Every time I came home, they said the same thing.

The “blond boy” they were talking about was Ethan.

Three years ago, the day after my mother died, my father brought Vanessa home.

I stared at them in disbelief.

Hadn’t my father loved my mother? Why had he found someone else so quickly?

“So you must be Ava. Your father has told me about you. You really are adorable.”

Vanessa had been smiling when she first entered. She gently stroked my head.

“This child is too dependent on her mother. She’s been crying since yesterday,” my father said. “She’s old enough to know better. How embarrassing.”

Vanessa looked at me sympathetically.

“Losing your mother must be terribly painful. You must be suffering so much. From now on, I’ll be your new mother. I’ll love you just as much as she did.”

“Come on, sweetheart. Call me Mommy.”

She was smiling, but I found her terrifying. It felt as if she might swallow me whole.

I turned away and refused to call her that.

Vanessa gave an awkward smile.

“Don’t you want your mother? I found you a new one. Call her now!”

My father shouted at me.

“Stop making that funeral face. You look just like your dead mother. Disgusting!”

Vanessa wrapped her arm around my father’s.

“It’s okay. She’s just a child. Maybe she can’t accept me yet. Give her time.”

“That’s why I love you. You’re so kind to her.”

My father looked at Vanessa fondly, then turned toward me with disgust.

When I continued refusing, he reached for a stick to force me to obey.

Fortunately, his phone rang.

After answering it, he briefly explained something to Vanessa before rushing out.

The moment he left, Vanessa dropped her gentle act.