Five years into my blindness. My husband, Franklin, brought me our newly taken family portrait. He guided my hand to touch the faces in the frame one by one. His voice whispered gently in my ear: "On the left is your dad, on the right is your mom. This is our daughter Yolanda, and us two in the middle." "Gwen, it doesn't matter if you can't see. I will always be your eyes." I was about to tell him the surprise that my vision had returned. But the words were swallowed back hard. Because in that photo titled "Family Portrait," all I saw were strangers. My "Dad," my "Mom." I didn't recognize a single one. Watching my husband introduce them with such care, I couldn't help clenching my fists, nails digging deep into my palms. An 8-year-old girl ran over and held my husband's hand. "Daddy, why waste words with this blind woman?" I looked down and saw her face clearly for the first time. She didn't look like me at all. If the people in the photo weren't my parents, then whose child was this girl in front of me... And where are my real parents and daughter now? Chapter 1 "Yolanda, don't talk to Mommy like that! Apologize to Mommy, now!" Franklin pulled Yolanda to his side. Yolanda stiffened her neck, glaring at me with venom. "I did nothing wrong! I won't apologize to a blind woman!" After she finished, she turned and ran to her room. Passing by me, she deliberately bumped into me. I stumbled a step, stabilizing myself. "Gwen, don't mind the child. She's ignorant. We'll educate her properly later." I didn't speak, just reached out, touching the family portrait again. Fingertips slid over the cold, hard faces of the strange man and woman. The day of the shoot. Under my constant urging, my parents finally agreed to fly back from abroad specially to see me, promising a surprise. I remember when I reached out to touch "Dad's" hand, it felt wrong. The skin was too rough compared to my memory. I remember smelling "Mom's" perfume. It wasn't her usual jasmine scent, but a pungent, cheap smell. I asked Franklin then: "Honey, why do I feel... something is wrong?" Franklin held my hand, chuckling in my ear. "Silly, parents are getting old. It's normal for skin and preferences to change." "You're just too sensitive." Yes, I was too sensitive. He used "you are too sensitive" to wipe away all my doubts. Thinking about it now, that wasn't sensitivity. That was the alarm of blood ties. "Today is our fifth wedding anniversary. I prepared a gift for you." He took out a rough perfume bottle and brought it to my face. "Specially customized for you, unique in the world." I clearly saw the bottle in his hand, printed with a cheap brand logo. My gaze fell on the trash can not far away. There lay a convenience store receipt, amount: $2.99. I looked up, facing him. "Franklin..." "Are you... hiding something from me?" The smile on Franklin's face froze for a second, but soon, he sighed. "Gwen, why would you think that?" "Did blindness make you suspicious? Don't be afraid, I'm here. I will never lie to you." As soon as Franklin finished speaking, the phone in his pocket rang. It was a video call. "It's Secretary Linda. Should be something urgent at the company." With that, he answered the call calmly in front of me. Screen lit up. I clearly saw, on the other end. A woman wearing only black lace lingerie, lying lazily on a bed. In her mouth, she held a condom wrapper. "Mr. Sterling, there are... so many documents waiting for you to sign at the company. When are you coming?" Franklin's Adam's apple rolled. "I'll be there right away. Get the materials ready." He hung up, turned, and grabbed his coat. "Gwen, there's an emergency meeting at the company. I must go now." My brain was buzzing. This "Secretary Linda" wasn't calling at this time for the first time. In the past five years, I heard her coquettish voice calling "Mr. Sterling" countless times. I thought it was business, never cared. Turns out, the truth was so unbearable. I looked up, staring straight at him. "Is the company... really that busy?" Franklin's body stiffened, then he walked over and patted my head. "Yes, many projects recently, all for our family. Be good and wait for me at home." Lies. Such practiced lies. His vows from before echoed in my mind. "Gwen, even if the whole world betrays you, I will never deceive you." It was mocking my stupidity. It was telling me I was a huge joke. I lowered my head, a bitter metallic taste rising from the root of my tongue. Chapter 2 Franklin left home hurriedly with the excuse of "company emergency." I walked towards the study. That was where Franklin spent most of his time at home. I hadn't set foot there in five years. I pushed open the study door. On the central desk stood an exquisite silver photo frame. In the frame, it wasn't a photo of Franklin and me. It was Franklin, Yolanda, and that lingerie-clad Secretary Linda from the video. A "family of three" portrait. So, this is his true family in his heart. Yolanda, that woman, and him. What am I? A raised blind woman? A tool convenient for him to seize my family property? Five years of marriage, turns out to be a complete scam. On the table, a luxuriously made wedding album was spread open. I reached out, fingertips trembling as I flipped through it. Every page was Franklin and that Linda. Every photo was showing off their happiness. I flipped to the last page. On the commemorative card, the date of the wedding photos was printed. I stared dead at that date. Blood all over my body froze instantly at this moment. That day. It was the day I lay alone on the cold hospital bed, giving birth to my daughter via C-section. He said, "Gwen, sorry, I'm stuck at an overseas conference, really can't make it back." He said, "When I return, I'll make it up to you and the baby." Tears finally filled my eyes. Ridiculous. Laughable. The huge shock made my vision blacken. I stumbled backward. Body hit an unlocked file cabinet nearby. Clang— The top drawer was knocked open. A thick document in a kraft paper