Chapter 14
“Adam, listen to me. I didn’t mean to do it.”
Grace cried pitifully, which, however, failed to move Adam in the least.
“You didn’t mean it? So, tell me who! Amanda, or me?”
Adam was overwhelmed by anger at being deceived and remorse for misunderstanding Amanda.
Adam was in great pain, and he did not show his usual tenderness for Grace.
“Grace, I can’t understand why you did that.
“You own everything you want. The Hacker family favors you so much, and they all consider Amanda as an outsider, and even if Amanda came back, it wouldn’t affect your position at all.”
“And what about you? Did she affect you?”
After realizing that she could not convince Adam, Grace simply put aside all considerations.
“Adam, when Amanda came back, was your heartstring touched? And did it affect my position in your heart?”
Grace looked at Adam with a desolate expression in her eyes.
That question came to Adam like a bolt from the blue, and for an instant he was dumbfounded.
Seeing Adam’s reaction, Grace laughed at herself.
“Now I see. When I mentioned it, you realized that Mom and Dad hadn’t changed since Amanda’s return, but you had. At first, I thought you just found her intriguing, with a sense of freshness, but later, even the way you looked at her changed.”
Grace’s tone became filled with hatred.
“Adam, when Amanda forced her way into our relationship, when your favoritism towards her grew, and yet you remained utterly oblivious, how could I not feel jealous, and how could I not resent her!”
Tears fell in large drops from Grace’s eyes.
“Watching Amanda captivate you so effortlessly filled me with an unprecedented sense of crisis. If you, who spent the most time with her, could unknowingly shift to her side, would Mom, Dad, and Terry eventually do the same?
“So I had to make Amanda leave, to vanish from our sight. But that wasn’t enough. And I had to destroy her image in all of your hearts. I needed to turn her into a villain, into someone utterly despicable!”
Upon hearing those words, Adam gradually went from disbelief to disappointment.
“Grace, when did you become like this?”
“Well, how did I become like this?”
Grace cried and laughed, as if she were just repeating Adam’s words or questioning herself.
Grace suddenly looked up, her voice almost hoarse with desperation. “It’s all because of Amanda, that bastard. Why did she have to come back? The moment she returned, you changed. Her existence constantly reminds me that I’m a fraud and that I’m nothing but a genuine clown!”
“Grace, how could you think like this?” Terry said.
“Mom, Dad, and I have always been on your side, but how could you do that?”
Terry instantly welled
ed up with tears. “Mom, Dad, and I trusted you so much and treated you so well. How could you turn out to be this kind of person?” Some words from Terry hurt Grace.
As Grace looked at Terry’s heartbroken expression, instead of feeling any guilt, a strange sense of satisfaction inexplicably rose within her.
It was a kind of perverse delight, the thrill of manipulating everyone as if they were mere pawns in Grace’s hands.
Grace wiped away the tears from her face.
And then, Grace curled her lips into a faint smile. “I have always been like this. I am not like the members of the Hacker family, who are naive and kind. I was born a villain. Does that satisfy you?”
“No one has ever said that you are not part of the Hacker family!”
