Chapter 3

Ten years ago, on a night like this, my sister had burst into the dorm room, soaking wet, clutching James' scholarship application form tightly to her chest.

Back then, her eyes had sparkled: "Olivia, he said he'd buy me a diamond ring once he becomes a professor."

Yes, my sister had always been deeply in love with James.

James' current position was entirely due to my sister's support.

In high school, James had fallen for my sister at first sight - she was from a wealthy family and excelled academically.

He'd said, "Amelia, I can't give you much now, but I can give you my whole heart."

Under James' gentle advances, my sister had gradually fallen for him.

They finished high school together, did their master's together, their PhDs together, and finally stayed on as faculty at the same university.

When James couldn't afford tuition, my sister paid for him.

When James struggled with his research, my sister comforted him.

When James was awkward at social events, my sister worked the room for his projects, putting on countless fake smiles.

A young man from a rural area, who originally couldn't afford tuition and was about to drop out.

After meeting my sister, his life took an upward trajectory, eventually becoming a top professor.

Amidst the shrill alarms of the monitors, I saw my sister's fingers twitch through the glass.

The prayer beads Mrs. Thompson had thrown at her were still wrapped around her pale wrist, the sandalwood beads gleaming a dark red under the cold fluorescent lights.

Three months ago, when I'd burst into the Thompson house, these supposedly blessed beads had been grinding into my sister's hand. Lily had leaned into James' embrace, chuckling lightly: "Don't upset yourself, Mrs. Thompson. Amelia just can't have children, it's not like she deliberately killed your grandson."

This was the home my sister had protected for ten years.

Mrs. Thompson had always used my sister's inability to have children as an excuse to treat her poorly.

She would berate my sister daily, and my sister often cried secretly in her room, hating herself for not being able to bear a child.

"Olivia, what are you standing there for?" Mrs. Thompson suddenly grabbed my collar, her prayer beads digging into my collarbone. "Hurry up and buy some brown sugar for your brother-in-law! Lily says her stomach hurts and she wants ginger tea!"

I looked at this old woman who had once knelt in front of the Wells' mansion begging for tuition money. Now she wore a jade bracelet my sister had given her, but used her gold-ringed finger to jab at my chest: "You jinx, all you Wells women are bad luck!"

I had long known about my brother-in-law's affair. That day in the lab, I'd seen James holding Lily.

His suggestive fingers had slipped off her clothes, and I knew then that my seemingly upright brother-in-law had finally given in to temptation.

Lily gently pushed James away with her small hand, as if reluctantly: "James, we shouldn't be doing this."

I had run back to the Thompson house in a rage, intending to tell my sister about James' infidelity.

But I found my sister crouched in the Thompsons' bathroom, scrubbing the toilet. Mrs. Thompson had thrown her blood-stained underwear on my sister's head: "If you can't have children, you should at least absorb some human energy."

After returning home, I checked all of James' papers, only to discover that the first authorship that should have belonged to my sister had been changed to Lily!

But this experimental data was clearly my sister's!

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