Chapter 3

3

The security guard threw me onto the sidewalk. As I scrambled up, a luxury car pulled up to the curb.

The girl who stepped out was my daughter, the one who was supposedly too sick for school.

She was wearing a pink designer dress. The diamond clip in her hair was worth more than our basement apartment.

"Is Auntie Lola in my dad's office?" she asked.

The guard bowed respectfully. "Miss Rivers, Miss Vance said she brought you a new dress. She's waiting upstairs."

She started to run inside, but I grabbed her wrist.

"Joy Rivers, aren't you supposed to be at the hospital for your check-up today?"

Her face went bone-white. For the first time in nine years, she wrenched her hand away with a look of pure terror.

"Mom? Why are you here? Someone call my dad!"

"Don't bother. I just came from his office. He's very busy with your 'Auntie Lola.'"

The reporters and fans who had been waiting for Lola swarmed us, cameras flashing wildly.

"Miss Rivers, who is this woman? Did you just call her Mom?"

"The CEO said his wife was dead. Is there a cover-up?"

Joy was only nine. She panicked under the barrage of cameras.

The reporters got even more excited. "They look so much alike. His wife is alive!"

They shoved us into the center of the crowd, pushing and pulling.

I could feel Joy shaking. I immediately regretted coming here.

Suddenly, a hand reached out and pulled her away.

The next second, the reporters turned on me. They knocked me down, and I felt feet trampling over me as they chased after her.

"Mr. Rivers! Please comment! Is this woman really your wife?"

"Miss Vance, did you know you were the other woman? Was this intentional?"

I struggled to get up. I saw Lola holding my crying daughter, comforting her.

And Ian, looking through the crowd at me, his eyes cold and distant.

"She's just our nanny. She's taken care of Joy since she was born. Joy just thinks of her as a mother figure."

The cameras swung back to me.

"Oh, she's just a nanny. I knew it. How could a CEO's wife look so old and haggard? She's delusional!"

"Some people just don't know their place. The kid calls her 'Mom' a few times and she thinks she's Lady of the House?"

"Exactly. Look at her. She should look in a mirror before trying to climb the social ladder!"

I was shaking with rage. Ignoring my pain, I looked at Joy, who was sobbing in Lola's arms.

"Joy! Tell them! Am I your mother or not!"

She lifted her tear-stained face. She gripped Lola's waist tightly.

Her eyes were filled with resentment.

"You're not my mom! I don't have a mother as embarrassing as you! I only want Auntie Lola to be my mommy!"

Under the flashing lights, my vision blurred.

I couldn't see anything except those two people ten yards away―the two people I had given my life for.

One had my kidney in his body. The other was the daughter I almost died giving birth to.

I thought if I exposed them, they would apologize.

Instead, they threw me to the wolves.

Dozens of hands reached out to interview me. I snapped out of it, turned, and ran.

I made it two blocks before the world went black and I collapsed.