My parents died when I was ten years old, but a big shot in Jade City adopted me.

It was rumored that Sean Graham was a cruel and violent man, but he doted on me for nearly ten years.

He booked the advertising screens in the city to celebrate my birthday and promised to marry me when I got drunk and pestered him about it.

I called him Uncle Sean at his request.

Fear gripped me when I woke up in his bed every morning, but I kept it a secret. Yet one time, we accidentally slept with each other.

I got pregnant with his child and wanted to keep it, but I knew I would not live for much longer.

One day, I heard his conversation with a servant.

“Clean up Zella’s room for Yulia.”

“But Mr. Graham, Miss Cooper has been staying there for ten years. Didn’t you design it for her?”

“No, I only let her stay there because Yulia had gone abroad.”

I touched my belly as disappointment gripped me. It turned out that the man who had promised to provide me with a home as long as he lived wanted to drive me away.

I quietly stood at the door while listening to what was spoken behind it. Coldness slowly gripped me.

Sean Graham picked up a call after giving instructions to the maid. “What’s wrong, Yulia?” he asked in a gentle voice.

“Sean, I’m going to live with you! I’m so happy. By the way, did you tell Zella about it? Did she say no?” It was Yulia Little, Sean’s first love, with whom he had been in love for ten years.

“Of course not. She can’t say no. Without me, she wouldn’t have survived.”

I bit my pale lips.

Yulia continued, “She is an undertaker and works with dead bodies daily. I just think it is bad for the baby. That’s why I want her to move out.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re so kind. Her job is bad,” Sean agreed.

I was barely able to support myself after putting my hand against the wall.

Sean had spoken differently in the past. He had claimed that it was a noble job and supported me with pride. I wondered why he had changed his opinion. Could he no longer be nice to me because of Yulia?

I could not deal with such cold, unfeeling words. My face went white, and I started sweating profusely. I found myself too weak to stand, which should have been a simple thing to do. It felt like I could not control my body any more.

I fell forward and knocked the door open.

Sean looked up at me while comforting Yulia. After hanging up, he walked toward me and wiped away the sweat on my forehead.

“What’s wrong? You look pale.” He carefully held my face. I could not tell if he was really concerned about me or just faking it. His expression made me question if he had really said what I heard just moments ago.

I shook my head. “I’m fine, Uncle Sean. I didn’t sleep well.”

“Go to bed. It’s getting late.”

I nodded and turned to exit the room.

“Oh, yeah. You need to move out of your room.”

I stiffened. “What happened? Why so sudden?”

Sean pinched the place between his brows. “Stop pretending, Zella. You heard everything. Yulia is pregnant, so you have to move out.”

An even deeper coldness and disappointment overcame me. It was one thing to overhear him, and a different one to hear him say them straight to me.

“Okay,” I weakly answered.

Sean frowned. Perhaps he liked my obedience, for after some contemplation he stopped me.

“Forget it. Yulia is kind. You can stay in the basement.”

“You can’t come upstairs if there’s nothing important.”

I smiled bitterly. I thought he had changed his mind, but he still only cared about Yulia not being mistreated.

It broke my heart because everyone was sorting out Yulia’s daily necessities while I had to move my things to the basement. I finished only late at night after busying myself with it the whole day.

I lay in a folded bed and watched the darkness around me. The basement was wet and cold. There was even an intermittent sound of mice hitting the wall.

I recalled when Sean held my hand and led me to my bedroom ten years ago.

“This is the princess room I purposely designed for you, Zella. As long as I’m alive, you’ll always stay here. No one can drive you away.”

I started crying. After my parents passed away, the families who had adopted me kept abandoning me. They shunned me because they assumed that I was a useless girl.

Only Sean brought me home and regarded me as his dearest girl.

I fished out a few sheets of paper from underneath my pillow. The top sheet was my two-week pregnancy report, which said the baby was healthy. I touched the blob of darkness on the picture of prenatal ultrasound.

The second paper was a medical record. I was suffering from stomach cancer and my prognosis was nine months at best.

I smiled sincerely. At least, I could hold on until I gave birth to my baby. My child would be able to enjoy the world for me.

I curled up and held my legs, but I could not fall asleep.

A cup of hot water was splashed on me the next morning. It woke me right up.

“What are you doing?!” I shouted out as my skin started burning.

