### Chapter 5
Lucas's face went dark in an instant, his gaze raking across mine like a blade.
"Shut your mouth. Getting to come back to the Hensons at all is more luck than you deserve. And after you came crawling back here with no shame, do you have any idea how much Melanie has suffered?"
He stared at me, biting off every word.
"Even if she made a mistake, you're the one who pushed her into it."
I couldn't help laughing.
Seven years. I'd long since stopped counting the times Melanie had framed me, hurt me.
It wasn't that our parents didn't know the truth. They just always said, "Melanie's only afraid you'll steal our love away. Be the bigger person about it."
No one ever asked about what I'd suffered. So I was the bigger person, year after year.
Back then, only Cyril would wipe my tears. He was the one who demanded Melanie apologize, the one who told me, "I've got you."
And in the end, even he crossed over to her side.
Hearing Lucas, Cyril's expression flickered with something complicated, but he didn't argue in the end.
He only looked at me, his voice low. "We were all drunk that night. You can't seriously expect Melanie to get rid of the baby and lose any chance of having children for the rest of her life."
So instead, you made sure I'd never have children.
"I just want to take care of her until the baby comes. Stop making a scene."
So you took such tender care of her that you kept ending up in her bed.
Melanie's tears spilled over at once, her body trembling faintly.
"Sis... I'm so sorry. None of this was ever meant to happen, I swear."
Lucas cut her off immediately.
"You did nothing wrong. She's the one in the wrong, petty as always."
"Don't cry. The diamond crown I had made for you is finished. Let's go see it. I promise that in three days my little sister will be the most beautiful bride there is."
Cyril glanced at me and offered a careless explanation. "The wedding is just a formality. Melanie isn't going to take anything from you."
Then the two of them gathered Melanie up and swept her out.
At the door, Lucas turned back and tossed out one last warning.
"Bully Melanie again and you can get out of the Hensons. Go back and live the 'good life' with those crippled beggars you call parents."
Whatever they said, my heart no longer ached. I looked back at them, cold.
"Then try me. I'll make you regret it."
Before he or Cyril could say another word, I slammed the door.
In the mirror, my face was still pale, dark circles of exhaustion under my eyes, but the expression on it was calmer than it had ever been.
I started packing my things.
These seven years of memories. I didn't want a single one of them.
Then I dialed my adoptive father's number and said quietly, "Dad, I'm ready to come home."
"Really?" His voice was thick with worry. "Sweetheart, have they been hurting you?"
"I was wrong, Dad. I'll come home, take over the Delgados, and marry Edwin."
Crippled beggars. That was what Cyril and the Hensons thought of the people who'd raised me—broke, useless, leaving me nowhere to run. They had no idea those crippled beggars were the quiet hand that ran the Delgados' multi-billion empire across all of Harbor City.
"That's wonderful. I'll tell your mother the good news right away," he said. "When will you be home?"
"Edwin is coming for me in three days. Then we'll hold the wedding."
"What wedding?"
A man's voice came from behind me, sudden.
I turned. Cyril was standing in the doorway.
