Seeing her cry, Natalie felt a faint twinge in her heart, perhaps a lingering bond of blood.


    Wendy sobbed uncontrobly. So this was how it felt to be misunderstood it was agonizing.


    "Natalie, I didn''te here to ask for money. It was because of your warning that I was able to get out in time and save the Don family."


    "I came today to thank you. Thank you for telling me everything that fraud Nathan did."


    "I know I was wrong in the past. I waspletely blinded, doting on his mistress''s daughter. And I''m also very grateful to you for saving Jared''s life."


    "Everything that happened before was my fault."


    Natalie listened to her sincere apology with a heavy heart. After reuniting with her biological mother, she had desperately craved her love.


    But what she received instead was her mother''s cruelest humiliations and endless disdain.


    The past was in the past. She said, "I don''t ept your apology. And I will never ept you as my mother again. We were never meant to be mother and daughter."


    Natalie''s words were absolute.


    Wendy knew she wouldn''t be forgiven, but she hadn''t expected such finality.


    "Natalie, I was wrong, I was truly wrong. I know the things I did to you, the words I said, are unforgivable."


    "But I realize my mistakes now. Natalie, I''ve already disowned Joanna. From now on, you''re my only daughter."


    Her words made Natalieugh, and she repeated Wendy''s own past statement back to her. "If I recall correctly, you once said that you only had one daughter, Joanna. That you didn''t have a daughter like me, that a daughter like me would only bring you shame."


    "You knew I was brought back from the countryside, but you weren''t even willing to publicly acknowledge me as your biological daughter."


    "Were you afraid I would embarrass you? I am the flesh that came from your own body, but how did you treat me when I returned?"


    "All my clothes were Joanna''s hand-me-downs. You ordered her million-dor gowns but wouldn''t even buy me a thousand-dor dress, saying I was only fit to wear clothes from a street stall."


    "What do I need you for?"


    "You gave birth to me, and I will remember that debt. When you turn sixty, I will pay whatever alimony the court orders me to pay."


    That was thest thing she could do for her.


    "Also, the reason I told you the truth


    was because you bore me. With


    that any debt towed you has been.


    paid in full. I owe you nothing more."


    Natalie sat there coldly, wondering why, despite telling herself she no longer cared, her heart still ached.


    Wendy knew this would be the oue. She knew Natalie''s temperament. The day she decided to leave, she would never forgive any of them.


    She was, in fact, incredibly brilliant. She had never said anything before because she didn''t want topete with Joanna.


    Only she, the mother, had been a fool,pletely oblivious.


    She had even witnessed some of the schemes firsthand.


    Joanna would provoke Natalie, and only then would Natalie strike her.


    But at the time, they all defended Joanna.


    Joanna was the one she had painstakingly raised, and she pitied her for not knowing her biological parents. That was why she had treated Natalie so poorly.


    It was all her fault.


    When her biological daughter returned, she was ashamed, and to maintain a good reputation, she imed Natalie was a sponsored foster child.


    A mother like her was truly awful.


    She stood up. "Natalie, I know I was wrong. In the future, can we..."


    "No. Because in my heart, you are all demons."


    "So, please, stop disturbing my life."