When I saw the look on Hailey's face, I quickly hurried after them. However, as I reached the stairwell corner, I heard Mom speaking proudly to her in a bright, satisfied voice.

"Finally, we can dump Caroline, that burden! She actually thinks I'd help her with treatment? I wish she'd drop dead!"

Mom affectionately patted Hailey's hand, and her eyes gleamed. "Hailey, haven't you always liked Ashton Lloyd? Now that Caroline is sick and probably doesn't have much time left, you'll finally get her boyfriend."

She continued, "And that job she just interviewed for will conveniently have an opening, too. I already asked someone to pull some strings and get you in."

Their wild laughter echoed through the stairwell, and I froze mid-step. My whole body went cold. I thought Mom had simply mixed up mine and Hailey's test results, but there was so much more scheming behind it all.

At this point, this went way beyond favoritism. To be precise, Mom not only did not see me as her daughter, but she did not even treat me like a human being either.

Oliver hurried up behind me, asking urgently, "This is an emergency. We need to admit the patient for surgery immediately. Will you be signing the consent forms, or will it be your mother?"

I looked at the surgery consent form and waved it away with a cold laugh. "Cancel the surgery. Hailey is the sick girl, and I have no obligation to worry about her!"

When I got home, I quickly packed up all my belongings and moved them to my rental apartment.

After finishing grad school, I had landed a great job and rented a cozy little place near the office. Compared to the two-story apartment in the city center where my family lived, my studio was not even as big as Hailey's bedroom. Nonetheless, it was the most comfortable space I could afford with the money I had saved from working part-time jobs throughout college.

After all, through four years of undergrad and three years of grad school, which was a total of seven years, Mom had not given me a single dime.

Every time tuition was due, she would pretend to be concerned and promise me, "Caroline, I'll definitely transfer your tuition to your account tomorrow! And don't worry about living expenses either–I'd never let you suffer!"

Forget living expenses; I never even saw the tuition money. I had to apply for financial aid and work part-time jobs just to barely scrape by with my studies and living costs.

The next month, Mom would video call me, looking all apologetic.

She would say she had been too busy last month and forgot to send the money, wiping away tears as she swore this month would be different. She would look at my increasingly gaunt face, crying about how she wanted to send me extra money so I could eat well and dress nicely while I was away in Airedale.

After being let down so many times, I had stopped foolishly waiting for any of her empty promises.

Action always spoke louder than words.

Still, Mom spun beautiful tales about how much she loved me with nothing but words. Her concern was always empty talk, and not a single dollar ever appeared. Fortunately, I had developed the determination and skills to support myself early on, so I did not need to keep living under her thumb.

I had just finished unpacking at my apartment when Mom called.

"Caroline, why aren't you home? You can't delay your treatment. We really need to get you checked into the hospital!"

Hearing her fake concern, I rolled my eyes, my expression blank. "I moved out. I'm living near work now, so it's more convenient for commuting."

When she heard that, her voice shot up a notch. "Work? Why are you still thinking about work? Caroline, when you're sick, you need to focus on treatment and stay in the hospital. I already called your office and told them you won't be coming in starting today."

I immediately sensed something was wrong and opened my messages.

Sure enough, there was a message from my supervisor.

[Caroline, just focus on your treatment and rest. Don't worry about work for now–we have someone covering for you.]

My heart sank.

Anyone could read between the lines of what she was saying. Mom had basically sabotaged my work, and the position I had worked so hard to get was being handed over to Hailey just like that.

"Hello? Caroline? Why aren't you saying anything? Just send me your address, and I'll come pick you up right now–"

"That won't be necessary," I cut her off coldly.

Asking for my address was not about picking me up. It was about pinpointing my location so she could keep controlling me.

"If you really care about me and want to help with my treatment, just transfer the medical costs to my account. You don't need to trouble yourself with taking me to the hospital."

I played along with her charade, hoping to shut her down and end the conversation. After all, I needed to call my supervisor immediately to clear up this misunderstanding about work, and I did not have time for Mom's games.

However, Mom's tone stayed perfectly casual. "The medical expenses are something we need to discuss in person to sort out properly, don't you think? But you're not feeling well right now, so it's not convenient for you to come out."

She pretended to hesitate, though her voice could not hide its rising excitement. "How about this? Have Ashton come over to the house, and he can discuss the surgery details with us on your behalf!"

I nearly spit out the water I was drinking. It was obvious that she wanted my boyfriend to come over and go on a blind date with Hailey.

I brushed her off with a few vague responses, ended the call quickly, and dialed Ashton's number.

"So Mrs. Fisher mixed up your test results with Hailey's?"

I replied, "Yeah, and now she's gleefully scheming to steal my job and my boyfriend."

Ashton's tone had been light at first, but the moment he heard that, he turned serious.

