Chapter 2

After calming Maya down, I called Amelia into the living room.

"How did Maya get pregnant?" I asked.

Amelia looked a bit shifty-eyed at my question. "I don't know. Maybe she got carried away with her classmate."

My anger flared up again at her words. "Your daughter had an unplanned pregnancy, and all you care about is making her keep the baby? You don't give a hoot about her feelings or what actually happened?

"Maya's a senior in high school. Her life's just starting. She has to have an abortion."

At first, Amelia just kept her mouth shut, frowning. But the second I mentioned an abortion, she shouted, "No matter what, the baby's innocent! It's a life! You can't just get rid of it like that. Sienna, how could you be so heartless!"

She scowled at me, looking at me like I was some cold-blooded killer.

I took a deep breath, deciding not to argue with her anymore. "You're staying out of this. I'll take care of Maya. If you stick your nose in again, I'll tell the landlord you've been keeping cats."

The landlord was allergic to cat hair, and the lease clearly said no pets. But Amelia still snuck stray cats into the house.

"Sienna, those cats are living beings too! You're using them to threaten me? I'm so disappointed in you," Amelia said, looking truly heartbroken. She always made a big deal out of those cats.

Seeing the determination in my eyes, she finally backed down.

She grabbed the cat food from the corner and left. Hearing the click-clack of her high heels echoing, I wasn't sure who she was trying to impress.

I rolled my eyes, sneering. If not disappointing her meant giving up our lives, she'd never get what she wanted.

In my previous life, I didn't find out about Maya's pregnancy until it was too late. By the time I got to the hospital, she'd already died on the bed from complications during childbirth.

When I rushed there, Amelia didn't even look at Maya under the white sheet. Instead, she wailed over the bloody mess in the trash can.

Back then, I thought she'd just lost her mind from grief and didn't think much of it.

Then, my little brother, Albert Henderson, who'd been suffering from uremia for ages, finally got a kidney match, but Amelia disappeared with the money meant for his life-saving surgery.

That same day, at the same hospital, I lost my second family member.

After that, Amelia showed up, begging for my forgiveness.

She sat on the ground, her eyes red and puffy from crying. Even passersby couldn't stand it and tried to talk me into forgiving her.

Struck by so many blows, I made the wrong choice again.

I finished one drink, and then I woke up in a hotel bed.

The chains on my wrists and the man's brutal assault made me finally understand why Amelia had insisted I drink that cocktail.

But I couldn't figure it out. Amelia loved cats and even took care of a mistress' kid. How could she be so cruel to her kids?

With that question haunting me, I died in that hotel room. Then, I got the answer I'd been dying for.

It turned out that our world was just a novel, and Amelia was the saintly female lead.

Her first half of life was full of hardships, but she stayed kind-hearted, so fate rewarded her with a domineering male lead to ensure her happiness for the rest of her days.

My siblings and I were just the backdrop of her hardships. The story truly began when we were all out of the picture.

Maybe my resentment and bitterness were too strong, so fate gave me a second chance.

This time, that saintly female lead should just go to hell.