Seven Years a Shadow: The Stand-In's Escape novel Chapter 28

My mother choked back a sob as she picked up a rib and handed it to me.

"South, I'm sorry."

"I know you're upset with me, but I was helpless in that family that valued boys over girls."

"Do you know, after you left, I never made sweet and sour pork ribs again?"

The sweet and sour scent filled my nostrils, and in an instant, I was thrown back into the cold winter of when I was four. I felt as though I was drowning, my tears falling in big drops.

My mother trembled as she tried to wipe my tears away.

"South, I admit I'm biased. I raised Yuna for twenty years and only raised you for four. Unconsciously, I treated her better."

"But South, it's my fault. Don't punish Yuna, okay?"

"On behalf of the four years I raised you, please donate your bone marrow to her. I know I was wrong, and I'll make it up to you!"

The person in front of me was someone I remembered as a comforting embrace. I longed for her love. I could never be as heartless as she was to me.

Strangely, I thought to myself: If Yuna could hold on until I gave birth to my child, would I donate?

That day, I never ate the sweet and sour pork ribs.

I am, perhaps, a dark-hearted person. I think that even after I gave birth, I probably wouldn't have been willing to donate bone marrow.

But perhaps my mother had conveyed some wrong message to Yuna.

When Yuna forcefully slammed into my stomach, shouting that she wanted to kill my baby, I had already anticipated the attack and easily dodged her.

She was quickly surrounded by medical staff and patients.

It seemed she had lost her mind, and when she realized she hadn't managed to harm my baby, she dropped to the floor and started ranting.

"If I can't kill your baby, I beg you!"

"Begging you, what's the big deal? Isn't it just that you deserve to be struck by lightning and die horribly, hahaha! I'm destined to die in a bad way anyway."