(Trigger warning: Mention of sexual abuse.)
"Ruby! Stay away from her!" Lily directly pulled Ruby away as she looked at 'Sally' in panic.
Ruby felt pain from how hard Lily gripped her and felt confused. "Lily! Stop doing that. I know you don't like Sally that much, but please don't act like that!"
Lily shook her head and refused to elaborate. She could feel her adoptive parents looking at her. If this were before, she would have been over the moon the moment she was given attention. This time, she could barely even make eye contact with anyone.
She dragged Ruby despite her protest. Ruby was the only person who could make her feel a bit secure inside this home. A home she once treated as a new beginning that now felt like a cage imprisoning the sisters.
As she dragged Ruby away, she looked back. There was 'Sally' standing , smiling, with her neck twisted at a weird angle, just like how she died. Her adoptive parents watched from the side, not commenting, just silently observing the two of them leave the living room.
Lily felt like screaming but held herself back. Dragging Ruby to safety, she wanted to wait until their big sister came back.
...
The scene shattered once again. This time, Xievian found himself standing in the middle of a funeral.
Xievian looked at the crowd of people and didn't see any family. There was only a single coffin at the center. He approached the coffin and peeked inside.
It was Annie.
Based on what she looked like, she didn't seem to have died from a tragic accident. Her body looked intact, very different from the one that had attacked him before in the mausoleum.
Xievian continued walking around but didn't see any of the sisters, not even the eldest one.
With no other choice, he sat at the side and tried to listen to the gossipmongers.
"The Silvia family was plagued by bad luck."
"Yeah, something happened to all their daughters. First, their biological daughter died from asthma. Now, their five adopted daughters seem to be falling one by one."
"It's said that the eldest went insane, the second committed suicide, the third died from cancer just recently, and the fourth was a victim of a hit-and-run."
"Hearing that sounds ominous. Maybe they just weren't fated to have a child?"
"The youngest seems to be fine."
"Well, for now."
Xievian was speechless after digesting all that information. It was total annihilation. No wonder the sisters were now here. Annie died from cancer? That was new information to him.
There seemed to be nothing else to discover here, but since the scene didn't end, something was probably coming up.
"Let go of me! ANNIE! ANNIE!"
All the guests stopped talking. They all collectively turned their heads toward the entrance and saw a wretched-looking woman screaming, with two guards pulling at her shoulders.
Xievian was familiar with that face, it was the eldest, Emi.
Emi had scratches all over her face. Her shoulders were covered with purple bruises, and parts of her hair were unevenly cut. She looked very bad, the definition of a madwoman.
Among the sisters, Emi and Sally actually had a lot of resemblance. When Emi was lying in the coffin, Xievian never really had the opportunity to analyze her facial structure. This time, despite seeing her in that condition, it was undeniable that she was a beauty.
Emi was now biting and clawing at the guards. Their adoptive mother, Lucy, came out and tried to calm her down. "Emi, stop doing that. If Annie were still here, she would be very sad seeing you in such a state."
Looking at Lucy, Emi became even more berserk. She stopped attacking the guards and lunged at Lucy. The guards managed to stop her, but she kept yelling, "You and your husband are devils! The two of you are the manifestation of wickedness! I agreed, I relented, I compromised! But look at what you did to my sisters! You killed them all!"
Lucy cried. Covering her face, she sobbed like a heartbroken mother. "Emi, I know you're blaming us. You're cursing us for adopting you all as siblings, right?"
Looking at the weak and vulnerable Lucy, many people were on her side.
"How ungrateful. They were given a good life after being adopted. How could she say that?"
"While the lineup of their daughters dying sounds ominous, it's basically all just unfortunate accidents."
One woman even stepped forward and tried to convince Emi. "Girl, if you're hurting now, your mother must be in much more pain than you. Please don't blame her."
Emi let out an ear-piercing scream at the woman and struggled hard under the guards' tough hold. Xievian saw a group of men in white garb come in and inject Emi with what seemed like a tranquilizer.
Emi weakened. She was dragged by the guards toward the stretcher. The men in white garb strapped all her limbs and carried her away into the car.
Seeing that some guests felt dumbfounded by the scene, Lucy felt embarrassed but explained, "We plan to send Emi to a mental hospital for treatment. Just like you've seen, she's very violent at times, so we don't dare leave her under the care of untrained nannies, not just for our safety, but also for Emi's. She needs urgent help."
With that, many people nodded. Some of Lucy's friends went to comfort her. They consoled her, saying she did her best and shouldn't feel guilty. Lucy cried and said, "Being a mother, especially one who just lost almost all her daughters, is tough. Fortunately, I still have my Sally."
Xievian looked at the woman called Lucy with cold eyes. When Emi was sent inside the car, despite the tranquilizer, she still tried to fight back and writhed in her struggle. During it, her clothes were in a mess, revealing more injuries on her body.
It was vile. Her back was filled with scratch marks, her fingers were swollen, and most alarming of all, her inner thighs were filled with bruises, indicating a different type of abuse.
This 'mother' is a monster.