They Loved Me for Twenty Years, Then Proposed to the Maid’s Daughter Chapter 2

I took a cab back to the villa. The moment I stepped through the door, a jet of cold water hit me full in the face, soaking me to the bone.

“Oh, Audrey, I’m so sorry!” Mina cried, holding a garden hose. She didn’t turn off the water until I was completely drenched. “I was watering the flowers. I didn’t see you.”

I blinked, trying to clear my vision. My eyes fell on the garden bed. The Mina of the valley flowers I had painstakingly cultivated for years were gone, ripped out. In their place were rows and rows of garish, bright red roses.

A gust of cold wind swept through the yard, and a wave of nausea and dizziness washed over my post-surgery body. I swayed, nearly collapsing.

David and Ethan exchanged a look of pure contempt, as if mocking me for putting on a show the moment I returned.

“Audrey,” David drawled, “I thought you had more backbone than that. I didn’t think you’d ever come back.”

“Her own mother doesn’t even want her,” Ethan sneered. “Where else would she go?”

A sharp pain lanced through my chest. I remembered the day I first arrived at the Hayes mansion. Ethan had held my hand, trying everything to make me smile. “Don’t be scared, Audrey,” he’d said. “This is your home now.”

David had given me the largest and best room in the house. When the three of us moved into this villa for work, he had remembered all my preferences, decorating the master suite just for me. He had declared to everyone that I was, and always would be, the irreplaceable lady of the house.

Everything changed the day Mina arrived, under the guise of helping her mother, the housekeeper. She spent her days either clinging to the brothers or “accidentally” breaking my things. At first, I was patient, understanding that she was unaccustomed to our world. But she grew bolder, eventually shattering a jade pendant my father had left me, right in front of my eyes.

When I finally confronted her, David pushed me away. “Mina’s had a hard life,” he’d said, his brow furrowed. “You’re a princess who’s had everything handed to you. Why do you have to pick on a simple girl who doesn’t know any better?”

“She’s younger than me,” Ethan had added. “You’re the older one. Can’t you just let things go?”

Clutching the broken pieces of my father’s pendant, I felt a profound sense of confusion and helplessness for the first time.

After that, I was no longer the center of their universe. The housekeeper’s daughter had slowly, methodically, replaced me. She was the new mistress of the villa, and I was being pushed out.

Fine. There was nothing left for me here.

I went inside, intending to pack, only to find all my belongings thrown in a heap in the hallway. David stood there with his arm around Mina, looking down at me.

“Audrey, you need to understand your place,” he said coldly. “You’re nothing but a parasite, living off our family. You have no right to look down on Mina, and you certainly have no right to throw your princess tantrums at her.”

“From now on, you’ll live in the maid’s room. Mina will be taking over your responsibilities at the company. I’m transferring you to logistics. You can stay there until you learn some humility.”

Ethan then ripped the head off the teddy bear my mother had given me, tossing it to Mina to make her laugh. “Big sister Audrey,” he cooed, his voice laced with menace, “if you make Mina unhappy again, I won’t be so gentle next time.”

Big sister Audrey. The way he said it now was a world away from the adoration it once held.

The old me would have been heartbroken, unable to sleep for nights. But I was leaving. I had no time or energy to argue.

“You’re right,” I said quietly. “I’ll move out as soon as possible. And don’t worry about transferring me. I quit.”

David scoffed. “So, you’re determined to be a useless freeloader, living off our family forever.” He sighed. “Fine. For my mother’s sake, I won’t argue with you this time. Just remember your place from now on.”

I walked past him, my voice barely a whisper. “There is no ‘from now on.’”

This place held so many beautiful memories. But it was never my home.