On my birthday, my own twin sons who I almost died giving birth, helped my husband's love interest Sylvia into tricking me. I was caught of guard and slipped into the swimming pool.

After almost drowning for several times, I finally grabbed the edge of the pool. But my husband Kelvin wrapped an arm around Sylvia and kicked me back into the water.

Sylvia Mapple is the second daughter of my employer. Today, she was nothing like the sweet girl she usually pretended to be. She leaned against Kelvin while smiling proudly.

“You can’t even do something this simple as a nanny,” Kelvin shouted. “You broke Sylvia’s favorite cup! This is just a small punishment. She’ll be coming here often from now on, so you’d better take good care of her. If not, you'll pay the consequences.”

After that, the twins stepped on my hand by the poolside before running happily to Sylvia.

“Sylvia, that dirty nanny doesn’t deserve to be our mom!” they shouted. “We want you to be our mom!”

Sylvia gently touched their heads and nodded with a smile. Then she looked at me with disgust.

“With you around, the air smells poor,” she said. “No wonder your husband and kids don’t want you.”

Kelvin took her hand and the four of them walked away together like a perfect family.

Barely alive, I struggled out of the pool. My hands were shaking as I made a phone call.

“I agree to your plan,” I said. “Make the Robinsons and the Mapples go bankrupt.”

Dragging my wet body, I was about to return to my room to shower when a maid stopped me.

“Mrs. Robinson, Young Sir Albert and Elbert want to eat the dessert you make,” she said. “Mr. Robinson wants you to bring it to them.”

Thinking this might be the last time, I sighed softly.

The maid hesitated, then added, “Mr. Robinson also said you should bring… another item.”

“I understand,” I replied numbly and walked into the kitchen.

When I arrived with the dessert, I saw Kelvin and Sylvia kissing passionately in the lobby.

People around them were clapping and cheering. Even the twins were laughing happily.

When the noise finally died down, someone noticed me.

“Who ordered dessert to celebrate Kelvin?” they asked.

Before I could answer, the twins grabbed the dessert from my hands. Like presenting a treasure, they knelt in front of Sylvia.

“We’re celebrating one month of you being with Dad!” they said. “Can we call you Mom now?”

Sylvia nodded shyly. The twins jumped around her excitedly.

Kelvin then walked up to me and held out his hand impatiently. “Where is it?”

“I didn’t bring it.”

Kelvin angrily flipped over the table beside him and it fell with a loud thud.

Hot coffee spilled onto my arm. My wet clothes stuck tightly to my burned skin. Instantly, I gasped in pain.

“You can’t do anything right!” he yelled. “You’re more useless than a dog!”

He kept shouting until another maid asked if burn medicine was needed. Only then did Kelvin notice my badly burned arm and a trace of regret flashed in his eyes.

Just as the medicine was handed over, Sylvia pointed at a tiny splash on her own hand. “Vin, it hurts,” she said dramatically.

Kelvin grabbed the medicine away from me and given to Sylvia instead.

Seeing my painful expression, Sylvia raised her eyebrows. “If you kneel down and beg I might let you use a little. After all, you’re just a nanny.”

The lobby immediately filled with whispers.

“Oh, she’s just a nanny. I thought she was catching them cheating.”

“I wouldn’t want a nanny like that for free.”

“Look at how messy she is. She’s embarrassing Mr. Robinson.”

Then someone whispered softly, “But wait, don’t the twins look a bit like her?”

That comment made Albert and Elbert rush to Sylvia. They hugged her tightly and shouted,

“That’s nonsense! She’s our real mom!” Albert said.

Elbert continued, “You nasty woman! Kneel down and apologize to our mom!”

I looked at the twins I nearly died giving birth to.

They stood on either side of Sylvia like loyal guards while saying those hurtful words and cut away my last bit of hope. I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth before finally leaving.

Hosever, Kelvin grabbed me and forced me to my knees.

“Sylvia is trying to be kind by helping you,” Kelvin said impatiently. “You can get the medicine just by kneeling. I really don’t understand why you’re being so stubborn.”

Unhappy with my attitude, Kelvin grabbed a stack of cash and threw it into the air.

“Aren’t you obsessed with money?” he sneered. “Here, this is for you! Now kneel down, crawl on the floor and pick it all up. Whatever you collect is yours.”

Thinking of my mother lying in the emergency room, I knelt down with red, swollen eyes and began picking up the money, one bill at a time.

Suddenly, Sylvia’s spoiled younger brother stepped on my hand and ground his foot into it again and again.

Staring at my reddened palm, Kelvin seemed disgusted. Probably he thought that I looked so shameful. He then shoved me away roughly.

“You’ll throw away all your dignity just for a little money!” he roared angrily.

The twins also looked at me with open disgust.

“Get lost!”

I swallowed my humiliation, lifted my skirt and was about to leave when Sylvia softly called out. “Hold on! Aren’t you wearing my clothes?”

I turned around in shock and looked at Kelvin.

The dress I wore had been laid on the bed in the bedroom. I thought it was a gift Kelvin had prepared for our wedding anniversary tomorrow. Turned out this was a part of Sylvia’s schemes.

The entire lobby fell silent. Everyone stared at me like they were watching a show. I could feel their eyes seeming to pierce through my clothes.

Suddenly, Al and El charged at me like cannonballs. They clawed at my clothes wildly.

“Who told you to wear Mom’s clothes, you dirty woman!” said Albert.

