I, however, sat leisurely on a chair outside, watching Mom being taken away by the police officer for questioning.

Mom, unaccustomed to police scrutiny, immediately folded and confessed the truth. Her official statement claimed that the baby was my cousin and was only entrusted to me for temporary care because his parents were unavailable for a couple of days.

"If it was merely a temporary guardianship arrangement, why abandon him so secretly at the entrance before leaving?"

"I left a note with the baby!"

"Where is the note?"

Mom was momentarily stunned into silence. "I wrote that note myself, and I left it right on the baby! I'm sure Damian must have seen it!"

Hearing her claims, the police officer came out to question me, all the while the distrust of her claims continued inside.

"Why didn't you just walk in and entrust the baby to him, then? You're his mother, aren't you?"

"I…" Mom trailed off.

I was certain she wouldn't dare tell the truth. After all, she and my uncle, Jared Brown, had meticulously planned the entire scenario. They were aiming for me to, out of sympathy, assume responsibility for the baby.

Mom clearly meant to abandon the baby right outside my place. She could only stutter and mumble when cornered, utterly failing to produce a believable reason for her actions.

I was sitting outside, and the second I heard the mention of a note, I furrowed my brow in confusion. "What kind of note is she talking about? I've seen nothing of the sort!"

"Your mother said that she left a note with the baby, providing you with instructions."

"I genuinely never saw any note!"

In that instant, my neighbors stepped forward once more, nodding to affirm that I was indeed telling the truth.

"That's right! Damian raised the alarm the moment he saw the baby, and none of us saw any note!"

"Yeah! What difference does it make even if there was one? How can we trust that she isn't trying to deceive everyone?"

"If a person is capable of abandoning a baby so heartlessly, lying will surely come easily to them."

I agreed wholeheartedly on the inside, adamantly maintaining that I never saw the note.

I also had no intention of recognizing her as my mother, so I explained to the police officer, "My grandfather took care of me since I was young and have had absolutely no contact with her, even though she's my biological mother.

"I truly don't know why she would place the baby at my doorstep. Is it possible that she didn't want this baby and was trying the same trick to force me to raise him?"

It was only after hearing that that the police officer hesitated momentarily, clearly only just realizing the complex nature of the relationship I shared with my mother.

In the meantime, the crowd of neighbors maintained a steady stream of supportive testimony.

"Exactly! It was Mr. Lister Senior who found Damian on the doorstep as a baby back then!"

"Oh, the shame! That woman deserves whatever fate is coming to her!"

"If it hadn't been for the pure goodness of Mr. Lister Senior, who took Damian in and raised him, Damian would have likely perished from the cold right there on the street!"

"How dare she show up and claim to be Damian's mother now that Damian is all grown up!"

"It's clear that she isn't interested in being Damian's mother! I bet she's just trying to saddle her own son with raising someone else's baby!"

"If Mr. Lister Senior were still alive, he would have kicked that woman out without a second thought!"

"How wicked! That woman is clearly exploiting Damian's kindness!"

"Damian is kind all thanks to Mr. Lister Senior's upbringings! That woman has nothing to do with it!"

"She gave birth to him, refused to raise him, and then, after others have done the hard work, she suddenly feels regretful and wants to reunite with him, huh?"

"How on earth did she think she could get away with something like that?"

I adopted a helpless look, feigning the appearance of someone being victimized.

In that instant, the police officer grasped Mom's intention. It was completely different from what she had said in the interrogation room, where she had spun a tale of a deep and loving mother-son bond, as if the abandonment were only a misunderstanding caused by a lack of communication between us.

I scoffed inwardly, thinking that she could no longer use me to shirk the consequences.

In the presence of numerous witnesses, that nonexistent note was no longer important. It was clear that she had intentionally abandoned the baby right at my doorstep.

If the baby wasn't hers, it was baffling how she felt entitled to simply take the baby and then abandon him so conspicuously.

The neighbors were all debating whether Uncle Jared was an unknowing party or a co-conspirator.

It wasn't long before the police officers brought Uncle Jared over to the police station.

I stayed in the corner, watching his worried expression and the way he seemed completely uneasy as he showed up late.

I knew exactly where this was going. It seemed like Uncle Jared was preparing to pin all the blame squarely on poor old Mom. It turned out that their sibling bond was completely superficial—a fact that didn't surprise me in the least, given their family's consistent, inherent selfishness.

Uncle Jared claimed that Mom had taken the child without his permission, saying he was completely unaware she had dropped the baby at my doorstep.

"I'm sure Karen just felt sorry for my situation, thinking that an adult like me had no idea how to take care of a baby. You see, the baby's mother abandoned him immediately after birth, and with my job, it was impossible for me to handle everything. I'm sure Karen acted only out of concern for my well-being."

Why did Mom think I could look after the baby if Uncle Jared, an adult himself, couldn't?

Uncle Jared's explanation sounded good, but deep down, we all knew the excuse was completely pathetic.

There was no other evidence to prove that they were colluding, though, so the matter could only be raised and then quietly dropped. Uncle Jared, the baby's father, didn't want to press charges, so the police officer didn't detain Mom.

It was only after being subjected to a rather forceful talking-to that they both offered a clearly insincere apology. They gave a show of good faith, took the baby, and walked out of the police station.

I never once glanced at their direction. I was aware that involving the authorities at this point would have little effect, but it was of no consequence.

I still had time to deal with them. I fully anticipated that they wouldn't relinquish their opportunity to take advantage of me, after all.

I slowly made my way home, holding the acknowledgment receipt from the police station, with that same group of concerned neighbors walking behind me.

