Kelvin stared at me in disbelief as he watched me completely discarding the dress I wore.
The noise in the lobby slowly faded. People stopped shouting and only whispered quietly.
Then a deep voice broke the silence. “Hey you, there's don't need to take it off. I have another dress, a limited piece. I’ll give it to Ms. Sylvia Mapple.”
The moment I heard I didn’t need to undress, I turned and ran toward the hospital. I didn’t notice the intense gaze of the man behind me, or Sylvia clinging to him eagerly.
In the hospital hallway, my father was squatting in the corner with his head in his hands.
He looked at me with empty eyes and said in a hoarse voice, “Your mother is gone. Before she passed, she kept calling your nickname. Even at the end, she never closed her eyes.”
I cried quietly, hugging my head, but a sharp voice suddenly interrupted me. “Well, isn’t this our family’s nanny?”
Sylvia stood in front of me, holding Kelvin’s arm tightly. “Vin felt sorry for me,” she said sweetly. “He was worried my burn would leave a scar, so he brought me here.”
Kelvin’s lips moved slightly. He looked like he wanted to explain, but no words came out.
My father froze in shock. His voice trembled as he said, “Tia… is this how you’ve been living with the Robinsons? It’s all my fault for dragging you into this.”
“No!” I denied urgently.
Ever since our family went bankrupt, my father had felt deeply guilty toward my mother and me. He even tried to end his life several times because of the debt, but my mother and I stopped him each time.
I wiped away my tears and looked at Kelvin with pleading eyes. I explained quickly to my father,
“Kevin is just accompanying a good friend to see a doctor. I asked him to.”
“A ‘good friend’ you he's sleeping with?” Sylvia asked with a fake shy smile. “Or a ‘good friend’ that Al and El call ‘Mom’?”
Seeing my father’s dazed expression, I grabbed Kelvin’s other arm and shook it, begging him to say something—anything—to comfort my father.
Bang!
In a moment of panic, the hallway was suddenly silent. My father was gone. My legs went weak as I dragged myself toward the window, unable to believe what had happened.
When I saw my father’s broken body below, everything went black.
“Since you’re awake, get up and eat some porridge,” Kelvin said. He held a bowl and spoon, trying to feed me.
I turned my face away, my heart full of resentment. My mother was gone. My father was gone too. I no longer needed to bow to Kelvin for money.
Kelvin put down the spoon and grabbed my chin.
“You need to eat properly,” he said. “What about the baby you're carrying?”
I frowned in disgust.
“Syl wants this child,” Kelvin said casually. “Don’t you like the twins? Syl said once she has this baby, she’ll give the twins back to you. A child raised from young would be closer to her anyway.”
Hearing that, I leaned over the bed and vomited uncontrollably.
“No, no! We want Mama Sylvia too!” the twins shouted as they rushed in like little missiles.
“Who wants this ugly mom? This dirty woman!”
Sylvia followed them in, covering her mouth as she laughed. “Vin, I want sons too,” she said. “If what she had is a daughter, then never mind.”
“You can raise it. Don’t give birth to another money-loser—someone with no self-respect, who loves money so much she’ll wag her tail like a dog for cash.”
Listening to them, my disgust reached its peak. I was about to speak when I suddenly noticed something in Sylvia’s hand.
She was lightly swinging two small golden tiger charms.
