I am the hated true daughter of my family.

One day, I was kidnapped along with my sister. The kidnappers cut off a section of my finger and sent it to my parents. But they just thanked God that the kidnappers had not cut off my sister’s finger.

They deciphered the hint from my sister and alerted the police, but the kidnappers learned about it. To protect my sister, they told the kidnappers that I was the one who revealed the address to them.

Because of it, I was tortured to death while my sister was saved.

Oddly, when my parents found my mangled body, they broke down and said that they were going to make my sister and the kidnappers pay.

As I lay on the floor, my breathing came out weakly. I no longer had the strength to fight back.

Naomi, my sister, was crying badly. To comfort her, I endured the pain and shook my head slightly.

The enraged kidnapper grabbed my hair. “Are you the one who revealed our location?”

My scalp hurt, and I was forced to look up.

When we were first kidnapped, I had two of my fingers cut off. More were eventually cut off. When I no longer had any fingers left, the kidnappers moved to my feet.

The mutilated parts were already putrid and necrotic. Every single day, they hurt.

Compared to that, being beaten did not hurt as much.

Yesterday, the kidnappers gave Naomi and I each one minute to talk to our parents.

While Naomi cried and spoke to our mother, she also dropped hints as to where the kidnappers held us.

It was no wonder why the kidnappers moved us elsewhere overnight. Our mother must have called the police.

My parents cared a lot about Naomi. I wanted them to be happy, so I swore in my heart that I would protect Naomi when we were kidnapped.

I stammered out a plea, “Please… I… won’t do it… anymore…”

But the kidnappers were vicious people who had nothing else to lose. They were not going to spare me that easily.

Another kidnapper tried to dissuade the one grabbing my hair. “Stop. I think she’s about to die. We need her for money.”

The kidnapper grabbing my hair cackled cruelly. “It’s fine. Her parents don’t care about her. If we had kidnapped her alone, we might not have gotten a single cent. They’re only going to save the sister.”

I shut my eyes. I no longer had any strength to argue.

My parents got the wrong baby, so Naomi and my lives were switched.

It was the cliche, wrong baby story. I was the true daughter who was hated even after returning to my parents’ side. Naomi was the fake daughter everyone wanted and loved.

Even after I returned to my parents’ side, they still loved Naomi more. To them, she was their real daughter.

I was just a stranger who shared their blood.

“Honestly, even if we kill her, no one would care,” one of the kidnappers suddenly said.

I understood then what he meant, and I could not suppress the trembles in my body. My heart sank.

At that moment, my parents were on a call with the kidnappers. I forced my eyes open and instinctively started begging for help.

With great difficulty, I said, “Dad… Mom…”

But before I could finish speaking, my parents had already cut me off anxiously.

“Is Naomi okay? Make sure nothing happens to her! If she’s hurt, we won’t pay you a single cent!

“Let us hear her voice!”

“Of course she’s fine. But we’ll have you know that we’re going to send you a gift, so one of the two is going to suffer,” one of the kidnappers said.

“We know. So long as you don’t hurt Naomi, you can do whatever you want!”

My parents only wanted to know about Naomi and only ever mentioned her.

How I hoped they would say my name just once—Dawn.

But my eyelids were already so heavy that I could not open them. Even so, I was able to hear my parents’ voices before I breathed my last, so I was content.

When my mother came to see me in the village, she hugged me and cried.

Then, my parents told me that they were not going to let me live a life of hardship anymore. They promised that no one would hit me or yell at me again.

But gradually, they stopped loving me.

My breathing became weaker and soon stopped.

My soul drifted out of that old, abandoned factory and levitated in the air. In the end, I stopped beside my parents.

They were the one thing tying me to the world.

My mother was crying nonstop in the living room while calling out Naomi’s name.

“Naomi has never suffered like this!

“Dawn running around with Naomi must have caused this. That’s why they were kidnapped,” she grumbled to my father.

I cried out, “That’s not true! I didn’t run around! Naomi was the one who ran into an alley! I was the one who ran after her!”

