Substitute No More: The Sister They Lost

After swallowing, my throat immediately began to burn. Sarah's eyes lit up as she linked her arm with mine affectionately. "See? Nothing happened! You must've been lying before."

My whole body turned cold, and my skin began to itch.

"Cynthia, let's go downstairs and open presents!" she said, her arm still around mine. "I got so many gifts this year."

Something similar happened last year. When Sarah first came back, she had pulled me along to open presents just like now. She unwrapped an exquisite music box and handed it to me to admire but deliberately let go of it during the handoff. The music box fell to the floor and shattered.

She immediately teared up and asked timidly, "Cynthia, do you not like that I came back?"

That day, the furious Joseph ordered me to crawl to her bedroom door and write an apology letter. Thomas just watched coldly. He even punished me by forbidding me to eat for a week. In the last two days, driven mad by hunger, I desperately begged the maid and finally got a piece of stale bread.

And now, history was about to repeat itself.

The red rashes on my body had already spread to my neck, and breathing was becoming increasingly difficult. I struggled to pull my hand away.

But Sarah gripped me tightly, her nails digging into my flesh. Her tone sounded aggrieved as if I were bullying her. "Cynthia, do you hate me?"

"Let go..." My vision was turning black from pain as I gritted my teeth and shook her off.

She staggered back two steps, her knee hitting the floor. She let out an exaggerated cry of pain. She clutched her leg, tears instantly streaming down her face. "It hurts!"

Joseph's expression changed dramatically as he rushed over to help her up and examine her carefully. There was just a small scrape, and it wasn't even bleeding. But his eyes had already turned cold.

"Cynthia!" He grabbed me by the collar. "Have you lost your mind? She was just trying to get close to you!"

"She was the one who..." Before I could finish, I was shoved to the ground.

My ears were ringing, and my throat had swollen to the point where I could barely speak. But none of them noticed anything wrong with me.

"I didn't... push her..." I struggled to defend myself.

"Still making excuses?" Thomas walked over with a cold laugh. "You know perfectly well that Sarah gets panic attacks when she's hurt. How can you be so vicious?"

My vision was already starting to blur, and my heart was beating so fast it felt like it might explode.

Joseph stared at me coldly, his eyes filled with extreme disappointment.

"Cynthia, you're truly beyond help. Go back to your room and reflect!"

I looked at him, dizzy and disoriented. This twisted man's face overlapped with the one who had pulled me out of hell all those years ago. That warm young man had disappeared long ago.

"Fine." I nodded and shakily stood up, but instead of heading to my room, I turned around and walked toward the front door.

"You dare to leave?" Joseph shouted sternly. "If you walk out now, don't even think about coming back!"

I didn't stop walking.

"Cynthia!" Thomas' voice carried a warning. "You'd better think this through. You have nowhere else to go besides here!"

They had always believed I couldn't survive without this place, that I could only live my entire life depending on them. But they were wrong.

I dragged my sick body away from the mansion district. The red rashes on my skin had spread, and my throat was so swollen that I could barely breathe. I had just reached a corner of the street when I heard hurried footsteps behind me.

"Cynthia!" Sarah caught up, clutching several crumpled bills in her hand. Her face still bore tear stains, and her tone was soft and weak. "Don't leave. Joe and Tom are just too angry. If you go back and apologize, everything will be fine."

Before I could reach for the money, Joseph and Thomas had already followed her out.

"Sarah, you're too kind," Joseph said, casting a cold glance at me. "She doesn't deserve your sympathy."

Thomas let out a mocking laugh and put his arm around Sarah's shoulder. "Let her go."

Sarah looked at me with feigned hesitation, then finally sighed with regret and kept the money.

"Alright then," she said quietly. "Cynthia, whenever you come to your senses, you can always come back."

I looked at them one last time. Sarah nestled in Thomas' embrace, and a victorious smile played at the corners of her mouth. She was certain that I would never be able to return after causing this scene.

Thomas frowned as he stared at me, like he was looking at a troublesome burden who didn't know better. Joseph's expression was a mix of anger and disappointment, without a trace of wavering.

I smiled lightly and waved my hand. Then, I walked into the night without looking back.

Behind me came Joseph's furious roar. "Cynthia Sinclair! Don't you regret this!"

Regret? I had been regretting it for a long time already. I regretted that I had once naively believed they would truly be my family.