After everything was sorted out, Claudia went home alone.

Shortly after she got home, she got a notification on her phone.

It was her father who sent her a text.

[You traitorous daughter, you haven’t been home for years! Have you forgotten about me now that you’re married? My birthday is tomorrow and you will attend!]

The tone of the text was very critical. Claudia lowered her eyes and replied curtly.

[OK.]

It had certainly been a long time since she last went home. After all, it seemed like the only one that was ever welcome home was Fione.

She was used to being seen as an afterthought.

Ever since they were children, Fione was the treasured child. No matter how hard Claudia tried to please her parents, she would never compare to her sister who knew how to stir their hearts.

When she grew up, she was told she was to wed Arthur Maxwell. Hoping that she would finally have a place to call home, she dedicated herself to Arthur only for him to brush her aside. He only had eyes for her sister Fione.

After that, it was Brett who became her sole protector, the only ray of light in her life. She was touched by his affection and saw him as her safe harbor only to be betrayed later.

Everyone loved Fione.

She chuckled mockingly at herself and turned off her phone. She decided there was no need to read the texts since this was the last time she would ever have to see her parents.

The next morning, the trio of Claudia, Fione, and Brett arrived at the birthday party together. When they boarded the cruise ship which was decorated regally to fit the occasion, Mr. and Mrs. Hepburn came up to receive them.

They immediately fawned over Fione and Brett.

“My dear daughter, you haven't called us for so long! Come here, did you lose weight?”

Although it seemed like they were reprimanding her, their tone did not sound anything like that at all.

Fione threw herself into the arms of her parents while Brett watched her with a look filled with adoration. The group of them bunched together looked like the picture-perfect family.

Claudia was the only one excluded from the group.

“Happy birthday, Dad.”

She stepped forward and handed over the gift she had prepared for him. It was a painting by a painter that her father was very fond of that she bought at a very steep price.

It was only when she tried to get their attention that her parents regarded her with a faint look. They acknowledged her with a grunt and proceeded to gesture to an attendant to take the present from Claudia.

In the end, the painting was briskly tossed into a pile of presents.

Upon seeing this, Fione immediately presented a tea set that she brought with her and expressed with a jubilant smile, “Happy birthday, Dad! This is the gift I got for you, sorry I had to get it last minute so it was a spontaneous purchase. Do you like it?”

Dad proceeded to unwrap the present on the spot and then inspected it from every angle. Mom and Dad smiled cheerfully while they nodded with fervent approval.

“I love it! As long as you’re the one giving it to me, I will always love it! Come on, hurry up and put this somewhere safe!”

Everyone present at the scene could tell that the tea set Fione bought was very common and could be easily purchased anywhere. Claudia’s present was far more personalized in comparison and yet, the reaction it garnered was completely different.

After they finished catching up, Mr. and Mrs. Hepburn took Fione into the hall and hardly bothered to cast another look at Claudia.

Fortunately, she was accustomed to being given the cold shoulder. She also expected her present to be brushed aside so she was not very dejected.

Halfway through the event, Mr. Hepburn went to the stage and softly cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.

He held the microphone and regarded Fione who was standing beside him. There was a loving look in his eyes. Then, his voice echoed across the banquet hall.

“Apart from celebrating my sixty-year-old birthday, there is another reason we are gathered here today.

“I’d like to announce that from today on, I will be transferring all the assets under my name to my daughter Fione Hepburn!”

As soon as Dad made the announcement, the entire venue fell silent. After that, the audience began to murmur.

“Did Mr. Hepburn just say that he would give all of his inheritance to his second daughter? Did I get it right?”

“That’s a very bold announcement, is he not going to leave anything for his eldest daughter?”

“I have always heard rumors that the second daughter was their favorite child, so it was true after all! I wonder why.”

...

Claudia chuckled bitterly while she listened to the crowd speculating.

Why?

She would like to know why as well.

Why was it that they would favor one child over the other so much when both of them were equally their daughters?

She felt very depressed by this point and got up to walk out of the banquet hall. There were not many people gathered on the deck at this point and the chilly sea breeze managed to calm her even if just a little.

She leaned against the railing and zoned out staring at the endless expanse of sea. At one point, she heard the clicking of heels behind her.

“What are you doing here by yourself, Claudia?”

The voice carried a very familiar, light chirp and snapped her back to her thoughts. She turned around and regarded Fione quietly.

Fione did not seem bothered by her silence. She slowly walked up to Claudia before proceeding to size her up from head to toe.

“Don’t you ever think about how bad you have it, Claudia?

“When we were children, Mom and Dad only loved me and would not pay attention to you even when you tried to get their attention. Now that they are planning their inheritance, they’re not going to leave you a single cent either.

“When you tried to court my husband, he didn’t want you but at least his brother Brett wanted you, but now he’s dead too. What’s the point of living now that you don’t have anyone who loves you, you poor sob?”

Claudia could not make sense of any of this. Ever since they were children, Fione had taken everything that Claudia had. She took her parents, her fiancé Arthur, and now her husband Brett…

Everyone loved Fione but it looked like that was not enough for her. She just had to rub it in.

She caught herself asking Fione the very question she had in mind.

At this point, Fione did not even bother to hide it anymore and snarled with a mocking grin, “No reason, I just don’t like you and don’t want someone like you for a sister. I’ve been trying to drive you into the corner but you’re a stubborn one so at this point, I think I’ll have to do something about you.”

With that, she suddenly shoved Claudia.

“Die!”

