Your Love Failed Me the Way My Mother’s Never Did

Spencer looked utterly stunned.

Just as I shook my head and was about to speak, a nurse suddenly rushed over from a distance.

"Dr. Saint, it's bad!" she cried out. "Your sister woke up with a depression attack and was about to jump off the building!"

Agnes always had perfect timing when it came to her depression attacks.

When I ranked first in the city-wide mock exams and the school was about to honor me, her depression would flare up. When I was burning with a 40-degree fever, mustering the strength to call home, her depression would strike, too.

This time, I wasn't surprised at all.

Inside the ward, Agnes was sitting by the window, clutching a fruit knife in her hand.

"Dad, Mom, Spencer, Skyler. I'm so scared. I dreamed that they beat me again," she whimpered.

"They said they'd sell me to the hunchback in the village. Why didn't you find me sooner?"

Tears streamed down her face relentlessly.

Her heart-wrenching cries moved everyone present.

Even Stephen Saint, who'd long been hardened by the business world, had red eyes as he tried to soothe her. "Agnes, put down the knife. Come to Daddy! You're home now and I can give you anything you want!"

His wife, Addison Saint, the wealthy socialite, sobbed so hard she could barely breathe. "Agnes, you're Mommy's precious child! Please, sweetheart, come down now!"

Agnes began to mutter to herself, then pressed the knife against her own wrist. "But River doesn't like me. She said I don't deserve to be Mom and Dad's child, that I don't belong in the Saint Family at all."

"Then I might as well just die!" she screamed loudly as she stared at me with eyes full of hurt.

"River! Did you really say that to Agnes? Where did you get the nerve?"

Before I could even react, Skyler slapped me hard across the face and grabbed me by the hair, dragging me in front of Agnes.

"Agnes, don't believe River's words. You are the true daughter of our family! She's just an imposter!"

"Yes! River isn't our daughter—you are, Agnes!" Addison cried, rushing to speak.

Finally, the tears in Agnes's eyes stopped. She put down the knife and slowly climbed down from the windowsill.

"Agnes, be good. Give the knife to your brother. Don't hurt yourself," Spencer gently coaxed Agnes, trying to take the knife from her.

Just as he reached for it, Agnes suddenly shrieked. In the next heartbeat, the knife slashed fiercely toward me.

Swish!

The sharp blade tore a path from my forehead down to the corner of my mouth.

The burning, stinging pain instantly reminded me of my sophomore year of high school.

Back then, I had accidentally cut my index finger while chopping vegetables. When my mother came home, her eyes were filled with distress as she softly comforted me.

"It's okay, sweetie, it doesn't hurt." Her gentle words still echo in my ears until now.

I clutched my face and collapsed onto the floor.

"Ah! I didn't mean it! River, I'm sorry. I couldn't control myself." Agnes cried tearfully, then fainted.

Panic erupted in the room as everyone rushed to carry her out, leaving me alone on the cold floor with throbbing pain.

"Mom," I called out unconsciously as tears rolled down my cheeks. The salty tears traced the line of the cut, intensifying the stinging pain.

No matter how hard I tried to control it, the tears kept falling.

When I first arrived in this world as a baby, I was cautious, focused only on completing my mission to get my mother treated. But later, the Saint Family treated me better and better.

That's when I gradually became devoted to them, secretly delighted that I had received the love of two families.

However, reality taught me a cruel truth: that even the love of a family was not all the same.

After lying there for a few minutes, I pushed the sadness deep down inside. Covering my bleeding face, I slowly sat up.