Just as I had foreseen, Mom lay in wait for me right outside the residential complex. She opted to ambush me at my place since she didn't dare to openly cause trouble for me at the police station. She was still holding on to the baby, while Uncle Jared was already long gone.

She was overly attached to Uncle Jared, her beloved younger brother. She had just returned from the police station, yet she still intended to force the responsibility for the baby onto me.

"You ungrateful brat!" she shouted. "How could you call the cops and get your own mother and uncle taken in, Damian!"

It was then that one of the neighbors jumped in to shield me. "And just what kind of mother are you talking about? What is this nonsense about an uncle? Damian is part of the Lister family! You have absolutely no claim over him!"

"That's right!"

"What's wrong with calling the police to have someone arrested?"

"If you have a clear conscience, then there's nothing to be afraid of!"

"Hmph! You only dared to show up and prey on Damian after Mr. Lister Senior passed away!"

"You have nothing to be afraid of, Damian! You see, we're neighbors who have watched you grow up since you were a baby. We won't let anything happen to you!"

Mom, already exhausted from waiting for so long under the sun with the baby, finally snapped under the barrage of accusations.

She flew into a hysterical rage, threatening to throw the baby on the ground if anyone spoke again. "If anyone lays a hand on me and the baby sustains any injury, I'll hold every one of you financially liable!"

She was straight up pulling an extortion act in broad daylight. She completely showed that a truly shameless person feared nothing. "Go ahead and talk trash about me again! Go on!"

She hoisted the baby above her head, instantly causing the crowd to recoil and maintain a wide distance.

I alone stood my ground, watching her pathetic spectacle as if she were some kind of caged animal. I inwardly dared her to drop the baby, wishing for that wretched baby to die right then and there. It would save others from his harmful existence in the future.

Mom, with an air of smug triumph, gathered the baby back into her arms, paying no attention to his strained cries.

"You have to take Matt home and raise him!" she ordered. "You're cousins with him, so it's your duty to help one another. You both share a similar background, so you of all people should sympathize with him, right?"

"Matt is so pitiful, Damian," Mom said. "How could you bear to let him go back and be tormented by Aunt Heather?"

I was stunned at how Mom had the audacity to bring up my background and ask me to sympathize with Matt. I stared at her as she spoke with an air that was utterly and impossibly calm.

I couldn't help but wonder why I had been so foolish in my past life. I completely failed to see the malice behind her mask, and for the sake of that hollow concept she called family, I gave her my entire life.

Hadn't Grandpa's years of raising me been more than enough to define family?

Yet I still chased after the birth mother who abandoned me, simply because we were related by blood.

I was the product of an affair. Mom had me during a sordid affair with a repairman, all while her husband, Nathan Trent, was working far from home.

Nathan was habitually unfaithful, using his work travel as an excuse to sleep around, leaving Mom alone to tend an empty house.

Mom had originally agreed to the marriage solely for the sake of Nathan's money and property. There was no real affection between the couple, but she was lonely, and human desires, repressed for years, finally broke her resolve.

She also reasoned that if men could cheat, then she could do it too. There were plenty of similar families in the village, and it was an unspoken rule that spouses were often unfaithful, after all. Thus, she concluded that a minor indiscretion on her part was acceptable.

It was nothing more than a passing affair with my biological father, as he already had a family of his own.

Their intention was clearly to have a casual, meaningless fling. So why did they allow me to be born if that was the case? Why did they refuse to take precautions if they wanted to have their fun?

Having discovered Mom's pregnancy, my biological father immediately disappeared without a trace. He was merely a transient worker who survived on sporadic work; even his identity was fake.

He fled with astonishing speed when accountability finally called. He couldn't even provide for his legitimate family, so there was no way he could possibly care about an illegitimate child.

Yet, despite all this, Mom stubbornly refused an abortion and insisted on bringing me into the world.

Uncle Jared had a gambling debt he dared not confess to my aunt, Heather Reed, so he had no choice but to extort money from Mom.

Mom devised what she believed was a perfect plan—that was to shift the paternity onto Nathan and use the pregnancy to get money from him.

Nathan, however, wasn't a fool. He was perpetually absent and unaware of the truth, but the neighbors living nearby were keen observers. They had clearly witnessed the unknown man entering and leaving the house of a married woman, who lived alone, a couple of times.

Nathan might have ignored Mom's affairs, but he drew the line at allowing an illegitimate child to muddy his family's lineage. He adamantly refused to raise another man's son.

Mom was heavily pregnant when she realized that her scheme had failed. She had no choice but to carry me to term at that point. She gave birth in the hospital, was discharged that same day, and proceeded to simply abandon me wherever she could.

I was abandoned right outside the entrance of Grandpa's store. He was the one who found me and raised me as his own. If I hadn't been lucky enough to meet such a kind person, I probably would have died long ago on that snowy night.

Having disposed of me, her bastard child, Mom successfully returned to a peaceful and harmonious life with Nathan. She even had a son with him.

Their marriage looked flawless from the outside, as if the couple had never once had any disagreement. They had managed to deceive everyone before, and it was clear they would continue to coast along on that pretense.

In the end, they still managed to achieve their perfect, harmonious family life. I was simply discarded, rendered invisible, as though I had never existed in Mom's life at all.

I would have kept my peace if she had just stayed away permanently. Instead, after abandoning me when I was a baby, she waited until Grandpa had finished the hard work of raising me to reappear and demand the spoils.

It all started when I was vulnerable at Grandpa's funeral. I inherently looked for the good in every person since Grandpa had raised me to be kind.

Mom and Uncle Jared, wearing genuinely remorseful expressions, paid their respects to Grandpa and cried as they apologized to me.