Chapter 2

The dining room was eerily silent.

Everyone was stunned by my actions.

Maddie's eyes instantly turned red, and she began to cry. "Chloe... I didn't mean it that way, I was just worried you were too weak..."

Reece stood up angrily, shielding Maddie behind him, glaring at me. "Chloe! What's gotten into you? Apologize to Maddie!"

I leaned back in my chair, looking at him coldly.

This was the man I had loved for ten years.

We grew up together and were childhood sweethearts.

Before my car accident, he had just proposed to me, saying he only loved me.

Three years later, he fell in love with someone else.

"Apologize? Reece, what authority do you have to order me?" I said softly.

Reece's expression was complicated. "I am Maddie's fiancé."

"Well, so you're my brother-in-law now." I drawled.

"You!" My mother slammed the table, her voice stern, "Chloe! You're being insolent. Maddie is your sister, Reece will be your brother-in-law, what kind of attitude is this?"

I slowly turned my head to look at my mother. "Sister? Did you ask for my opinion while I was in a coma? Did I agree to having another woman in the family to share my parents' love and take my fiancé?

Did I agree to live only to sacrifice my own well-being for Maddie? No, you don't want to have another daughter. You want to change your daughter! Just because I started questioning your decisions at the company?

Just because I was becoming more like my grandpa, instead of your puppet? So you found a substitute from the orphanage, a fragile one, to nurture with my blood, molding her into the compliant daughter you wanted, right?" I nearly shouted the last sentence.

My father's pupils suddenly contracted and my mother's face turned deathly pale.

Reece and Maddie were frozen.

The tension in the dining room was palpable.

I watched their reactions with satisfaction, a cold thrill spreading through me.

Yes, I heard it all and I knew everything.

From now on, I made the rules.

My father was the first to react. He slammed the newspaper shut with a loud noise.

"What nonsense! What donation nonsense!" His voice was stern but tinged with undeniable panic. "You just woke up and your mind isn't clear, stop imagining things."

I forced a strange smile. "Is that so? Maybe it was all just my dream. I dreamed that someone took advantage of me being unconscious and drew blood from my body again and again to save another person.

I even dreamed of my grandpa, who seemed to have many messages he wanted me to pass on to you. It's a terrifying nightmare, isn't it? Father?"

My father's lips pressed tightly, his glare was as sharp as daggers.

I met his gaze without fear.

This silent confrontation ended with my mother's scream. "Oh! My head hurts so much!"

She clutched her forehead, her body swaying. "Doctor! Call the personal doctor." My father immediately stood up to support her, shouting at the butler.

The dining room descended into chaos.

Reece held the still sobbing Maddie in his arms and looked at me with extremely disgusted and cold eyes, as if I was the vicious invader.

I sat in place, leisurely wiping the corner of my mouth with a napkin.

The personal doctor?

It just so happened that I needed to see him, and I also had a score to settle with him.