Yulia looked at me innocently. Before she could speak up, a familiar voice came from the stairs. “Zella, stop yelling!”

Sean strode over and carefully inspected Yulia to see if she was hurt. He refused to look at me. Yulia lowered her head and looked up at him pitifully.

“I didn’t mean it, Sean. I heard from the maid that Zella was still asleep and was afraid that she would starve herself! Plus, it’s freezing. I wanted to get her a cup of hot water, but I didn’t expect the basement to be this dark.”

Sean touched her head. “I know. But you don’t have to serve her. She can do it herself.” Then, he glared at me.

“I’m sorry, Zella.” Yulia looked at me apologetically.

Sean noticed the thin blanket on the bed and knitted his brows. “Stop pretending! Why did you use such a thin blanket in such a cold place?”

I looked down as bitterness overwhelmed me. The maids were snobbish and would not give me anything better. When I asked for a comforter, they told me that Yulia needed it for her dog. I could not have it.

I was too weak to explain it, which made Sean want to say something, but Yulia distracted him.

“Sean, it’s dark here. Look at my hand. Is it burned?” she asked while crying pretentiously. She raised her hand in front of Sean, which he carefully picked up.

“It must’ve gotten burned. I’ll get the family doctor.” Then, he hurriedly left.

As soon as he was gone, Yulia stopped pretending. She sat down on the bed and smiled provocatively at me. She was showing off.

“Oh, my! My hand is just slightly burned. It’s nothing compared to the burn on your face.”

Yulia searched the bed until she found the sheets of paper.

Yulia suspiciously went through the reports.

“You’re pregnant?” Bewilderment hit her as she looked at me. After that, she checked out the second report.

“Oh, it looks like you’re dying.” She pretended to be kind by folding it and placing it carefully where she had found it.

“Behave yourself, Zella. Do you get me?” Yulia threatened me. She gently touched my face. “I wonder if your face will be ruined.”

“She’s an undertaker. It’s not hard to put on nice makeup.” Sean was back.

“But she does it for the dead people!” Yulia acted naive and innocent.

Sean remained quiet but gave me a profound look. After that, he left with Yulia.

I understood that look. He was warning me not to dream of things that did not belong to me. I would be long dead without him.

The burn on my face and the coldness in my heart tortured me. I had not eaten for two consecutive days. I finally failed to hold on in the afternoon.

I was gripped by a serious stomach ache, but my pills were in the living room. Hence, I gnashed my teeth and went up there.

My hands were shaking as I tried to unscrew the bottle of pills. I was too weak, and the bottle escaped from my grasp. It rolled forward. My back was already drenched with sweat, so I went down on my knees. I could not get to my feet and was forced to crawl toward the bottle.

Before I could grab the bottle, Yulia, who was late in her pregnancy, appeared.

She smirked and wickedly kicked the bottle away. Consequently, it rolled under the cabinet.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see it.”

I glared at her. The excruciating pain made me clutch my belly to try to ease the pain.

“Stop glaring at me. Did I mistreat you, Zella?”

Disgusted, I weakly said, “Go away!”

She snorted. “Zella, I’m sure you need the pills to live. Do you want to know why you got sick?” She looked down at me condescendingly.

I glared at her in exhaustion.

She laughed arrogantly. Since Sean was not home, she probably did not care about exposing her true self. Or, she had already bribed the maids.

“You always woke up in Sean’s bed. Do you really think it was because you walked to him in your sleep?”

Sleepwalking.

For a long period, I always woke up in Sean’s bed. I was worried that people might spread rumors about it since he was my nominal uncle, even if he was only eight years older than me.

Yulia came to me at that time. She was a psychologist and claimed that I had been suffering from severe sleepwalking, but she could help keep this issue a secret for the sake of Sean’s reputation. However, the premise was that I had to undergo treatment and take pills daily.

I did not contemplate it much because I wanted to keep that issue hidden.

Doubt gripped me.

“It’s true that you’re the only one who can help Sean with his sleep disorder, but I can’t live without him since I love him so much. And you’re naive. You panicked after sleeping in the same bed with your uncle and believed everything I told you. Now that you’re about to die, I shall tell you the truth.”

She looked at me disdainfully as if she could easily kill me. “The so-called treatment I gave you was merely hypnosis, while the pills you took were really for sleepwalking. Only that their side effect is that you’ll get stomach cancer if you take them long term.”

Blood drained from my face after listening to her.