Chapter 22
“Antonio, hear me out. I didn’t mean to,”
Kyla cried pitifully, yet Antonio no longer fell for it.
“You didn’t mean to? Who did then? Grace? Or me?”
Antonio was overwhelmed by the anger of being deceived and the regret of neglecting Grace.
His heartache was killing him, and his usual tenderness when facing Kyla was completely gone.
“Kyla, I don’t get it. Why would you do this?”
Frowning, he looked at Kyla. “You have everything. The Parrish family favors you, they never think Grace is part of the family. So what if she came back? It didn’t affect your status at all.”
“What about you? Didn’t she affect you?”
Seeing that all her tactics had failed, Kyla revealed her true colors.
“Antonio, Grace’s return really didn’t affect you? It really didn’t change how much I meant to you?”
Kyla looked at Antonio sadly.
Her questions rendered Antonio speechless; he was stunned.
Seeing his reaction, Kyla smiled self–mockingly
“See? You realized it as soon as I pointed it out. After Grace came back,
Chapter)
indeed, Mom and Dad didn’t change, but you did. At first, I thought you were just curious about her, that she was a novelty. But later, the way you looked at her changed.”
Kyla’s tone started to drip with hatred.
“Antonio, Grace came between us, and you gradually started to favor her over me. But you had no idea. Tell me. How could I not feel a sense of loss? How could I not hate her?”
Tears streamed down Kyla’s face.
“She got your attention and won your favor so easily. Seeing this, I felt a great sense of crisis like never before. If you, who had the most contact with her. unconsciously took her side, would Mom, Dad, and Naomi do the same?
“So, I want her gone. I want her outta our sight. And that’s not enough. I wanna ruin her image in your eyes. I wanna make her a villain, a damned monster!”
The disbelief in Antonio’s eyes was replaced by disappointment slowly.
“Kyla, when did you become like this?”
Kyla laughed hysterically. “When did I become like this?”
She cried and laughed at the same time, repeating his words or asking herself.
All of a sudden, she lifted her head, almost screaming, “It’s all that bitch’s fault! Why did she have to come back? The second she came back, you changed. Her existence constantly reminded me that I’m a fake, a complete joke!”
“Kyla, why would you think that?” Naomi said.
2591%
“Mom, Dad, and I have always been on your side. How could you do
this?”
Tears welled up in Naomi’s eyes. “We trusted you so much. We treated you so well. How could you be like this?”
Somehow, she got under Kyla’s skin.
As Kyla looked at Naomi, whose face was filled with disappointment, she didn’t feel guilty at all. Instead, she felt great.
It was a kind of satisfaction from successfully manipulating everyone.
She wiped the tears from her face.
Then she smiled, “I’ve always been like this. Everyone in your family is so naive and kind. Unlike you, I was born to be a bad person. Happy?”
“No one has ever said you aren’t part of the family!” Naomi raised her voice. “Even though Grace was back, we still treated you as family. Besides, she has never tried to take anything from you.
“How could you?”
Naomi looked at Kyla, her “sister“, who was pale but still delicate.
It was all thanks to years of being pampered by the Parrish and Kaufman families.
Suddenly, the scene where Naomi saw Grace in the Parrish’s villa a month ago emerged in her mind.
Grace looked so emaciated and frail; it was almost as if she’d die at any
moment.
Grace was her real sister, the one who had suffered seven years in prison
11
because of them.
She walked over to Kyla. “You’re unbelievably greedy. When you enjoyed an extravagant life here, Grace was out there, homeless. You already have so much, yet when she returned, you still went all out to harm her.”
She smiled bitterly.
“We’re so stupid. For your sake, Mom, Dad, and I forced our family out. We’re
So, so stupid.”
