Chapter 22
Selene seemed determined to protect Lillian, so she gently suggested, “Lillian, once all this is over, I’ll send you abroad.”
“Start anew, live a good life, and never look back.”
Lillian, however, pushed her away, her eyes blazing with defiance. “Are you trying to abandon me? Is this about taking Eleanor back?”
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that Eleanor would forgive you for everything you’ve done. And I’ll never allow her to return to the Yates family!”
“As long as I’m alive, I won’t let Eleanor have any peace!”
Selene stared at Lillian, stunned, but her own anger flared up as well. “Lillian, do you even have a heart? You took everything from Ellie, even her very life!”
“And yet you still can’t let her go! What do you truly want? Why do you hate Ellie so much?”
“Hate her?” Lillian burst into a maniacal laugh.
“My dear mother, how could you think I only hate her?”
“I despise all of you!”
“Why is it that you are all healthy, while I was born sick? It’s not fair!”
“Because of my illness, I couldn’t do what I wanted, had to watch everything I ate, kept going back to the hospital, enduring one surgery after another, constantly suffering.”
“Why should I bear all this just because I was born? It’s infuriating!”
“Only when you all suffer as I have will I feel avenged. Only when you are more miserable than me will it feel fair!”
Selene was trembling, her body unable to contain the shock.
For the first time in over twenty years, she truly saw Lillian for who she was.
“So, Lillian, everything you’ve done is just for revenge?”
“You seek to punish Ellie, me, Kane, all of us.”
“You deceived everyone, inflicted unbearable pain, and even tried to drag the Yates family down with you, all because of hate? Out of vengeance?”
Selene had always thought Lillian’s rebellious behavior after recovering was just a phase, a child’s possessive streak exaggerated by newfound health.
But she realized now that she had been making excuses for Lillian’s behavior out of her own
bias.
And she finally understood what Eleanor had meant all along–it was her endless indulgence of
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Chapter 22
Lillian that had led to this.
The daughter she had cherished for over twenty years was, in truth, a seed of darkness.
“Lillian, life and death are beyond our control, as is fortune.”
“You were born sick; if you blame me, I can understand.”
“But you shouldn’t hate the Yates family. Without their support, who knows if you’d have recovered, or had this comfortable life?”
“Moreover, you should never have harmed Ellie. She gave her entire life, her very being, for you. You speak of unfairness, but it was Ellie who paid the ultimate price for it.”
“Don’t you feel a shred of guilt towards Ellie?”
Selene wanted, more than anything, to plead on Eleanor’s behalf with this question.
Lillian merely laughed, unfazed.
“Mom, do you know why I accepted Eleanor’s bone marrow donation even when I was healed? Did you think it wouldn’t hurt me?”
“Of course not. I just wanted Eleanor to suffer as I did.”
“Even if my body no longer needed it, I wanted to drain her completely, to take every last bit of it!”
“So, do you think I’d feel guilty towards her? Ha!”
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