I wanted to defend myself, but my mother could not hear me.

My father could only offer a comforting pat on her shoulder.

Before the kidnapping, I wanted to visit Naomi’s school, so I went with our driver to pick her up, but we ended up getting kidnapped in the alley not far from the school gate.

My mother continued crying, “Dawn came from the countryside and doesn’t act like our daughter at all. Was there an error with the paternity test?

“Once they come back, let’s send Dawn away. Otherwise, Naomi is going to be upset again.”

I felt my heart squeeze in pain. When I first met my parents, I stood before them with great unease. My mother had cried to my father and said that I looked like her. She even said that she could tell with just a single glance that I was her daughter.

But at that moment, she hoped that the paternity test was wrong and that I was not her daughter.

I cradled my chest and thought, “So, even the heart feels pain even after death?”

After my mother went to the Clark family to pick me up, she held me and could not bear to even go to sleep. She was worried that I would disappear the moment she closed her eyes.

When she saw the scars I had from the abuse I went through from the Clark family, she applied medicine on me while crying. At that time, I thought that I finally had someone who loved me.

At that moment, I was overwhelmed with despair as I thought, ‘My adoptive parents hit me and yelled at me, while my real parents hate me. Perhaps I should never have been born. Even when I’m alive, I’m just a burden.’

The kidnappers called again and asked my parents to hurry up with the money.

They must have realized that I was dead and were worried about revealing the fact that I was murdered. So, they wanted to get the money sooner.

Naomi called out to my mother delicately. When she heard her voice, my mother cried even harder.

I remembered that when I was first kidnapped, the kidnappers had handed the phone to me, and I called out to my mother immediately.

But she said this instead.

“Where’s Naomi? I want to hear her voice! Where’s my daughter?!”

Yes. My mother eagerly wanted to hear Naomi’s sister.

All the words I wanted to say died on my tongue. I could only hand the phone to Naomi.

After that, every time the kidnapper handed the phone to me, I would just shake my head and had them hand the phone to Naomi.

My mother seemed to have forgotten about me and never talked about me.

Every time, she would always ask for confirmation from the kidnappers. “Those fingers and feet are from Dawn, right? They’re not from Naomi, right?”

When she heard the kidnappers confirming that Naomi was safe, she sighed in relief.

“Naomi still has to play the piano. She can’t be without fingers. Dawn is tough. She can take a hit or two.

“She’s only been left without fingers and feet. She’ll be fine,” she comforted herself.

When we were kidnapped, the kidnapper told us that they were going to send one of each of our fingers to our parents.

I shielded Naomi and extended a trembling hand to them.

But I said calmly, “She’s not part of the Lewis family. Even if you cut off her fingers and they conduct a paternity test on it, they can’t be certain that they’re related.

“But I’m definitely Charles and Maria’s daughter. Cut mine.”

Just as I expected, my parents conducted a paternity test the moment they received the package.

The kidnappers had thought that since Naomi was not my parents’ real daughter, they were not going to pay the ransom. So, it was better for them to keep me. But they were also worried that Naomi would tell on them, so they refused to release her.

But through the phone calls, they gradually realized that my parents did not actually care about me.

The kidnappers who had cut my fingers and feet warned my parents not to do anything stupid. Otherwise, they would be delivering Naomi’s fingers to them next time.

On the day they called the police, Naomi had provided hints of the address while seemingly complaining about her situation. Since my mother knew her like the back of her hand, she soon realized what Naomi was trying to say.

But they were too late. When the police arrived, the kidnappers had already moved us to another location.

In their rage, the kidnappers accidentally killed me.

When the next day arrived, the kidnappers really did give my parents Naomi’s finger.

When my mother received the package, she was not at all surprised to see the finger inside.

After all, she had received such a package a few times over the last few days, and she threw the package into the trash can beside her.

If she had taken a closer look, she would have noticed that the finger was thin and fair, which was a sign that her owner usually took great care of her hands.

