Reclaiming My Stolen Life

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"You want an apology? Keep dreaming."

Like hell I'd ever admit fault to her. Vincent Henson tried to rush me, but my own dear father stopped him.

"Someone bring the whip. Family discipline. The Henson name won't be dragged through the mud by this girl. There's no order without rules."

"Oh, please. Setting rules over a fake—now I've seen everything. Even the noble houses of old feared muddling their bloodline, but you? You're happy to raise a counterfeit, and proud of it too."

【Host, this is an abuse plot, not a power fantasy. Stay in character.】

【Let them abuse me? On what grounds? My life, my call. I'm going to die either way, so face it—you rotten System, you're the two-faced snake's little undercover agent, aren't you? Trying to sabotage me. Well, I refuse to give you the satisfaction.】

I shifted. The paralysis drug was almost worn off. Even a punishment came with a time limit. I stared at the whip in my father's hand, hungry for blood.

"Unfilial girl, today I'll teach you properly what it means to honor your brother and respect your parents."

"Dear Father, you'd better beat me to death. Otherwise all of you are dying with me."

"Dad, don't hit her. Hit me instead. I'm the one who took everything from her. She's right to blame me, right to hate me. I'll just leave."

Gayle spun around and crumpled to the floor in a faint, and the whole family swarmed to her. I stood there like an outsider who didn't belong.

"This is all your fault. You had to keep pushing Gayle. She's innocent and kind, and your ugly, vicious countryside face isn't worth a single finger of hers."

My fists clenched so hard the skin on my palms split, my fingertips slick with blood.

"I came back for exactly this—to disgust you and this fake."

Gayle looked ready to cough up blood, listening to me call her a fake with every breath. All around us, people were starting to look at her differently.

"I think I really should go, Mom."

"No. You're my precious darling. You can't leave."

But they didn't dare tell me to go either, because they'd brought me back for a reason. Otherwise they never would have looked for me at all.

I shifted again, strength finally seeping back into my body.

"Everything was fine before you came back. The moment you showed up, Gayle's either sick or drowning or getting threatened. You're a jinx."

I looked at this brother of mine. Supposedly we were fraternal twins, and we did look alike, but his heart was nothing like mine.

I tore free of the men holding me and went straight at him with a kick.

"Are you my twin or hers? Calling me a jinx—like you're any better?"

"You, you—you're just throwing a tantrum!"

Vincent couldn't get a single sentence out, glaring at me red-faced, stuck on you, you, you and me, me, me.

"Sister, don't pick on him. If you have a problem, take it out on me. Let him go, I'm begging you."

"Then you can take it in his place."

"Stop it, you unfilial girl."

Just as my hand swung down at her, my dear father's whip came lashing at me.

"Thwack!"

"Dad, don't hit her. Hit me. I'll take her punishment for her."

"Look at your sister. Everything she does is for you. And you—heart like a viper, too blind to know good from bad."