Chapter 2

"Ava, how can you talk to your mom like that?" Maxwell pushed the door open and came in.

He had clearly heard the earlier exchange. On the surface he scolded his daughter, but his tone was fake.

Then Maxwell turned to me and began to blame me. "Margaret, how are you even a mother? How did you get so selfish and cruel?"

His eyes swept to the suitcase on the floor with a hint of mockery. "Now you've even learned how to run away from home?"

Ava hurried over to Maxwell, grabbed his hand and said, "Mom hurt Maia and won't apologize."

Seeing Maxwell's face grow uglier, I couldn't help remembering how, when I first arrived, even the servants bullied me.

Maxwell would always defend me. "Anyone who bullies Margaret will get kicked out of the Dolton family."

But after Maia showed up, I realized Maxwell's kindness toward me wasn't even a fraction of what he showed Maia.

When the school held the recitation contest, no one told me. They just let Maia enter.

I cared about how the kids did. After the contest I asked Maia what the teacher had said, but she pretended not to know anything.

Anxious and frantic, I scolded her a few times. That same night she was poisoned and fainted.

The housekeeper, Joanne, pointed at me and accused me, "I saw Mrs. Dolton go into the kitchen. It looked like she put something on Miss Frazier's plate."

Without asking for any clarification, Maxwell grabbed my collar and shouted, "Margaret, aren't you finished causing trouble?

"Maia only went to one recitation, and your jealousy is this extreme. That could've cost a life! With kids being raised by a mother like you, I can't imagine what they'll turn into."

Furious at such slander, I shot back, "What can you even teach the kids? To betray their own family, to be unfaithful to their partners in the future?"

Hearing that, Maxwell, impatient, shoved me.

I lost my balance and stumbled into a nearby cabinet.

A decorative item on the cabinet fell and struck my forehead dead center. Blood poured down, bright and red.

Maxwell froze, stepped forward as if to check the wound on my arm, then suddenly stopped and pulled his hand back.

"See? This is the retribution for what you did," he said coldly.

Dizzy, I sat on the floor. Everything went black and I fainted. When I woke up again, I had recovered all my memories.

Josiah ran out from behind Maxwell, crying, tears in his eyes. "Mom, don't go."

Ava lightly tapped her brother on the head and said in a soft voice, "She's gone. Then Maia could be our mom now."

At Ava's words, Josiah's crying stopped abruptly. He wiped his tears away, tilted his head up and smiled again. "Okay, I like Maia best. Maia is kinder than Mom and won't force me to study."

Josiah had been mischievous and willful since he was little. I always taught him to be humble and honest, to be a kind person.

But after Maia appeared, she believed children should be allowed to follow their own nature and not be controlled too strictly by adults.

"Margaret's way of raising them is too harsh," Maia would often say.

Maia indulged Josiah's bad behavior. When he bullied other kids, Maia, taking advantage of the Dolton family's power, would unreasonably force the bullied child's parents to apologize to Josiah.

Maia said, "Boys need to be brave. If someone bullies you, you fight back. That's what being a man is."

Hearing Maia's words, Josiah became even more unruly.