“Oh? But in five days—no, four now—I’ll be sent to the Wilson family to bear their punishment. Will you drag me back from there just to make breakfast for you?” Sheena indifferently retorted.

At that instant, the dining room fell into a sudden, oppressive silence.

After a moment, it was Jasmin who broke the quiet, her voice trembled as she sniffled. “Sis, you’re not skipping breakfast because of the Wilson family thing, are you? If that’s the case, then I’ll go take the punishment instead!”

With that, she turned to run outside.

Stephen hurriedly grabbed her, pulling her into a comforting embrace. “If someone has to die at the Wilson family, it should be Sheena! How could it be you?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Stephen froze, stunned at his own cruelty.

'She’s my sister too...' he muttered inwardly.

Instantly, Sheena’s eyes turned ice-cold, as if looking at a sworn enemy. “Stephen, I will never waste another ounce of emotion on someone as vile as you for the rest of my life!”

Her words shattered the fleeting guilt in Stephen’s heart. His face twisted in anger. “Fine! Sheena, you’re really something!”

He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the storage room, slamming the door shut.

Before locking it, Stephen spat out his final words, his voice trembling with rage, “Sheena, you can stay there until you come to your senses and agree to make breakfast. If not, then rot in there for all I care!”

With that, he stormed off, taking Jasmin with him. Before leaving, he sternly instructed the servants. “Don’t let her out until she admits she was wrong and cook breakfast!”

What Stephen didn’t know was that Sheena was already running a high fever.

Her sprained ankle, untreated from the night before, had swollen grotesquely. On top of that, her skin had scraped against the rough ground as she was dragged, leaving raw, bleeding wounds.

The searing pain on her scalp from having her hair yanked was now the least of her worries.

At first, Sheena banged on the door and screamed for help. But before long, her strength gave out, and she collapsed unconscious.

The servants, following orders, ignored her silence and they didn’t open the door.

It wasn’t until Amanda casually asked about her that the truth came to light.

Since losing her youngest child, Amanda had suffered from chronic headaches, which had only worsened over the years. But things had slightly improved after Sheena returned from the countryside.

Although Sheena was cautious and distant in the Brooks household, Amanda noticed her daughter often stealing glances at her.

When Sheena discovered her mother’s headaches, she began secretly learning massage techniques during her spare time. Without access to professional instructors, she studied online tutorials instead.

She filled up four or five notebooks with detailed notes and practiced late into the night for two months straight.

To ensure her skills were effective, she tested the techniques on herself repeatedly before shyly suggesting she could help relieve her mother’s pain.

Looking at the daughter she had barely raised, Amanda couldn’t bring herself to refuse and reluctantly agreed.

By sheer luck, Sheena’s massages actually eased her mother’s headaches.

When she saw her mother’s furrowed brows relax, Sheena’s joy was beyond words.

From that day on, she faithfully massaged her mother every evening.

But two days had passed without Sheena showing up.

Suspicious, Amanda sent someone to find her.

They discovered Sheena locked in the storage room, her entire body burning with fever. By the time they carried her out, her breathing was faint and uneven, as if she were clinging to life by a thread.

Seeing Sheena lying lifelessly on the floor, curled up and pale, Amanda felt fear for the first time. She immediately ordered for her to be taken to the hospital.

Thankfully, due to the timely intervention, Sheena’s fever subsided.

When Stephen was summoned to the hospital, he was startled to the core. He never imagined things would escalate to this extent. Even now, he couldn’t quite understand why he had been so furious at the time.

Yet, when he saw the look of resentment on Sheena’s face, a chill had run down his spine.

'She’s my sister. How could she look at me like I’m her sworn enemy?' he thought.

Sheena, who had always been meek and eager to please him, circling around him like a lapdog, suddenly declared, “I will never waste another ounce of emotion on a piece of garbage like you, for anything, ever again.”

’What gave her the right to say that?' he internally muttered.

Amanda harshly reprimanded Stephen.

Jasmin hurried forward, tearfully defending her brother, “Big Brother didn’t mean it. Besides, it was Sis who made him angry first.”

“She was upset about being sent to the Wilson family and took it out on Big Brother. He’s been so distressed these past two days he hasn’t even eaten properly.”

“Mom, please don’t scold him anymore. If Sis still won’t forgive Big Brother, let her take it out on me instead. She can hit me or yell at me—I’ll take it.”

As she spoke, Jasmin began to sob pitifully.

Amanda immediately embraced her younger daughter. “Alright, alright. Sheena isn’t the type to hold grudges. She’ll be fine in a couple of days.”

