Chapter 3

I watched him grow more miserable each day, and eventually I went back to the clubs. I just hid it better.

He was an artist with principles. I could be the “dirty” club girl.

He said that once his paintings became famous, he would give me a good life. We would never have to live in the slums again.

I looked forward to that day. I believed he could do it.

And he did.

One of his paintings won a national award, making him famous overnight.

Then he vanished.

The next time I saw him was after the Whitmores brought me home. He attended the family dinner as Chloe’s fiancé.

After he became famous, the Hayes family had found him. They recognized him as their youngest son, who had been abducted years earlier.

Just like that, Ethan became Ethan Hayes.

And Ethan Hayes wanted to cut away every trace of the boy he had been.

That past was humiliating to him.

Even if I was part of it.

Chloe sobbed so hard she looked ready to faint.

“I don’t care that I got hurt, but that painting means everything to me. Lily, please give it back.”

Our parents immediately turned on me.

“Lily Brooks, hand over that painting.”

“If you don’t return Chloe’s painting right now, we’ll have no choice but to put justice above family and take you to the police!”

Family?

When had they ever treated me like family?

“Why will you only believe Chloe? Why won’t you believe me?”

“We raised Chloe. We know what kind of person she is. She wouldn’t lie.”

“But you? We thought you might have changed after two years with us. Apparently, you’re still as rotten as ever!”

The small hospital room felt so suffocating I could barely breathe.

“Then call the police.”

When I got home, I found all my belongings packed up and thrown into the yard.

I asked the housekeeper what was going on.

“Your parents ordered it. They said you’re not allowed back in this house until you return Miss Chloe’s painting.”

They had thrown me out.

It was finally time to wake up from this little dream of finding my family.

When the Whitmores first found me, I’d been so excited I couldn’t sleep all night.

I thought I finally had a family. Even when they treated me badly, I accepted it.

I kept believing that one day, they would accept me.

I had entered that house with one suitcase. I left with one suitcase, too.

Over the next two days, I lost my job. Hotel after hotel refused to give me a room.

Someone discreetly hinted that the Whitmores and the Hayeses were behind it.

I gave a faint, cold smile, found a warm pedestrian underpass, and lay down in a corner without taking off my clothes.

In my dream, I was back a few years earlier. Ethan had painted me sleeping.

He had even included the drool.

I smacked him in embarrassment, and he laughed as he pulled me into his arms.

He said we would be together forever.

The past I dreamed of would never return.