The younger twins followed, “That’s right! Take them off and give them back to Mom!”

Angry and out of control, Al even raised his small fist and punched me hard.

Clutching my stomach, I struggled toward the second-floor changing room, but my father’s call stopped me.

“Tia, have you gathered the money for the surgery?” he asked urgently. “Your mother can’t hold on much longer.”

“I have, dad,” I replied. “I’m coming to the hospital now.”

Humiliated, I returned to Sylvia once more. Meeting her mocking gaze, I hesitated before speaking. “Can you pay me this month’s wages early?”

“Are you blind with greed?” she sneered. “All you ever talk about is money.”

“My mother really needs this money,” I said desperately. “I’m begging you.”

I was about to kneel when Sylvia lifted my chin with the tip of her shoe.

“Drink all the wine on that table,” she said lightly, “and I’ll pay you your full salary.”

I desperately poured the wine into my mouth, ignoring the laughter around me. Tears slid down my face no matter how hard I tried to stop them.

Forcing myself to stand steady, I took the pitifully small amount of money Sylvia handed me.

Before I could ask anything, my phone vibrated again. My father had been calling nonstop.

“Tia, are you already on your way?” he sobbed. “Your mother… she’s not going to make it. Hurry!”

I ran toward the exit like I’d lost my mind, but Kelvin grabbed my arm. “You haven’t taken off Sylvia’s clothes yet.”

I turned back, eyes red with hatred and desperation. My expression seemed to shock him. At that, Kelvin froze, then slowly loosened his grip.

“Vin, but that was the first dress you ever gave me,” Sylvia said softly from behind.

Kelvin tightened his grip on my clothes again.

“My mother is dying in the hospital,” I begged, looking at him with tear-filled eyes.

“You’re lying again,” he said coldly. “Unless you take off the clothes today, you’re not leaving.”

When my family went bankrupt, my mother was afraid I would suffer with them. She lied to Kelvin, saying she was dying and pushed us to get married. That lie became a thorn Kelvin never forgot.

Looking at the phone ringing again, I made up my mind. Standing at the door, I began to take off my clothes.

Kelvin stared at me in disbelief as he watched me completely discarding the dress I wore.

The noise in the lobby slowly faded. People stopped shouting and only whispered quietly.

Then a deep voice broke the silence. “Hey you, there's don't need to take it off. I have another dress, a limited piece. I’ll give it to Ms. Sylvia Mapple.”

The moment I heard I didn’t need to undress, I turned and ran toward the hospital. I didn’t notice the intense gaze of the man behind me, or Sylvia clinging to him eagerly.

In the hospital hallway, my father was squatting in the corner with his head in his hands.

He looked at me with empty eyes and said in a hoarse voice, “Your mother is gone. Before she passed, she kept calling your nickname. Even at the end, she never closed her eyes.”

I cried quietly, hugging my head, but a sharp voice suddenly interrupted me. “Well, isn’t this our family’s nanny?”

Sylvia stood in front of me, holding Kelvin’s arm tightly. “Vin felt sorry for me,” she said sweetly. “He was worried my burn would leave a scar, so he brought me here.”

Kelvin’s lips moved slightly. He looked like he wanted to explain, but no words came out.

My father froze in shock. His voice trembled as he said, “Tia… is this how you’ve been living with the Robinsons? It’s all my fault for dragging you into this.”

“No!” I denied urgently.

Ever since our family went bankrupt, my father had felt deeply guilty toward my mother and me. He even tried to end his life several times because of the debt, but my mother and I stopped him each time.

I wiped away my tears and looked at Kelvin with pleading eyes. I explained quickly to my father,

“Kevin is just accompanying a good friend to see a doctor. I asked him to.”

“A ‘good friend’ you he's sleeping with?” Sylvia asked with a fake shy smile. “Or a ‘good friend’ that Al and El call ‘Mom’?”

Seeing my father’s dazed expression, I grabbed Kelvin’s other arm and shook it, begging him to say something—anything—to comfort my father.

Bang!

In a moment of panic, the hallway was suddenly silent. My father was gone. My legs went weak as I dragged myself toward the window, unable to believe what had happened.

When I saw my father’s broken body below, everything went black.

“Since you’re awake, get up and eat some porridge,” Kelvin said. He held a bowl and spoon, trying to feed me.

I turned my face away, my heart full of resentment. My mother was gone. My father was gone too. I no longer needed to bow to Kelvin for money.

Kelvin put down the spoon and grabbed my chin.

“You need to eat properly,” he said. “What about the baby you're carrying?”

I frowned in disgust.

“Syl wants this child,” Kelvin said casually. “Don’t you like the twins? Syl said once she has this baby, she’ll give the twins back to you. A child raised from young would be closer to her anyway.”

Hearing that, I leaned over the bed and vomited uncontrollably.

“No, no! We want Mama Sylvia too!” the twins shouted as they rushed in like little missiles.

“Who wants this ugly mom? This dirty woman!”

Sylvia followed them in, covering her mouth as she laughed. “Vin, I want sons too,” she said. “If what she had is a daughter, then never mind.”

“You can raise it. Don’t give birth to another money-loser—someone with no self-respect, who loves money so much she’ll wag her tail like a dog for cash.”

Listening to them, my disgust reached its peak. I was about to speak when I suddenly noticed something in Sylvia’s hand.

She was lightly swinging two small golden tiger charms.