No one noticed that Sheena, lying in the hospital bed, had already opened her eyes. She watched the scene before her with icy indifference.

The next day, Sheena was discharged from the hospital.

Although the doctor had advised her to stay two more days, the following day was the Wilson family’s final deadline.

Amanda arranged for her discharge. Initially, she planned to personally pick up Sheena, but as she was about to leave, Jasmin clung to her arm.

“Mom, you promised to take me to get my dress tailored today. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten?” Jasmin pouted.

“But I also promised Sheena I’d pick her up today,” Amanda hesitated.

Knowing Sheena was leaving for the Wilson family the next day, Amanda felt a twinge of guilt.

“But this dress is being custom-made by a master designer I worked so hard to find...” Jasmin’s eyes turned red as she continued, “You always kept your promises to me before. Is it because Sis is back that I’ve become less important to you?”

“If that’s the case, then I’ll just leave. After all, Sis tried to abandon me in the woods back then.”

At the mention of the past, Amanda’s expression darkened. She casually instructed the driver to pick up Sheena later before leaving with Jasmin.

The Brooks family’s driver, a shrewd man, had long noticed Sheena’s low status in the household. After receiving a subtle hint from Jasmin, he didn’t bother to go to the hospital that afternoon.

Sheena waited at the hospital entrance for three hours. Finally, with a bitter smile, she muttered to herself in self-mockery, "As expected."

She had already known this would happen. After all, tomorrow she would be sent to the Wilson family, never to return.

As she was about to hail a cab, a car pulled up in front of her.

Travis stepped out from the driver’s seat. When he saw Sheena, he barely recognized her.

In just three days, how had Sheena become so frail?

“Sheena, what happened? Why are you coming out of the hospital? No wonder I couldn’t find you at the Brooks house,” he said, his voice filled with worry.

“Do you know how scared I was when I couldn’t find you? I almost called the police.”

Through the car window, Sheena noticed a cake box sitting on the passenger seat.

It was vanilla-flavored, Jasmin’s favorite.

She had heard that cakes from that bakery needed to be pre-ordered a week in advance. Once, Sheena had paused outside its window, admiring the cakes on display.

But Travis had dismissed her interest at that time, saying, “There’s nothing special about that bakery. They just use advance bookings as a marketing gimmick to attract customers. If you want cake, I’ll take you to the shop next door—they have ready-made ones.”

In the end, Sheena hadn’t bought any cake at all.

Now, she realized that while the bakery might not have been special, people certainly could be.

She wasn’t special enough—not even for a simple cake.

“Sheena, Sheena?”

When she didn’t respond, Travis frowned impatiently. “If I’ve come looking for you, it means I’ve already forgiven you for what happened last time. You should know when to back down.”

Seeing that she wasn't responding, Travis dragged her inside the car. His expression remained sour.

Since their last unpleasant encounter, he had been waiting for her to lower her head and apologize. After all, that was what Sheena always did in the past. But this time, three days had passed without so much as a phone call or a text.

An unexplainable unease crept over him, as though something precious was slipping away from his grasp.

He went to the Brooks family house, needing to see her in person, convinced that her presence would calm his inexplicable sense of alarm.

Yet, she wasn’t there, and even the servants claimed they didn’t know where she had gone.

Desperate, Travis drove through every street in the city until he finally spotted her outside the hospital.

Now, glancing at her through the rearview mirror, he felt some relief. As long as Sheena was within arm’s reach, the alarm bells in his mind seemed to quiet.

But during the drive, Sheena remained silent, not saying a single word.

That was simply impossible in the past.

The uneasy feeling surged again. Travis abruptly stepped on the brakes, stopping the car in the middle of the road.

Although the route to the Brooks family villa was usually empty, Sheena was startled. She instinctively grabbed his sleeve.

Seeing her still clinging to him, Travis’s panic melted into satisfaction.

But he masked his emotions, keeping his tone distant and commanding as he said, “Since you know you were wrong, you should give that account to Jasmin.”

Sheena immediately understood why Travis had come looking for her.

Since childhood, Sheena had loved drawing. Even after being sent to the countryside, where she could no longer afford lessons or art supplies, she practiced every day with a pencil.

To keep herself motivated, she created a social media account called “Rose,” where she posted all her work.

Her unique technique and style quickly gained her large followers, and even the internationally renowned Gideon Bowen extended her an invitation.

Gideon was a towering figure in the art world, and his invitation was practically a declaration of his intention to take her as his last student.

But before Sheena could even respond to him, Jasmin cried and said she wanted to study under Gideon as well.

Of course, someone like Gideon wouldn’t accept just anyone.