Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The room was completely empty. The blanket and pillows on the hospital bed were arranged neatly and so were the sheets, as if no one had ever slept there before.

Samantha frowned and a bad feeling surfaced in her heart for some reason. The first thing she did was walk in, place everything she had bought on the sofa, then turn around and walk toward the nurse’s station.

She came so often in the past that the nurses knew her well. They greeted her enthusiastically as soon as they saw her, “Ms. Larsson, you’re here to visit your brother again?”

The nurse then realized that something was not quite right and said, “Wait a sec, your brother has been discharged from the hospital the day before yesterday. Why are you here again?”

‘Discharged the day before yesterday?’

Samantha’s expression changed drastically. “Who was the one who handled the discharge procedure for him?”

The nurse noticed Samantha’s puzzled expression but did not dare to ask anything further. She immediately checked the records and replied, “Mr. and Mrs. Larsson were the ones who went through the formalities for his discharge. They were the ones who brought him back too. Weren’t you aware of that?”

Mr. and Mrs. Larsson…were none other than Samantha’s parents.

Although Corey’s health was gradually improving, he had not yet met the appropriate standards to be discharged and his body was still very delicate. He might as well stay within the safe environment of a hospital if there was difficulty in taking good care of him back home.

Moreover, she knew first-hand how her parents treated her and Corey. She did not believe that they really were so eager to bring Corey home!

Samantha clenched her hands all of a sudden and her eyes sank completely.

The nurse saw Samantha’s expression and could not help but exclaim, “Are you alright, Ms. Larsson? Corey will be fine, won’t he?”

Corey had been living in the hospital for several years already. As a handsome young man with a mild disposition, his ailing heart drew increased sympathy from the nurses who had been with him and took care of him. They were all just as concerned for him.

“Thanks for your concern. Corey will be fine, and I… I’ll make sure nothing will happen to him. Don’t worry,” Samantha said slowly, comforting both herself and the nurse.

She ran out of the hospital at once and hailed a taxi. After getting in, she provided the driver with the address to the Larsson residence.

On the way, she took out her cell phone and dialed her father Simon’s number. No one picked up the call, and the same happened when she called her mother Cynthia. She then called the home number again, but it went unanswered as well.

She sneered and knew that her parents were displaying their authority to her.

After she had been married off and the Larssons obtained her dowry money, they acted as if she was the daughter that never existed. Despite being stigmatized and slandered in the headlines, they remained indifferent and never even sent her a text to comfort her, let alone give her a call.

It was not until later that they started calling her and sending her texts to ask for money, probably because they had squandered all the money from earlier. She ignored them completely.

To make things even worse, they did not spend a single cent of that dowry on Corey!

Why should she give a damn about them when they were so heartless?

She could not possibly continue to be their cash cow and remain constrained to them for the rest of her life. They were not fit to be parents, and thus were not worthy of receiving her support.

Samantha clenched her phone tightly and closed her eyes.

About an hour later, the car arrived at the gate of the Larsson residence. She paid the fare and opened the door to get off.

She stood in front of the luxurious wood-carved gate and looked up at the house in front of her. That was the house she grew up in, but she could hardly feel any warmth, only coldness and deceit.

Samantha took a few deep breaths, held back all her helplessness, and put on a cold face. Taking a step forward, she rang the doorbell.

A servant soon came to open the door and was not at all surprised to see her. “Hi, Miss. Please come on in.”

Samantha raised her head faintly and strode straight in.

…

Simon and Cynthia were sitting on the sofa inside the living room. One was reading the newspaper calmly while the other was enjoying her scented tea.

Samantha walked in and glanced across them, but the chilly feeling still surfaced in her heart.

She opened her lips and cut straight to the chase. “Where’s Corey?”

Simon threw the newspaper in his hand onto the coffee table and looked up, glaring at Samantha. “What kind of attitude is this? You didn’t even greet your parents when you came home. Where’re your manners? Fed it to the dogs?”

Cynthia placed down her teacup and looked at Samantha disappointedly. “We’ve raised you for so many years and this is how you repay us? You never answered our phone calls or our text messages, and you didn’t even show us any respect on this rare occasion that you came home. We’ve been raising you in vain, Sammy!”

Samantha had listened to all that ever since she was young. ‘Our family treats you so well. We spent so much effort nurturing you. You must follow what we’ve arranged for you, and repay us with only the best.’

Those words clamped down on her in the past. She had always been the Larsson’s obedient daughter, doing everything for the family and striving to give them the greatest benefit.

However, they never praised her for it despite all the things she had done for them. They only knew to use her time and time again—she was the good girl and the darling daughter when they stood to gain something from her, but once her usefulness ended, they kicked her away and left her life to fate.

She was a human being, not a machine, but even a machine would spoil easily if treated in such a way.

As much as Timothy let her down and broke her heart, no one else failed her and hurt her more severely than her parents.

It was only then that she realized they never loved her at all—they were just using her.

Years later, they still wanted to use the same methods to force her, chain her, and make her hell-bent on working hard for them.

Samantha’s nose felt tingly but she immediately held it back. She sat straight on the one-seater sofa and spoke in a very calm voice. “Get right to the point, Mom and Dad. Stop it with that same old routine. Show a little more sincerity and have some dignity.”

Choked by her blunt response, Simon and Cynthia pulled a long face. Whenever they said such things to her in the past, Samantha would always start reflecting on herself, allowing them to manipulate her soon after.

Simon snorted coldly. “I would’ve expected you no longer need your parents now that you’ve gotten married to a rich husband.”

Cynthia looked at Samantha from head to toe and the anger in her eyes increased a little more. “You look like you’re in the pink of health! Must be a good life you have after getting married. How unfilial can you be? You don’t care about your parents anymore after you’ve got it going for you! Don’t you ever forget that we’re the ones who found this rich man to be your husband. You’re nothing without us!”

Samantha’s expression remained unchanged, as if she could not hear what they were saying. She asked again, “I’m going to ask one more time. Where’s Corey?”

Seeing that none of their words were getting to her, Simon and Cynthia glanced at each other and stopped pretending.

Simon had a bizarre smile and answered her without reference to her earlier question. “Sammy, we discussed marriage plans with Corey..”