Chapter 3
"Nina, do you still hate us? But it wasn't Mom and Dad's fault that you were switched at birth. It wasn't our fault either..." Matt looked utterly disappointed.
Did I hate them?
Maybe.
I had been on the streets for ten years, trained by my adoptive parents to beg for money from a young age. As I got older, I had to steal with other street kids to survive.
If I got caught, just getting a beating would've been the lucky part.
I struggled to survive at the very bottom.
Meanwhile, the Klein family showered Zoe—the girl who took my place—with love and affection.
How could I not hate them?
I hated them for losing me, for not finding me sooner, and for replacing me so easily after I was gone.
I also hated that every time Zoe set me up, they never believed me. They always took Zoe's side.
"If I'd known it would turn out like this, I should've just let you die on the streets!" Dennis finally blurted out what he'd been holding back.
I looked up at him, my face suddenly innocent as ever.
"It was Zoe who tossed the gift you gave me in the trash," I explained. "It was also her who smashed Mom and Dad's picture frame."
"You—" My brothers were livid.
I showed them my discharge papers.
"I swear on my crazy self, I'm really not lying!" I said.
When Matt and Dennis saw the papers saying I was mentally ill, they were both shocked.
Matt quickly snatched the discharge papers from my hand, his hands shaking. "Th-this looks real..."
I nodded. "Dr. Gilbert said that for someone like me, the only way to survive outside is to be obedient, to do as I'm told."
Dennis just glanced at the discharge papers and snorted, clearly not buying a word of it.
"Obedient? Really? Then pack your stuff and get out of this room right now—Zoe's moving in," Dennis said.
This was the princess room Mom and Dad made just for me.
Mom designed it, and Dad built it. It was not only a cozy little nest for me, but also a gift to welcome me home.
Zoe had tried to claim it for herself more times than I could count, but I never let her.
But today was different.
"Okay." I nodded sweetly and started packing up my few things right away.
Dennis, Matt, and even Zoe were all stunned.
They knew this room had always been my bottom line.
I really did move out, and Zoe was practically buzzing with excitement. She finally got to move into my bedroom fair and square.
But she still pretended to be timid, tugging at Dennis's sleeve. "Dennis, can I really stay here?"
Dennis looked a little uneasy. "If she can stay here, why can't you?"
But Dennis still wasn't letting me off the hook.
He pointed downstairs at the storage room.
"From now on, that's where you'll sleep," he said.
I nodded again, obedient as ever, then cheerfully carried my blanket inside.
Dennis's raised hand froze in midair.
His face was stormy as he watched me make my bed in that cramped little storage room.
I thought he might explode with rage.
I honestly didn't get it. Wasn't this exactly what he wanted?
So what was there to be angry about?
Just as I was about to lie down, Dennis called out, "Wait!"
I obediently stayed still, not daring to move.
The next second, the maid, Lucy Baker, came in carrying a basin of cold water and dumped it all over my bedding.
"Now you can sleep," Dennis said.
He stared at me, face blank.
He was convinced I'd crack, just waiting for me to lose it and show my real self.
But too bad for him, this time he was in for a letdown.
I just curled up on the soaked bedding, fully dressed, and fell asleep in no time—snoring away like nothing even happened.
Dennis was astonished.
*****
When I woke up, I found myself lying in the cozy guest room.
Matt sat by my bed, mumbling, "How long has it been since the last time she slept? It's already been ten hours."
When he saw me open my eyes, he looked worried. "Nina, are you really—"
He couldn't bring himself to say it, but I knew what he was thinking.
"I might be mentally ill, but I'm not ashamed of it," I said.
Matt was at a loss for words.
However, Dennis wasn't about to trust me that easily.
He kept testing me for half a month.
If he told me to go somewhere, I went.
If he told me to eat something, I ate it.
He even put the one thing I was most terrified of—a fat, squirming grub—right in my hand. My whole body was trembling, but I couldn't even bring myself to throw it off.
Dennis's face got darker and darker. Finally, one day, he couldn't hold it in anymore and asked Zoe, "You didn't really set Nina up, did you?"
Zoe had never been questioned like that, never been doubted.
That very day, she went to Lucy.
Zoe held out a bank card and said, "Didn't your son want a bigger house?
"Do as I say, and the money on this card is all yours."
Lucy's eyes lit up.
The truth was, over the years, the money she'd made off torturing me was already enough to buy more than one house.