Ezail lowered his head and reached out to hold my hand, but I quickly pulled away.
“Marla,” he said softly, “I may have lied to you, but my feelings were real.”
I almost laughed. How had I not seen how shameless he could be? He hid his lies behind sweet words and pretended to be pitiful, thinking I’d fall for it again even after learning the truth.
But I wasn’t that naive anymore.
Ignoring his sad expression, I pushed him toward the door. In the process, I accidentally kicked over a box by the entrance, spilling its contents onto the floor.
A photo album fell open, and Ezail’s eyes widened as he stared at a picture inside. "This is... you?" he asked, shocked.
I glanced at the photo—a young girl with a black birthmark covering part of her face, crying as she practiced dancing. Memories of my painful childhood flooded back, and I snapped, “It’s none of your business. Get out!
I slammed the door shut, but my gaze drifted back to the photo on the floor. The back of the picture was covered with neat, delicate handwriting. It was Margarette’s handwriting—so familiar, so unexpected.
“Marla rolled over for the first time today! Her smile is so beautiful!”
“My Marla is growing up. She looks so cute learning Taekwondo with the coach.”
“Marla said she hated me today. It hurt, but I know I’ve been too hard on her. One day, she’ll learn the truth about who she really is. Without real strength, no one can survive in the dangerous world of the Gregory family.”
I couldn’t believe what I was reading. My hands shook as I turned to the last page of the album.
“Marla, Holley, my daughters, I won’t live to see you get married…”
Suddenly, the rumors I had heard came flooding back.
The head of the Gregory family, Alexander, was always surrounded by scandal. While his wife, Amanda, who came from a humble background, silently endured her days. One day, a mistress confronted her, and in a fit of anger, Amanda pushed her, causing the mistress to miscarry.
In a tragic twist of fate, Amanda herself was pregnant at the time. From then on, he seemed to settle down, but the damage was already done.
What they didn’t know was that when she gave birth, the very same mistress was there, filled with resentment. The mistress secretly swapped the babies, replacing the Gregory family’s only daughter with the maid’s child, born on the same day.