02
That evening, the moment her foster parents got home from work, Carly threw herself at them, eyes brimming, nose red.
"Dad, Mom, you're finally back."
Her face crumpled with hurt, and she poured it on:
"Do you know? Lucy's real parents are the Hensons. That's one of the richest families there is!"
"The Hensons wanted to take her home just now, to bring her back into the family, and she flat-out refused."
"I thought it would be such a waste to lose a chance like that, so I worked up the nerve to ask if I could go in her place."
"But Lucy wasn't the least bit grateful. She kept blocking me, deliberately trying to scare me off."
Her foster mother's face shifted through several looks, calculation flickering in her eyes.
My expression stayed even. I said coldly,
"I only told Carly to think it over first."
"Enough!"
I'd barely opened my mouth before my foster father cut me off.
"Lucy, how can you not know what's good for you?"
"If you don't go back to that family, how are you ever going to repay us for raising you?"
Nestled against her mother's side, Carly tugged the corner of her mouth up, just slightly.
"Dad, Mom, I know Lucy's always held herself above us. She's never thought much of this little family of ours."
"But this really is a rare chance. If I could go to the Hensons, I'd be able to give this family a good life, and take proper care of you both."
That pleased them.
Her foster mother softened at once, stroking Carly's hair gently.
Then she turned a cold look on me.
"Look at Carly. Now look at yourself!"
"We raised you both the same. Carly knows how to be grateful, she thinks about this family with her whole heart. And you?"
"Wandering around all day acting like you want nothing from anyone. What's the act for?"
I curled my hands into fists, a fine, prickling bitterness spreading through my chest.
It had been this way my whole life.
Carly always knew how to play sweet and helpless in front of the adults.
And I, the one who never fought for anything, was always the ungrateful girl putting on airs.
My foster father closed in on me, staring down from above.
"I think you did it on purpose."
"The Hensons came to get you themselves, and you put on your airs and refused, so you could keep them dangling."
"Wait until they come begging two or three times, so you'd look all the more precious!"
"Now that Carly's willing to go in your place, it doesn't sit right with you, so you put on a show and try to stop her!"
Seeing this, Carly nodded eagerly.
"Lucy did it on purpose. She definitely still thinks I'm vain and greedy."
"But all I want is to grab the one chance to change our fate, so Mom and Dad don't have to wear themselves out anymore. Is that so wrong?"
"If Lucy really went back to that family, she'd forget the Foxes ever existed, and she'd never repay a thing."
Her foster father chewed on Carly's words.
The more he thought about it, the more sense it made to him.
"This gets settled here and now!"
"Since you refused to go back to the Hensons just now, then put it down in black and white!"
He turned, dug out paper and a pen, and slapped them hard onto the wooden table.
"You'll write that you voluntarily give up going back to the Hensons, and that you'll never fight Carly for this chance!"
"So that later, when you see Carly rise in the world, you don't turn green with envy, take it all back, and come crawling home to point the finger at us!"
I lifted my eyes to the three of them, to those ugly faces.
The last thread of warmth I'd held for them as family faded away.
So this was what they all thought of me.
Tucked in her mother's arms, Carly kept feeding the fire:
"I don't want to force Lucy, really. I'm just afraid she'll regret it later."
"And if Lucy ends up blaming me for taking her chance, I honestly won't know what to do."
Just then, the pop-ups appeared in front of my eyes again.
*【Perfect. The butler told the Hensons himself, and they agreed right away to let Carly come instead!】*
*【The Hensons don't care in the slightest whether she's their real daughter. All they want is an obedient tool for their marriage alliance!】*
*【Congratulations, girl! No marrying a widowed old man, and no being persecuted by the fake heir!】*
