~Two months later
"A positive pregnancy test? And now bleeding? You shameless girl!" Drake Li, her father roared, his face flushed with fury. He was a proud, sly man, conducting plans for his eldest daughter to benefit the family, but look how easily she wrecked it.
"I can't believe you slept with a stranger. That's why you never showed up to the party I planned for us. What a little whore you are."
Bella's voice dripped with fake concern, her scoff cutting like a blade.
Sarah couldn't take the blow. Rage simmered just beneath her skin.
With her heart pounding, she raised her hand, and the sharp crack of flesh striking flesh echoed through the Li mansion's pristine living room.
"Sister! Why are you hitting me?" Bella cried out, staggering back. "It's not my fault you hooked up with some random man and ended up pregnant!"
As always, her crocodile tears flowed on cue, painting her as the innocent in front of their father. She pressed her palm to her reddening cheek, casting a pitiful look toward him.
"How dare you hit my daughter?" Fiona, her stepmother, snapped, storming forward to retaliate.
But Sarah was faster. She grabbed the woman's wrist mid-swing and slapped her across the face just as fiercely.
Mr. Li's fury exploded. He raised his hand to strike Sarah, but she stepped back and dodged effortlessly, her expression unflinching, her eyes cold. The pain barely allowed her to stand on her feet, but she suppressed the urge to complain. She wasn't just physically in pain, her soul was shattered into pieces. They didn't even listen to what she said. She could not even remember that night, the man. But, how strange the world was. These two wolves in sheep's clothing exposed their faces right now as though waiting for it… or planning for it.
"You disgraceful crap! Get the hell out of my house! I will never accept your bastard child!"
The light in Sarah's eyes dimmed, but she didn't flinch or protest because his father was blind to the truth that even Sarah was unaware of. Moreover, she wasn't the type to beg, not for love, not for pity, not even for shelter.
She took one last look around the mansion her late mother had left behind and where she grew up, a home where she had made many beautiful memories with her. This wouldn't end like this.
"Enjoy my mother's share for five years. After that, I'll come back, and I'll take everything." Her voice was calm but laced with cold steel.
With that, she spun on her heels and walked away, ignoring the curses and shrieks erupting behind her. Her stepmother could gorge herself on stolen riches for now, but Sarah swore, one day, that feast would end.
As she stepped outside, the cold air bit into her skin. Rain poured down heavily, soaking her within seconds.
Her eyes drifted to her car parked near the gate. She let out a bitter smirk.
There was no way she'd go back inside just to fetch the remote, they wouldn't even let her pick up a coin from that house now.
With a sigh, she opened her bag and pulled out her phone.
"Lilly, can you come get me from the house?"
"Why does your voice sound like that?" Lilly asked, concerned.
"Just come. I'm waiting."
Sarah hung up without saying more and moved to stand in a dark corner near the gate, away from the mansion's front lights.
Ten minutes passed. Her clothes clung to her body, and the cold rain numbed her arms. Then, movement caught her eye.
A tall figure approached, face partially covered, a cap pulled low, casting a shadow on his features. He didn't spot her in the shadows. Sarah stiffened, heart racing.
A stalker? She trembled at the thought.
But the theory evaporated the moment Bella snuck out through the side entrance and joined the man behind the bushes, exactly where the security cameras couldn't see them, a blind spot.
Sarah narrowed her eyes, straining to hear through the rain. Did Bella have a secret lover?
"Hey, you crazy girl! Why aren't you picking up my calls? You think I wouldn't find you?" The man's voice was sharp and angry.
Sarah's pulse quickened. What the hell was her sister involved in?
The man didn't bother to lower his voice, assuming the rain and rumbling sky would muffle his words, unaware of the quiet "mouse in the wall" listening from the shadows.
"Shush! What's wrong with you?" Bella hissed. "I told you I'd pay you well. And still, you did nothing. You didn't even sleep with her! You're just blackmailing me."
Sarah froze. Her heart lurched, and a dull ache gripped her lower stomach.
"She didn't come to that room. That's your fault," The stranger snapped. "You're useless, can't even carry out a simple scheme."
"She's pregnant," Bella sneered. "She probably went off to someone else to get rid of the heat. My father threw her out. That wench got what she deserved."
Sarah clenched her fists, heard enough. Her stomach twisted violently. She couldn't bear it a second longer.
Scrambling away, she ran until she was far enough, then doubled over and vomited behind a hedge, the acid burning her throat.
Her whole body shook. Not from the cold, from shock.
Instead of crying, a broken, bitter laugh escaped her lips, soft, hollow, and polluted with disbelief and contempt. A melancholy reaction to what she went through. Her world just turned upside-down.
Beep! Beep!
A car horn jerked her out of her spiral of rage and pain. Lilly had arrived.
She jumped out of the car, frowning at the sight of Sarah soaked to the bone, her figure slumped and trembling in the rain.
"You'll catch your death out here!" Lilly rushed forward and grabbed her, gently forcing her toward the car.
"I told you not to confront them yet. Why didn't you listen? Why did you tell them?"
"Lilly…" Sarah's voice cracked. "Bella followed me to the bathroom. I wasn't going to tell them anything yet."
Inside the car, Sarah sat shivering, but not from the cold. The fury vibrating through her was volcanic.
"Why are you so angry?" Lilly asked, glancing over in concern.
Sarah's jaw tightened. "It was her," she whispered. "She drugged me that night… and hired a man to slander me."
"God! Let us take you to the hospital first."