He had said that back at the orphanage, gently tending to my bruises after he saw me get into a fight with the other kids.
Even now, I still clearly remember the look in his eyes from back then.
At that moment, I truly believed I was finally going to have a home and a family who loved me.
I was overjoyed the entire day, even smiling in my sleep as I dreamed about it.
That was until Corey framed me for the first time, crying as she complained to him that I had torn her dress to shreds.
He didn’t lose his temper; he simply crouched down and said patiently,
“You’re the older sister. You shouldn’t bully your little sister.”
The second time, Corey came home from school covered in bruises. She threw herself into his arms and sobbed, claiming I had hired people to beat her up.
He furrowed his brows, a hint of disgust now lingering in his gaze as he looked at me, and punished me by starving me for an entire day.
The third time, Corey threatened to jump off a building at school. Right after being rescued, she opened her eyes and dropped to her knees in front of me.
She slammed her head against the floor, over and over.
“I’m sorry, sister! I shouldn’t have scored higher than you on the exam! I deserved it when you pushed me!”
He flew into a blinding rage and locked me in the pitch-black basement for a whole week.
As Corey framed me time and time again, the way he looked at me changed completely.
It turned into pure resentment.
Recalling the painful past, I floated in the air and gave a relieved smile.
Wasn’t death a kind of release, after all?
Below me, Julian gently wiped Corey’s tears away and said dotingly,
“Alright, alright. I promised to take you to the mall today, so let’s go right now, okay?”
“Since Chloe is still being so unruly, let’s leave her out there for another month to learn her lesson, alright?”
Corey stared at him with her big, watery eyes, letting out a little laugh as she wept tears of joy.
I followed the two of them to the high-end shopping mall.
The moment we entered, the place captured my full attention. I looked around in absolute awe.
So there really were places as glamorous as the videos I had seen on phones.
This was my first time here.
Back at the orphanage, just going into the city was a luxury for us, let alone stepping foot into a high-end mall like this.
Later, after Julian brought me home, Corey framed me for stealing her bag. Believing I was extremely vain, he declared he needed to teach me a lesson and never gave me a single dime.
I was too busy taking in the sights before me, not realizing that Corey’s hands were already so full she couldn’t carry anything else.
Julian was clearly absent-minded, taking the wrong turn several times.
Eventually, he stopped in front of a luxury boutique, hesitated for a moment, and walked in.
He decided he should still buy a gift for Chloe; after all, she had suffered so much out there over the years.
If she could just drop those bad habits at home and behave, he would absolutely spoil Chloe like a princess.
He picked up a full diamond jewelry set and had the clerk wrap it up.
Corey asked in confusion.
“Brother, why did you buy pink? I don’t like this color.”
Julian’s eyes darkened as he replied flatly.
“Chloe likes it.”
He remembered that Chloe loved this color.
On the first day he brought her home, she had hugged a little pink stuffed bunny, refusing to let it go.
My soul gave a slight tremble in disbelief.
He had actually bought it for me.
But… I was already gone.
I didn’t know why I couldn’t leave; whenever I drifted beyond a certain range, I would be pulled right back to Julian’s side.
I let out a deep sigh. Having no other choice, I could only follow him.
While shopping, he received multiple calls from the cleaning staff. At first, he just hung up, but as the calls persisted, he angrily blocked the number.
That was until he received a call from an unknown number.
“Hello? Are you a relative of Chloe? Her phone can’t be reached, and she listed you as her emergency contact.”
“It’s like this. Because of erasing one’s legal identity, she can’t buy a cemetery plot. Come and pick up the deposit of a few hundred dollars she paid.”
