Fleeing the Nightmarish Father novel Chapter 4

I looked at her coldly.

"An apology from you won't change anything."

"I'm going to file a complaint about what you did today. You're a murderer!"

Those few words made Lila take a few steps back.

Her voice had become hoarse, but she repeated, "I'm sorry. I didn't know your dad lied."

"I promised your mom I would take care of you both, but I broke that promise."

"Everything that's happened is my fault."

Her face couldn't hide the fake pain she was putting on.

I'd heard from my sister that Lila had been our mom's best friend.

And after mom died giving birth to me, Lila switched to obstetrics."

"Now my sister was fighting for her life because of her, and deep down, Lila must have felt terrible.

Even so, I couldn't forgive her.

My sister was lucky, the surgery was a success.

I heard they transfused her with a lot of blood, but in the end, they saved her life.

After a few days in the ICU, she was transferred to a regular ward.

The moment I saw her open her eyes, tears started falling again, uncontrollably.

With a pale face, my sister reassured me, "It's okay, Saafia Blooms. I'm still here, see? I made it."

While my sister was stable, things weren't looking good for my nephew.

He had been born premature, and with the cold weather, he kept getting sick, developing pneumonia after a fever that wouldn't quit.

My brother-in-law was running between hospitals, and within days, he'd lost so much weight.

Once the staff at the hospital realized my sister was Jeb Parker's daughter, many of them came to visit her.

Especially Lila.

She came by constantly.

Every day, she'd bring her homemade soups, and whenever she saw my sister, she couldn't help but sigh.

Even though my sister forgave Lila, I'd never forget the feeling of desperation I had during that time.

So once my sister was a little more stable, I stormed into the hospital director's office.

A few days later, Lila was removed from her position as head nurse.

I thought that would be it—like we'd torn the mask off our relationship—but she still kept visiting my sister.

From her, we found out that Dad was downstairs at the internal medicine department, with his wife, getting treatment for her.

She was dealing with high blood pressure and depression, and couldn't be left alone.

A few days later, we faced an even bigger issue.

My sister's and nephew's hospital bills were piling up.

Both my sister and brother-in-law were regular office workers.

They'd just gotten married, and then came the baby.

Money was tight for them.

I had some savings, but...

Not long ago, Dad's wife had been scammed out of over a million dollars.

To comfort her, Dad borrowed hundreds of thousands from people around him to tell her that some of the money had been recovered.

That included money from me and my sister.

What we didn't expect was that after getting the money, she was scammed again.

With all the money lost, her mood got worse.

That's also why Dad suddenly wanted to give her a belated honeymoon.

Dad was genuinely scared she'd fall into despair.

Which left us in a tight spot.

All of our savings only covered one person's medical bills.

After discussing it with my sister, we decided to sell the house Mom had left us.

It wasn't a big place, but it was in a good location, so it sold fast.

'You and your sister have caused chaos for years, and the whole world knows I've been ignoring you while I go off with your stepmom."

"Being her stepmom isn't easy, and now everyone's talking behind her back."

"Are you happy now?"

I felt the anger rise inside me.

"Dad, what do you mean ‘we caused chaos'? Are you hearing what people are saying?"

"You ignored my sister bleeding out on the operating table and told everyone to stay out of it."

'Do you even realize how close she was to dying?"

My whole body trembled, the words coming out faster than I could control.

"And that house? That was our mom's. What right do you have to give it to this... this woman?"

"You're calling her that?" Dad's voice was low, his anger boiling over.

When I said that, it was the last straw.

He raised his hand and slapped me across the face before kicking me in the stomach.

I tried to avoid it, but I was a woman— there was no way I could dodge in time.

"Dad, let's just talk. Don't hurt Saafia," my sister pleaded.

She tried to get up but winced, clutching her side in pain, and collapsed back on the bed, grimacing. She looked at me, helpless.

Stepmom only bothered to half-heartedly intervene.

"Jeb, this is too much. I've already told you I don't want that house."

"Why are you taking it out on the kids?"

"If I had known Violet was in this condition, I'd have sold anything, even my own house, to cover her medical bills," stepmom said, her voice sugary sweet.

Dad's face softened, clearly moved.

"Elsie, you're just too good. That's why they've treated you so badly for ten years."

He looked at us with disgust, as though we had committed some unforgivable crime.

But the truth was, for the last decade, we were the ones who had been mistreated.