bag slid out and fell to the floor. I looked down. The text on the document came into view. Icy chill rushed from the soles of my feet to the top of my head. I was cold all over. Chapter 3 The next day. I dialed a number. It was my family's driver, Uncle Wang. He had been with my dad for decades, watching me grow up. "Uncle Wang, it's me, Gwen." "Miss Gwen?" The voice on the other end was full of surprise. "Uncle Wang, my parents... are they in good health recently?" Long silence on the other end. Just as my heart sank to the bottom, Uncle Wang's voice came, full of endless grief. "Miss... you... you really don't know?" "The old master and madam... passed away in a car accident four years ago!" Boom—! My brain went blank. Car accident... passed away... No. Impossible. Franklin clearly told me they went to travel around the world. He even read me the postcards they sent back. Those were all fake? I held the phone, body trembling uncontrollably, unable to say a word. Cold. Bone-piercing cold. I seemed to see the tragic state of my parents lying in a pool of blood. And I, their daughter, was kept in the dark like a fool. "Miss? Are you still listening?" Uncle Wang's anxious voice pulled me back to reality. I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down. "Uncle Wang, tell me everything you know." "Yes... four years ago, on the way home from the company, Master and Madam were hit by an out-of-control truck... died on the spot..." Uncle Wang's voice choked. "But the truck driver disappeared and was never found." "Son-in-law Franklin handled all the funeral arrangements. It was him... he fired all of us old staff." I hung up the phone, body sliding down the cold wall slowly. Tears surged out silently. Four years ago. Fragments of memory flooded into my mind instantly. It was starting from four years ago that my parents, who loved me most, stopped calling me frequently and stopped visiting me often. Franklin said they were getting old and wanted to travel the world while they still could. Since then, I almost lost contact with them. Dad, Mom. Sorry. Your daughter is unfilial. I wiped my tears. Now is not the time to be weak. There is still my daughter. I still have questions in my heart. I immediately contacted my own people. "Get me a DNA test right away!" "Check, all records after my daughter was born, was she switched?" "And find out all details of my parents' car accident, including that missing driver." Chapter 4 I changed clothes and sneaked out of the house. Arrived at the Sterling Villa, the home I grew up in. I didn't go through the front door. Familiarly, I infiltrated the villa's garden, returning to my own home. I squatted behind the bushes, looking inside through the bright floor-to-ceiling windows of the first-floor living room. Just one glance, my blood curdled. In the living room, that strange couple from the fake family portrait was wearing my parents' favorite loungewear, sitting on the sofa, watching TV leisurely. Franklin and that female secretary were sitting opposite them. On Franklin's face was a doting look I had never seen before. The secretary held Franklin's arm intimately, pointing at the wall with her other hand. Hanging on the wall were photos of my parents. "Frank, these photos are too unlucky. Change them to ours tomorrow, okay?" "Okay, whatever you say. This is our home anyway." My home... My home was occupied by a group of thieves! Franklin, you beast! My nails dug deep into my palms, but I felt no pain. The phone in my pocket vibrated suddenly. I clicked open the message with trembling hands. Inside were two files. The first one. [According to DNA genetic marker analysis results, sample Gwen Sterling is excluded as the biological mother of Yolanda.] Drops of scalding tears smashed onto the cold screen. Although expected, the word "Excluded" still pierced my last fantasy like a knife. Yolanda, indeed, is not my daughter. Then where is the daughter I carried for ten months and risked my life to give birth to? My child, where is she now? I wiped my tears and opened the second file. It was a photo. A skinny, mud-covered little girl was curling up by the trash can downstairs of my apartment, rummaging for food. I rushed home. Right in the corner of the unit entrance, I saw her. My biological daughter... Turns out, on the second day of birth, she was taken away from me by Franklin. Then given to others to raise. She was being surrounded by a few older kids, pushed and insulted. "Little beggar! Get away! Don't dirty our place!" She held her head, small body curled into a ball, silent. I looked at her dirty face and those stubborn eyes. Too similar. Exactly like me when I was little. A hot tear dropped onto the back of my hand without warning. I always knew about this child. The little girl mentioned many times by neighbors, picking trash downstairs every day! When I was blind, I heard her faint crying many times. I asked Franklin: "Who is crying?" Franklin said: "A wild child no one wants, crazy. Stay away from her, don't get hurt." Turns out, not a wild child, but my daughter. She has always been by my side. Within reach. But I believed the devil's lies and passed her by again and again. Bang! A boy kicked her in the back. Her small body flew out like a leaf, hitting the wall heavily. "Stop!" I rushed over, hugging her tightly in my arms. I took off my coat, wrapping her cold body. She looked up, looking at me timidly. I wiped the mud off her face with trembling hands. She looked at me, big black and white eyes filled with tears. "Don't be afraid... Mommy is here." My voice trembled. After a long time, she used a mosquito-like voice. "M...Mom..." My tears could no longer be held back, pouring out. I held her tightly, tightly in my arms. How I wished to make up for the hugs missed in these five years all at once. Franklin. Listen well. The suffering my daughter endured, I want you to pay back a thousand, ten thousand times over.
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