Chapter 3

3.

After dinner, Wretch was forced to wash all the greasy dishes.

Gertrude sat beside Chloe, peeling an orange for her while asking about her recent auditions.

Chloe smiled sweetly. “Everything’s going great. Mom coaches me every single day, and she even got a talent scout from Los Angeles interested in signing me as a trainee.”

“Grandma, once I become an A-list celebrity, you’ll never have to lift a finger again.”

Gertrude beamed with pride. “Good! That’s wonderful!”

Then she turned to me. “Hallie, you’ve worked hard training Chloe. Let’s head to town later. I’ll buy you a nice gold bracelet.”

I smiled back warmly. “Thank you, Mom.”

As we spoke, I noticed Wretch staring at us from the kitchen doorway with deep longing.

I showed no reaction whatsoever, simply taking Chloe by the hand.

“Come on, let’s go shopping.”

Gertrude grabbed her coat to follow, and Wretch took a timid step forward, wanting to come along.

She had been confined to this wretched farmhouse since infancy, never once allowed to visit the city malls.

On her birthday a few years ago, I had overheard her begging Gertrude to take her into town just once.

Gertrude had sneered at her: “Know your place! The spawn of a worthless tramp doesn’t deserve―”

Gertrude had caught herself mid-sentence back then.

In her eyes, I was a dirty tramp, so the daughter I bore was unworthy of a decent life.

Only her own flesh and blood deserved the royal treatment.

Gertrude raised her hand and struck Wretch across the face again.

“Get lost! Just looking at you makes me sick.”

...

At the mall, Gertrude bought Chloe a wardrobe full of designer clothes and jewelry.

She also bought me that gold bracelet.

When I first married into the Miller family, I was treated worse than a servant. Now, because of Chloe, I was finally gifted gold.

While walking through the department store, I saw a mother gently holding her daughter’s hand, softly asking: “What do you want for dinner tonight, sweetie? How about homemade mac and cheese?”

I used to dream about scenes like that countless times.

I wanted to stroll through stores with my own little girl, cook her favorite meals, and dress her in pretty dresses.

Yet Gertrude had destroyed every single piece of that dream.