After the dishes were served, Liam carefully helped me to sit down.
"Evelyn, your father just called. He said tomorrow is his birthday. We..."
Before he could finish his sentence, my phone screen suddenly lit up. Liam instinctively glanced at it. It was a notification confirming a successful ticket booking for a ship.
His expression instantly froze, and he asked nervously, "Evelyn? What tickets did you book? Where are you going?"
I kept my face impassive. "I booked them for a friend."
Liam studied me for a while, but I remained calm. Only then did he relax a bit.
"Evelyn, don't scare me like that. If you don't want to go to your dad's, we can skip it. But you can't leave me. If I ever upset you, you can hit me, curse at me, even kill me, but you can't disappear from my life."
"And you must never give up on living."
I smiled and nodded. "Alright, I won't leave you, and I definitely won't die."
That night, perhaps sensing something, Liam held me tightly. Even while asleep, he continued to murmur, "Evelyn, promise me you won't leave..."
I looked at him coldly.
Liam, you can deceive me, so I can deceive you too. That's fair.
When I was six, my mom had just passed away, and my dad brought home five-year-old Lila and her mother. It turned out he had another family outside our home.
There's a saying that if a child gets a stepmother, they also get a stepfather. Under Lila and her mother's constant accusations, my dad grew to dislike me more and more, thinking I was bad at school, a habitual liar, and a thief in our home.
I couldn't defend myself and had to endure his punishment in silence, accumulating countless scars from his harsh discipline. After graduating, I thought I was finally free, but then I was diagnosed with a genetic heart disease...
"Well, our dear Preston family's eldest daughter is back~"
My stepmother's sarcastic voice snapped me back to reality.
"Quinn."
I greeted her indifferently and walked straight into the Preston residence. Today was my father's sixtieth birthday, and many relatives were present. They all stared and gossiped about me.
"This is Mr. Preston's eldest daughter? She looks so lifeless."
"You know, she has that disease..."
"Really? Oh, poor girl! She's so beautiful!"
"Just look at Lila, only a year younger than her. So confident and radiant. They say her fiancé is quite the catch too..."
My stepmother covered her mouth and mocked me with a smile. Then she affectionately hooked her arm through mine.
"Oh, don't talk like that. Evelyn and Lila are both my daughters~ With the support from me and her father, Evelyn's illness will surely get better. Evelyn's husband is a doctor too. He's in the study. Come on, Evelyn, I'll take you to find him."
She forcibly dragged me to the study door. Inside, I heard two familiar voices:
"If he's not good to you, you must tell me..."
"Liam, you should know, my sister was spoiled by the family since childhood. She used to bully me. Marrying her must be quite a burden for you, isn't it?"
It was Liam and Lila.
