Hearing my constant wailing, Lucas turned his head and transferred a dollar and fifty cents to my account.
"Stop clutching your stomach just to win my sympathy. Your child had long gone."
"Hey, you love buying a dollar and fifty cents stuff, right? Well, alright then, I'll buy your uterus for a dollar and fifty cents. That should settle it. Stop crying!"
My vision blurred with tears. For years, I had lived frugally for him. I only bought household items and wore clothes that only cost a dollar and fifty cents.
This was the same man who once praised my simplicity and diligence, but now he used that one dollar and fifty cents as a way to humiliate me.
My heart ached so much that I could barely breathe. As I fainted, Lucas had his assistant sign the agreement for me, then walked away satisfied with the document in hand.
Curled up in the basement corner, I watched him leave with a smile on his face. As despair washed over me, I closed my eyes.
“According to the pre-trial mediation agreement, Anne Adam and Nova Bright have reached an agreement. The charges are dismissed.”
The staff removed Anne’s handcuffs and she ran straight into Lucas’s arms in excitement. "Lucas, in these past few days without you, I was filled with fear and dread. The detention cell was so cold and lonely. Thank goodness you're here."
"I didn't mean for the car accident to happen. That day, I was just too excited that we could finally get married." Anne's tears spilled down like broken pearls.
Lucas fixed the staff present with a stern gaze. “Rest assured, I'll resolve any grievances you have. And, don't worry about the accident. Nova has forgiven you.” His tone softened as he gently stroked her head.
Everyone knew how biased he was toward Anne. After she returned to the country, fresh out of college, he made her his personal assistant.
When she did not do her job well, he did not mind. When she wanted to post intimate photos with him on social media, he ignored the fact that I was his official girlfriend.
Whenever I discovered it and confronted him, he always said the same excuse, "Anne is immature and so are you. She had no parents before joining our family, so she only started living well after joining us. If I didn’t treat her well, she would be too pitiful."
Whenever Lucas and I were together, his phone would ring nonstop, then his flustered expression gave everything away.
Anne would sob over some trivial matter, such as tripping while walking, being gossiped about by coworkers, or work being tough. And to him, it was as if the sky had fallen.
I swallowed my anger, but he always told me not to take it personally. Yet he was always the first to rush to her side.
At every crucial moment, Anne would always be his first choice and I was always the one who was left behind.
At first, I believed his words because I thought Anne was just a young woman. But the police investigation revealed she had deliberately killed my father while still partially conscious.
Meanwhile, Lucas merely offered me a half-hearted plea for forgiveness and promised that she'd be punished. But I didn't need to guess what that punishment would be.
It would be nothing more than freezing her card for days, letting her go hungry and locking away her favorite clothes and bags. Over the past years, I had witnessed this meaningless “punishment” countless times.
Anne had sabotaged my wedding ninety-nine times. Slowly, I began to notice that Lucas and Anne had crossed the line of the appropriate behavior of foster siblings.
When the time of the one hundredth wedding came, Anne appeared in the main hall wearing a wedding dress ten times more exquisite than mine. Every guest below the stage gazed with envy, blessing the divine couple on stage.
Meanwhile, I stood out like an intruder crashing someone else's wedding and the one hundredth ceremony was canceled just like the others.
“Nova, you know Anne has always wanted to wear a wedding dress. I'm sure you'll agree about this. Next time, I'll definitely make up to you for the wedding...”
