Chapter 5

The poison is bitter.

But I am happy.

Doctor Father once told me this poison has no antidote. If I take it, I will die.

Doctor Father only freezes for a few seconds. Then he shoves his fingers into my mouth.

“You’re insane. Do you know what that is?”

He wrenched my jaw open and shoved his fingers down my throat.

His large hand patted my back forcefully.

Black blood trickled out of my mouth.

He watches. Waits. When the blood running from me fades from black to red, Doctor Father lets out a breath.

"Ivy, it was just a title. Was it worth dying over?"

Sir Father looks shaken too.

Now he believes I really want to die.

His voice trembles.

"Ivy, don't do anything stupid. Yesterday the four of us talked to Jade. She agreed to forgive you. After today, you can come back to the mansion. Julian will make you the anther Princess of Mafia. Just stop trying to die. We'll go back to how things used to be. Okay?"

Hearing that, tears spill from my eyes. They think I’m moved.

Then I drop to my knees in front of them.

"Doctor Father. Sir Father. Please. Just let me die."

Doctor Father explodes with rage. "Ivy, didn't you hear what we said—"

"I heard." There is no point hiding it anymore.

"But I don't want to go back to the house. I want to find my mother."

I tell them everything I heard in my head today.

Their expressions grow more and more complicated.

Finally, Doctor Father pulls me to my feet.

"Ivy, listen to me. Your mother is really dead."

He tells me my mother jumped into a lake. Don Father pulled her out. Doctor Father used every skill he had and still couldn't save her.

After she died, the four of them cut me out of her belly. Then they stayed by her body for seven days and seven nights.

They watched her rot. Watched her disappear from this world.

Doctor Father says what I heard might be a hallucination from shock. He suggests I stay with him if I won’t return to the house—if I behave, he won’t let anyone hurt me again.

I am about to shake my head when the sound of hooves slams through the courtyard.

I am about to shake my head when the sound of hooves slams through the courtyard.

Moments later Don Father and General Father rush in. frantic. “Silas, Cedric—have you seen Jade? She’s missing!”