Natalie chuckled helplessly. “Sebastian, you’re so childish.” She explained, “I’ve been so busy at the banquet. People have been taking my photo all day long. I really didn’t have the time, honey.”
Being called “honey” instantly dispelled the gloom in Sebastian’s heart. He sighed and secretly scolded himself for being so soft.
“Okay. I forgive you. When are you coming back? I miss you.”
Natalie blushed slightly, feeling warm in her heart. “I left yesterday. It’s only been a day, Sebastian.”
Before Sebastian could say anything, Natalie heard her name being called. “Natalie? What’re you doing here? The party’s far from over.”
Johanna noticed that Natalie wasn’t in the hall so she went out to look for her. Natalie quickly said goodbye to Sebastian and then hung up the phone. Johanna dragged her back to the party. Because both Johanna and Beal felt guilty for the lost time, they wanted to make it up to Natalie in one go. They spent every waking minute with Natalie, buying her all kinds of things. Johanna in particular was very excited. She would take Natalie out to go shopping, and always end up buying all the things she laid her eyes on.
Their shopping spree was all very exhausting for Natalie. Natalie’s parents were so immersed in the excitement of getting their real daughter back that they completely forgot about Lila, who had locked herself in her room sulkily.
Lila leaned against the door, trying to listen in. Hearing the raucous laughter downstairs, she grew even angrier. She threw herself on the bed and tears fell out of her eyes again. In the past two days, there had already been a lot of news about Natalie.
Some news outlets even compared her with Natalie.
There was gossip saying that she was not as beautiful as Natalie. Some even accused her of stealing Natalie’s life.
“Why me?” More tears streamed down Lila’s face. She threw her phone onto the ground, her eyes wide open and furious. She wanted nothing else but to grab hold of Natalie’s neck and strangle her.
A few days ago, she was still the only daughter of the rich and powerful White family in Barnes, but now she suddenly had turned into some sort of imposter. Lila couldn’t wrap her mind around it. She was extremely unwilling to accept it. She even began to believe that what Johanna and Beal did was extremely unfair to her.
They announced to the world that Natalie was their biological daughter. Obviously, this was a huge insult to her.
Lila’s phone then rang.It happened to be a call from one of her best friends.
“What’s going on? Who’s that Natalie girl? Why did you suddenly become your family’s adopted daughter?” Lila had a splitting headache and shouted angrily at the phone, “Stop yammering about Natalie! Just hearing her name makes me very angry!”
“So the matter’s true. Where are you right now? Are you at the White’s house, or your biological parents’ home?” It seemed like her best friend only cared about Lila’s status.
Lila almost became crazy. She learned straight from Johanna that her biological parents were just ordinary people. She had been treated well by the White couple for so many years. It was impossible for her to go back to her real parents and live a hard life!
“Don’t worry about it. My dad and mom said that I’m very much still their daughter.” Lila smiled awkwardly and lied through her teeth. She knew clearly that even if she stayed in the White family shamelessly, she would only be an adopted daughter. She was no longer the legitimate daughter of the White family and staying due to that would be very embarrassing indeed.
According to the sounds downstairs these days, she figured out that Beal and Johanna treated Natalie very well.
Her best friend tried telling her words of comfort over the phone.
‘That’s really great. Your parents must be tolerant of you.”
Are they? If they were really tolerant, they wouldn’t have taken Natalie back and let Natalie take away everything that was truly hers.
Thinking about this, Lila felt that it was extremely unfair to her. She resented that God was unfair toward her. At first, He gave her the identity of the daughter of a rich family that everyone envied, but suddenly took it all back.
She hung up the phone with a downcast expression on her face and cried for several days in her room. She cried at night deliberately. The noise of the party downstairs in the daytime was so loud that even if she cried aloud, nobody would be able to hear her.
However, though she had been crying for a few days straight, no one came to see her except the servants who came to deliver her something to eat every day. Lila had a feeling that if she did nothing but cry, she would be forgotten by Beal and Johanna pretty soon. She finally calmed herself down and began to think about her next plan of action.
Lila would never go back to live a hard life with her biological parents. That was why she decided to stay with the
White family. After all, she had a close relationship with Beal and Johanna for over 20 years, which Natalie didn’t have. Furthermore, she had been well educated since she was a child, so she must be much better at her demeanor than Natalie. She could still win Beal and Johanna’s love back. It would only be a matter of time before they saw the light.
After mulling everything over in her head, Lila finally left her room.
This was the first time she had taken the initiative to go out of her room in the last few days. She headed down the stairs and could make out her parents watching a TV drama in the living room with Natalie. Lila could see that Johanna was moved to tears by the scene in the TV drama. She was wiping her face as she held Natalie.
‘It’s obvious that the heroine in this drama is so pitiful.”
Natalie comforted her with a warm smile on her face.
‘This is just a TV show. It’s all fake. This kind of thing never happens in real life.”
Beal peeled the oranges for them as he said, “Your mother happens to be a very sentimental woman. Whenever she sees a baby being taken away from their parents in a drama, she’ll go on to cry hysterically.”
Johanna placed a piece of orange into her mouth and glared daggers at Beal.
“Stop blowing my cover in front of our daughter.”
The family was sharing a moment of intimacy right then. Lila felt that she was intruding on their moment. She endured the bitterness in her heart and went over calmly to them. Her eyes were red and swollen and her face was wet with tears.
“Mom, Dad, what TV drama are you watching? Your discussion of itis so intense.” Hearing the sound of her voice, Beal and
Johanna turned their heads around. Seeing the pitiful look on Lila’s face, they began to pity her.
Johanna quickly pulled out two pieces of tissue from the table, got up, and made her way over to comfort Lila.