A Call That Changed Her Entire Life

The next morning, Debby and Andrew came to visit Emily in her apartment. They knocked on her door as if nothing had ever happened.

Ideally, they would have laid low for a few days, but Mark pressured them so much with fear and greed that they had to come for Emily again.

To their surprise, Emily opened the door this time without hesitation, even though she shot them an unfriendly glance, and said, "Dad, Mom, what are you doing here?"

"Emily, I'm glad to see you. We're sorry and we hope you don't blame us for what happened before. I've brought you some breakfast. Go ahead and eat it, before it gets cold," said Debby.

Puzzled, Emily looked at the warm breakfast in Debby's hand and said, "Sure. Just leave it there. Thanks."

The couple were expecting a different kind of response from Emily, so they studied the dark beads of her eyes, doubtfully suspecting whether Emily knew what happened last night in the hospital.

'Surely Jack would have told her everything.

But it seems like she had no idea whatsoever!' Debby and Andrew thought.

Debby said tentatively, "Emily, when you were at the hospital last night, your father and I went to see you, but Jack went berserk and kicked us out... Did he tell you anything about that?"

"No," answered Emily. Emily hoped that Debby would willingly explain what had happened, and as long as her explanation was coherent and reasonable, she would believe them over Jack. "What's wrong? What happened?" she asked.

Emily's uncertainty relieved Debby's worries. Unperturbed, Debby confidently continued weaving her lies, "No, we just had an argument because Jack wasn't letting us see you. In the end we decided to avoid making a scene at the hospital and left."

Debby's eyes widened with feigned concern as she said, "Emily, you need to be more mindful of your health in the future..."

Strangely enough, Debby's words raced a shiver through her instead of making her feel better. Anxious, trickles of sweat ran down the back of her neck.

you don't mind, I'd like to get some rest, please," said Emily. Impatient, Emily interrupted Debby before she could finish and shooed

stood her ground and said, "We will leave once you finish eating

She wondered why they insisted on watching her eat her breakfast. 'Is there something in the breakfast?' Emily

reaction from her parents. When she picked up the

looked at the soybean milk, and then took a small sip pretending to be nonchalant.

seeing Emily take a sip of the soybean milk. "Emily, we need to go

answered Emily. Then she stood up and walked them out the door, before

rushed to the trash bin and spit out the soybean milk. Emily faked drinking the soybean milk in front of her parents to trick them.

spitting every last bit of it out, she washed her hand and stuck her finger down her throat to force herself to puke out

expression on her face,

was in denial. She eagerly hoped that Jack was

the hospital to get it tested. She dreaded every second she had to wait

afraid of being proven wrong by the

to make some comprehensive tests..." The chemist's voice rang in Emily's ears, but she

clutched the test results in her hand, frozen like a statue on the bench. Benumbed, her instincts had blocked the rest of the world out from her

poison her with

Jack

her breath coming in hitching gasps.

Debby and Andrew, loved Tina over her. She considered them to be her biological parents because they are the ones who had raised her as one of

what was Emily to

didn't even bother to discard? Did they have the right to treat her like a dog and take her for granted, just because