###Chapter 2
By morning, Cody still had not come home. It wasn’t until the afternoon that his call arrived.
“A last-minute business trip. I won’t be back for the next two days. What gift do you want? I’ll bring it for you.”
At the same time, a message flashed across the tablet on the coffee table.
[I didn’t expect that after so many years, Cody still only has me in his heart. Last night he almost broke my waist. Didn’t you satisfy him at all? Do you need a cousin to teach you a few skills?]
With a flick of my finger, the photos Freya sent filled the screen.
By the pool at Oregon Suites, her makeup was flawless, her swimsuit clung to fiery curves, her wheat-colored skin glowing with sultry allure.
In each photo, a man’s broad back or slender hands appeared, never fully shown, but unmistakable.
My gaze drifted instinctively to the mirror, reflecting a woman, thin, worn, a shell of herself. My hands, once delicate, were rough and calloused from twenty-five years of housework.
She was my cousin, yet looked like a younger sister, ten years younger. Of course, he would choose her. They were the perfect match.
I lowered my eyes and said faintly into the phone, “You go on, I don’t want anything.”
After hanging up, I pulled out the long, customized dress I had buried away for years.
My friend Anne Raven knew I was about to leave, so she invited me to meet at a hot spring club.
I applied lipstick for the first time in so long, when behind me came a child’s mocking voice. “Wow, Grandma, you look like a clown in the circus!”
Ester, holding a doll, jumped onto the sofa.
At the sound, my son Carlos Partridge came out, his glance sharp as his words.“Mom, that dress looks ridiculous on you. At your age, what are you dressing up for?”
My hand, frozen in mid-adjustment of the dress, trembled, and my heart felt as though cut by a blade.
Then a dirty baseball uniform was thrown at my feet.
“The community game is the day after tomorrow. I need to wear this. Hurry and wash it today.”
I stood there coldly while he sat on the sofa, flipping through a magazine and snorting through his nose.
“I know you envy Aunt Freya, but no matter how you dress up, you’re nothing more than a pale imitation. If you want to win Dad’s heart, then just do your duties well. Don’t humiliate yourself.”
A sharp bitterness rose in my chest. They all knew of Freya’s secret with their father. Not only did they not care, they welcomed it. They even hoped she would take my place, stepping into their so-called happy family.
And I, trapped in that villa like a prisoner, was nothing more than a lowly maid, a ghost of a presence, serving them endlessly until death claimed me.
But twenty-five years had been more than enough.
“I don’t have time. Wash it yourself.”
I threw the baseball uniform back without hesitation, ignoring Carlos’s stunned look, then slung my bag over my shoulder and left.
As soon as I entered the hot spring club where I was to meet Anne, my gaze unexpectedly landed on Freya across the way.
She was dead drunk, collapsed against the arms of a young blond man, her lips curving into a teasing smile as she hooked her arms around his neck.
“Hi, handsome, do you have a girlfriend?”
A beautiful woman, still glowing with charm, flinging herself at him, the man blushed at once.
And the one who was supposed to be on a business trip, Cody, appeared with a face like thunder, dragging Freya out of the man’s arms.
“Freya, are you insane? Do you even know what you’re doing?”
Freya shoved him off, her drunken eyes reddened as she roared, “Who are you to me, Cody? Whoever I want to be with, what business is it of yours?”
When she stumbled forward, nearly leaving with another man, Cody didn’t think; he just pulled her back into his embrace.
His voice, ragged and low, spilled out as he cried her name again and again, “Freya… what the hell do you want me to do?”
Freya pushed against him, sobbing bitterly. “You told me to go; you were the one who cast me aside! Don’t interfere with me now!”
“I will!” Cody’s embrace only grew firmer, his eyes brimming with pain. “I want no one but you!”
The scene blurred before my eyes, my body trembling helplessly like a leaf in the wind.
