Chapter 3

Although asked casually, Isha's question stirred up a clamor in the crowd. The majority thought she was right.

They wondered how careless the hospital could be, knowing the numerous cameras that were usually placed there. Murmurs rose from the crowd, with some of them absolutely certain that someone must have switched the babies on purpose and that someone must desperately want a great life for her child to do so, not minding the fact that she was going to ruin the life of another child and family in the process.

The rumors about Cara's biological mother being a mistress with despicable means didn't help either as angry gazes were cast her way like lashes of whips.

Cara had long since suspected Isha's intentions in stirring troubles but even her intelligence didn't see this coming, as she tilted her ears towards the sound with a small smile skirting the edges of her lips. Her eyes trained on Isha's low-key smug face.

She slightly lowered her gaze and lifted it again to reveal a playful look trained on Isha. The girl was smart and knew how to use public opinion to her advantage; she had to give her that. But she still found her lacking and found herself too lazy to engage in such degrading skirmishes.

"Due to the plausibility of your words, I certainly believe there are adequate pieces of evidence to prove this incident is deliberate," she drawled, admiring her nails. "And since criminals can't outrun the consequences of their actions, I'll respectfully wait for you to file a lawsuit against me with evidence," she added, blowing on her nails and meeting Isha's gaze with clear smiling eyes.

Isha panicked in her heart as she stared at Cara; she didn't understand why she felt so threatened by this dumbo. She calmed herself with great difficulty.

"It's been eighteen years since the incident; any evidence would have been swept under the rug now. You're just being deliberately provocative."

Cara smiled at that. "So you're merely speculating without facts, and that's me putting it quite nicely. In other words, you're making false assumptions and defaming my character in the process. Are you aware I can put you behind bars for that?"

Isha felt her breath constrict in her throat at that. She couldn't continue arguing with Cara before her sound arguments made her lose the crowd's attention and sympathy.

Hence, in order to seem weaker and bullied, Isha's eyes welled up with tears, and her voice broke. "You took my place for eighteen years while I lived in a dark, damp basement with that despicable mother of yours. I lived a life not knowing if I'll get my next meal. Yet you stand here and criticize me after my sacrifice for you?"

Mrs. Smith's heart shattered at that, and her hands trembled as she reached for Isha's hands in solidarity, while trying to put up a brave front and blink back her tears. The guilt of living in a grand mansion over the years while her biological daughter was trapped in a basement tore her inside. She wished she hadn't been nice to Cara all these years.

Cara could feel a headache coming at the amount of drama she suddenly had to deal with and couldn't wait to leave this toxicity behind.

"We're both victims, you and I. I'm not criticizing you; I'm only speaking our truth. Moreover, I said I was leaving this place at once and changing my name back to that of my biological family's, so there's no need for you to hang on to our past henceforth."

Isha stared at Cara in shock, with so much hurt written all over her expression. "Why do you have to be so provocative, and how am I hanging on to this? Anyway, you've been acting like my parents' biological daughter for so long, and you might find it hard to adapt to the extreme poverty you'll be going back to. So stay, and I'll treat you like my own sister."

The crowd's hearts were moved at her generosity, and some of them even wiped a tear from their eyes for her, thinking her to be too kind for such a stone-hearted person like Cara.

"Thanks for your kind intention, but I have no place here," Cara replied, stunning Isha, who thought she was going to grab the offer like a life rope.

Mr. Smith immediately waved his hand and summoned someone to bring over a document. "You might as well sign the severance agreement, since your mind's made up." One of the laws in China was an adoptive daughter's right to an inheritance in her adoptive family. Thanking his stars at Cara's decision to cut ties with their family, Mr. Smith had zero intention of leaving his inheritance to an outsider with no blood relations to him.

Cara readily signed the agreement, with one copy held in possession by her and the other by the Smiths. "Goodbye uncle, goodbye auntie. Thanks for all your love and care," she said as she got down on her knees and knelt on the floor, kowtowing solemnly toward Mr. Smith and Shen Smith. She thought it was only right she showed her appreciation since they raised the real owner of her body.

"Cara, I'm sincerely asking you to stay. It's easy for the frugal to become extravagant but very difficult for the opposite to happen. Please stay so we can be filial children to Dad and Mom."

The crowd became indignant at that. They wondered how ungrateful Cara could be; she was yet to repay her parents' kindness, yet she was in a hurry to leave their roof.

But Cara simply threw a glance over her shoulder at her. "If I'm not mistaken, Isha, my mother also raised you for eighteen years, so why aren't you with her to repay her kindness?" This stunned Isha briefly, but before she could get the chance to refute, Cara was already up from the floor and was dusting her knees.

"Practice what you preach," she said in a voice only Isha could hear as she made to leave, her gaze resting on a pair of icy eyes hidden in a wisp of smoke.

Dexter narrowed his eyes at her, but she retracted her gaze, turned around, and left.

Dexter stared in the direction she vanished to as he tapped his fingers on the surface of the table rhythmically.

"What are you looking at, Brother Fifth?" Owen curiously asked.

"None of your business," Dexter replied as he stood up and put out the cigarette that he had yet to finish in the ashtray.

"Brother Fifth, aren't you going to meet your fiancée?"

When he looked up again, however, Dexter's tall, slim silhouette had already made its way to the doorway.

"Wait for me, Brother Fifth!" Owen called out, running after Dexter who didn't bother to grace him with any form acknowledgment.