I no longer had any fingers left. But perhaps my mother never even noticed that the kidnappers had already cut off all of my fingers a long time ago.

The kidnappers called right on time as if they knew exactly when my mother would receive the package and made their call.

As usual, my mother asked, “Is Naomi alright?”

“If you don’t give us the ransom soon, then you won’t just be receiving her fingers,” said the kidnapper with a cackle.

My mother’s expression instantly froze. She clenched her fist and asked anxiously, “Isn’t that Dawn’s finger?”

“Of course not. We’ve already cut off all of her fingers a long time ago.”

My mother’s voice turned fierce, and her expression grew savage. “You can cut off other parts of her body! Dig her eyes out! Cut her tongue out! Why did you hurt Naomi?!”

My expression became complicated. Even though I knew that my mother loved Naomi more, what she said still made me sad.

“Didn’t we tell you that Dawn is the one who gave us the hint and had us call the police?! Naomi never did anything?!”

Ah. I see. That was why the kidnappers beat me up so fiercely after they changed locations and made the call.

It was my mother’s doing. She was worried that Naomi would be hurt and blamed me for it. She told the kidnappers that I was the one who revealed the location to her.

I stared at her in shock as she reminded the kidnappers again not to hurt Naomi anymore. She was truly a mother who cared about her daughter.

Ironically, I was her real daughter.

“We’ll get the money soon. Don’t hurt Naomi again, you hear me? We’ll get the money!”

After she hung up, she rushed downstairs to search for the package she threw into the trash can.

Once she found it, she hurriedly opened the package and cried as she stared at the finger.

When my father returned after running around the entire day to collect the ransom money, he saw the finger in the package.

“Why are you keeping that finger around? It’s disgusting.” His face was full of disgust.

“This is Naomi’s finger!” my mother cried out.

My fingers were covered in calluses due to farm work, and they were much thicker as well. The finger was clearly not mine.

“Why did they cut Naomi’s finger?! What about Dawn?!” My father instinctively felt that I should be the one getting hurt for Naomi as well.

His expression was one of incredible sadness and despair for Naomi. “Naomi can no longer play the piano. She must be so sad!

“Why didn’t Dawn take her place?! Even if she doesn’t have fingers anymore, she’d be fine!”

So, my life was not even as important as one of Naomi’s fingers. Perhaps they would not even be sad if they learned that I had died.

That night, my parents got the money to pay Naomi’s ransom.

They negotiated with the kidnappers. “We can’t get that much money for the time being. We’ll get one back first. I’ll continue collecting money for the other one.”

The kidnappers were, naturally, unwilling to let Naomi go. I was already dead, so letting either of us leave was impossible for them.

“We’ll pay for Naomi’s ransom. Dawn is our real daughter. No matter what, we’ll never give up on her.

“We’ll let you have Dawn for the time being.”

The kidnappers scoffed. “Do you think we’re idiots? You don’t even care whether she lives or dies.”

My father could only continue negotiating with them, “Dawn is our real daughter! We won’t just abandon her!”

I looked at my father in great delight. So, my parents still cared about me!

“We only have one daughter! We won’t give up on her!”

After my father made his promise repeatedly, the kidnappers became uncertain.

I did not know what they were thinking, but they agreed to let Naomi return.

The trading location was the trash can beside a public toilet.

My father deposited the ransom into the trash can and left just as the kidnappers instructed him to do.

When midnight arrived, a young man wearing a baseball cap came over to get the money.

The next day, Naomi was delivered to my parents.

She was put in a sackcloth bag. The housekeeper thought that it was trash, but when she saw the bag moving, she found a person inside.

When Naomi saw my parents, she cried nonstop. Her pale face was full of terror, and she looked pitiful.

“Dad, Mom, you have to pay for Dawn’s ransom as soon as possible!” She grabbed my mother’s hand and said pitifully.

I looked at her in shock. “What on earth are you saying?! I’m already dead!”

But no one could hear me. Why would she keep the fact that I died from my parents?!