Chapter 9

When my mom was pregnant with me, my dad went behind her back and cheated.

She was so devastated that her emotions were a mess, and because of that, I was born early.

She blamed me for my dad's affair, saying that it was because she was pregnant with me that he cheated.

My mom had never really liked me. She always held it against me.

My mom came from an ordinary family. She met my dad in college, and they fell in love.

My dad was the only son of the Brooks Family, one of the wealthiest families in Riverside City. Their families were worlds apart, so the Brooks Family naturally didn't approve of their marriage.

But my dad wouldn't take no for an answer, so they ended up getting married. Still, my grandparents never really liked my mom.

My mom hit the jackpot with her first pregnancy, giving them a son, and only then did my grandparents finally start to tolerate her.

To secure her place in the family and win their approval, my mom got pregnant again a couple of years later.

Yeah, that was me she was pregnant with. And while she was carrying me, my dad went and cheated on her.

So I became the scapegoat for everything. She never liked me, always saying I was the one who ruined her happy marriage.

Less than a year after I was born, my mom got pregnant again. This time, she was carrying twins, a boy and a girl.

My dad finally got his act together and started treating my mom right. With the twins on the way, my grandparents stopped complaining.

My mom was finally accepted by the Brooks Family and had truly secured her place among them.

But Mom never warmed up to me. Every time she saw me, it brought back memories of Dad cheating on her. So she packed me off to Grandma's place, out of sight, out of mind.

Grandma's place was out in the countryside, with a little yard. Ever since I was a kid, I loved lying there with her, soaking up the shade, watching the blue sky by day and the stars at night.

But as Grandma's health took a turn for the worse, and I needed to go to school, she worried she couldn't take care of me anymore. So she asked my parents to bring me back to the Brooks Family, hoping I'd get a better education.

But when I got back, the house felt foreign, and the people there were strangers. I was like an intruder, an unwelcome guest, and it was clear I wasn't welcome at all.

Even my favorite color, blue, was off-limits to me, all because Sophia claimed she liked it too.

They wouldn't let me have anything blue in the house. Blue was how I kept Grandma close to me, but they wouldn't even let me have that.

My dad ignored me, my mom belittled and mocked me, even told me to go die. Even my brothers and sisters couldn't stand me.

Stuck in that suffocating life, I ended up with serious depression. I didn't want Grandma to worry, so I never told her what was really happening to me at the Brooks Family.

But when Grandma came to visit me at the Brooks house, she noticed something was off with me.

After a big argument with my mom, Grandma brought me back to the countryside so I could attend middle school there.

But after two or three years of living under that kind of pressure, my health started to break down.

I was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease. Grandma went to my mom, begging her for money for my treatment, but my mom coldly refused, saying I was faking it and that I might as well drop dead.

One time, I collapsed right at the front door. If it weren't for the neighbor next door finding me in time, I probably wouldn't have made it.

Maybe fate wouldn't let me die, because that neighbor turned out to be Julian Vaughn, the legendary healer everyone whispered about.

He was living in seclusion out in the countryside, right next door to Grandma's place.

And in the end, I became Julian's last disciple.

After everything I went through during those three years, I hated Sophia the most, especially for always fighting me over anything blue, like she had to take it because I loved it.

Blue was my own way of holding onto Grandma, something that was supposed to be mine.

Even after all these years, seeing the Brooks Family again still hit me hard. I couldn't stop that sharp, aching feeling from twisting up inside me.