"That's ridiculous! You worked so hard to land that job. How can she just give it away like that?" he ranted. "Don't worry, I'll explain and sort out the work situation for you. My family has had business dealings with that company before, and I know the CEO fairly well, so it shouldn't be a big issue."

He finally said, gently and helplessly, "Besides, I only like you. I don't even know Hailey, and we have nothing to do with each other. Whatever you want to do, I'll support you. Just don't push me off on anyone else, because you're it for me."

Hearing him say that, my furrowed brow finally relaxed.

Ashton and I had met at a college competition. Back then, he was the school's star student, tall and handsome, with outstanding grades and an incredibly wealthy family.

Even so, all those external qualities were actually the least impressive things about him.

We had connected through the competition, and as we got to know each other better, I discovered he was emotionally intelligent, gentle, and thoughtful.

When he felt bad about how hard I was working at my part-time job, he wanted to transfer money to me, but I refused. Instead, he quietly talked to my boss, asked him to stop giving me a hard time, and got my hourly wage raised significantly.

He knew I was stressed about tuition and could never bring myself to order meat dishes at the cafeteria, so he submitted a proposal to the campus that brought down the cafeteria menu prices and added a lot more nutritious options.

With his wealth, he could have easily just thrown money at me. But he knew I hated handouts, so he understood how to make my life a little better without making me feel indebted.

He was the first person who ever made me feel respected and safe.

All that, and Mom wanted to steal the person I treasured most and 'hand' him to Hailey.

My whole life, Mom had given to Hailey every piece of happiness and peace that should have been mine. Even the image of me as a hardworking, high-achieving student had been stolen and placed on Hailey.

She was planning to let me die without treatment so she could rob me of everything good left in my life.

I laughed softly. Too bad for her, things would not always go according to plan.

I was not sick at all! Hailey, on the other hand, was a different story.

I took a breath to calm myself, then said into the phone, "Don't worry, I'm not kind enough to push you to someone else.

"Ashton, I'm going to need you to go visit my mom tomorrow. We need to find out what they're planning next so we can deliver the killing blow."

Early the next morning, Ashton and I arrived at Mom's house at the agreed time. I clipped a tiny camera to Ashton's collar and slipped a voice recorder into his pocket. Once everything was ready, I slipped into the stairwell to monitor what was happening.

The moment Mom opened the door, her face was all smiles. "Oh, Ashton! It's been so long! I've been so busy lately, I haven't had a chance to invite you over for a meal together."

After welcoming Ashton inside, she quickly brought out tea and refreshments.

Hailey was sitting upright on the living room couch with heavy makeup on her face. It was obvious her outfit was brand new.

"Ashton, you must be tired! Here, have some fruit! Oh no, the tea's getting cold. Let me make you a fresh cup."

The neckline of Hailey's top was extremely low, and when she bent down in front of Ashton, the view was anything but classy.

I forced myself not to rush in and slap her. After taking a few deep breaths, I went back to watching the live feed on my phone.

Ashton did not spare Hailey even a glance, addressing Mom in a businesslike tone instead.

"Mrs. Fischer, why did you ask me to come here today?"

Mom rubbed her hands together with an awkward smile, looking troubled. "Ashton, I'm sure you've heard about Caroline's illness by now. It's pretty serious. The doctor said it's stage two cervical cancer, and if we're not careful, the cancer cells will keep spreading. I'm afraid it might not be curable."

Ashton's expression remained calm as he replied, "If Caroline is truly sick, I'll do everything I can to help her through it. But if something is untrue, then please don't make claims like that so casually, Mrs. Fisher. That would also be disrespectful to Caroline."

The moment those words left his mouth, Hailey's hand jerked while pouring tea. Scalding hot water spilled all over her hand, leaving her skin bright red.

Mom did not even bother comforting Hailey. Instead, she forced a laugh and pulled out a medical report, handing it to Ashton.

She said, "Why would I joke about something like this? It's right here in black and white!"

I chuckled quietly in the stairwell.

After our checkups at the hospital, Mom had only glanced briefly at our test results without checking the names properly. She instantly assumed I was the one with cancer.

She had never asked me for the report afterward, yet she had actually forged a fake report just to convince Ashton.

Her gaze darted around as she clumsily switched to a grief-stricken expression. "It breaks my heart as well, but I can't bring myself to keep this from you. Ashton, the truth is, Caroline has a very messy private life. She often sleeps around, which is how she got cervical cancer! The doctor said her case is too complicated, and treatment probably won't do any good anyway!"

Hailey chimed in from the side. "Yeah, exactly! Ashton, it's not too late to walk away now. You could always consider, you know, finding someone else to like. Someone like..."

Knowing exactly where she was going with that, Ashton had no interest in hearing more.

He was about to get up and leave when urgent knocking came at the front door.

I looked at the person standing outside, and my heart skipped a beat.