The sudden shove made Claudia lose her balance and she began to tumble backward.

Behind her was the vast, depthless ocean!

She swung her arms wildly in search of something to grab onto and managed to grab onto Fione who had accidentally let her guard down. With that, both of them were dragged into the sea!

Soon, the sound of their bodies breaking the water’s surface followed by their subsequent cry for help attracted the attention of everyone in the banquet hall. There was a round of panic and shrieks.

“Someone fell into the sea!”

The penetrating cold of the seawater muffled all of Claudia’s senses in an instant. She did not know how to swim and struggled to stay afloat. The ocean would drag her under its tides every time she tried to swim up.

She was terrified and could feel her consciousness slowly fading into the darkness. The only thing left was her survival instinct making her cry out for help.

“Help... Help!”

She barely managed to break through the surface of the sea again. She heard the sound of two figures diving into the sea.

Though her vision was very blurry, she managed to make out the two figures.

It was her father and Brett.

Just when she thought she was going to be rescued, both of them went straight for Fione without a second thought.

Meanwhile, she could also hear her mother’s voice from the deck.

“Forget about her, save Fione! You must save Fione!”

Despair swept over Claudia and the seawater was choking her breath out making it harder to breathe with every passing second.

She was getting exhausted from the struggle and by the time the next wave swept across her, she began to sink to the bottom of the sea.

In the end, it was a lifeguard on the ship who rescued her.

When she came to, she found herself in a hospital.

Unlike Fione who was surrounded by visitors, there was nobody by her bedside.

When the doctor who was monitoring her noticed her waking up, he proceeded to go through her medical records.

After a while, he sighed deeply. “You just had a miscarriage recently. Coupled with this incident, you’re going to develop a long-term condition if you don’t look after your body.”

“I understand. Thank you, doctor.”

Claudia lowered her eyes and acknowledged the doctor softly. After that, the doctor advised her on several matters before leaving the ward.

When he reached the door, he brushed shoulders with Brett who was standing by the doorway.

Brett proceeded to step into the ward and sat down beside the bed. Then he looked at Claudia without saying a word.

Claudia felt her heart skip a beat upon seeing him. She wondered if he had overheard her conversation with the doctor.

She looked at him silently for what seemed like forever until he started, “Fione is my wife. I had to save her first.”

When she heard this, she breathed a sigh of relief. He had not heard the conversation after all.

She was otherwise unbothered by his claim about having to save Fione first. “It was right of you to do that, my dear brother-in-law.”

Brett felt a sudden wave of panic at her words. “Didn’t you refuse to address me as brother-in-law in the past?”

“I have come to accept the truth.” She paused briefly before continuing without sparing a glance at him, “I accepted the fact that no one will love me.”

She spoke in a very calm voice, so much so that Brett felt a dry retch in his throat. He remarked in a drab voice, “Don’t forget about Brett. He loved you.”

Claudia smiled.

She smiled until her eyes began to fray with red before saying, “He's dead.”

She wanted to tell him that the moment Brett had decided to fake his death, he was dead to her.

When Brett observed the still look in her eyes, he could no longer muster a word.

He felt a wave of guilt washing over him. Then he got up and decided he could no longer stay by her bedside.

“I’m going to Fione.”

Claudia followed the doctor's advice and stayed in the hospital for a few more days to recover.

On the day she was discharged, Phillip gathered Claudia, Brett and Fione and instructed Claudia to sit beside him.

“Claudia, they’re going to visit Brett at the cemetery today so you can see him one last time.”

He sighed with a mixture of sadness and regret pooling inside his eyes. After briefly speaking to Brett and Fione, he let them leave.

Just as they were about to depart, Fione suddenly remembered she had forgotten something and had to head back into the house.

Around the same time, Claudia was just about to open the door to the car when she felt Brett grab her wrist.

“What did Grandpa mean when he said you would be seeing Brett for the last time? Are you hiding something from us?”

Claudia looked at his iron grip on her wrist and proceeded to shrug him off, “Nothing. He only said that because he hoped I would stop grieving over someone who is gone.”

With that, she got into the car and slammed the door shut.

Brett stared at his hand and had an ill feeling that things were spiraling out of his control, but he could not figure out what it was. When he tried to speak, Fione came running back to the car.

“Honey, let's go!”

He swallowed whatever he was about to say.

As soon as they arrived at the cemetery, Brett’s phone suddenly rang. He snuck a glance at the screen and proceeded to motion for Claudia and Fione to go ahead while he answered the call.

Claudia placed a large bouquet in front of the gravestone. The picture etched onto the gravestone looked just like Brett.

In the past, she would sob uncontrollably whenever she saw the picture and become filled with so much pain she thought she would die right then and there. But now, she hardly felt anything.

Suddenly, Fione produced a letter and began to wave it wildly in front of Claudia while wearing a smug grin.

“Claudia, you sure are lucky to survive falling into the ocean considering nobody in our family tried to save you.

“I have been very upset recently until I found something very interesting. Do you want to know what it is?

“As it turns out, I was wrong last time. Remember when I said that Brett would still love you even if nobody else did? Well, I happened to find a love letter he addressed to me, it turns out this entire time I was the one he had a crush on.

“I just found out that he was the one who had been preparing breakfast for me all the time when I was young. It’s not a coincidence that he was always the first person who came to me whenever I was in a bad mood!

“I know why he wanted to marry you now, it’s because he was worried you would get in between me and Arthur. Hahaha! You are such a walking and living joke…”