In the span of just half a day, the snow falling from the sky grew heavier.
Flakes of black snow, each carrying particles of volcanic ash, drifted down from the sky in what looked like a mysterious and unsettling dance.
They landed gently on the ground, accumulating in a thick layer, as if draping the earth in a black and gray shroud.
In the afternoon, the city buses were suspended once again due to fears that volcanic ash particles would get sucked into the engines and damage the vehicles.
Elaine Hughes stood before the bus stop at The tropolis Residences, watching the snow-filled sky with a heart full of helplessness and anxiety.
She had originally planned to take the bus ho, but now she had to face reality: she would have to walk.
There was no money to put gas in the family’s runaround car, so she couldn’t ask Robert Lancaster or the others to drive out and pick her up.
Elaine Hughes wrapped her coat tighter, gritted her teeth, and began the step-by-step journey ho.
The snow grew heavier, and the wind more violent, blowing so hard she could barely open her eyes. The black snow fell thick and fast, landing on her and chilling her to the bone.
There were almost no other pedestrians on the road; only her lonely figure struggled through the snow.
...
Elaine Hughes walked for a full four hours before she finally reached the Lancaster Villa. By then, she felt as if she was about to lose all feeling in her legs.
As she stepped through the front door, she felt an unexpected sense of relief, as if she had just survived a disaster.
With trembling hands, Elaine Hughes opened the villa’s door. Then, as if she had exhausted her very last ounce of strength, she collapsed onto the floor of the entryway.
She ripped off the scarf covering her mouth and nose and began to gasp for air.
While she was outside, she had been too afraid of inhaling the volcanic ash particles in the snow to breathe freely. She had kept her mouth and nose covered with her scarf the entire ti and had nearly suffocated.
Even so, her throat now felt like it was full of sand—sore and itchy, making her unable to stop herself from coughing.
Hearing Elaine Hughes’s coughing, Sylvia Lancaster, who had been waiting anxiously in the living room, rushed over to check on her.
Seeing that Elaine Hughes was back, Sylvia Lancaster asked anxiously, "Mom, you’re finally back! How did it go? Did lody Sumrs agree to give us that house?"
With the heavy snow already falling, Sylvia Lancaster knew there was no ti to waste. They had to move out of the villa before the blizzards piled the snow so high they risked being buried alive.
Hearing her voice, Elaine Hughes lifted her head and looked at Sylvia Lancaster with a numb expression.
On the way back, she had walked and thought the entire ti.
’Now I finally realize it. My own daughter, the one I carried for ten months, truly wants nothing to do with !’
It was as if she were waking from a long dream, and Elaine Hughes was suddenly overco with grief.
’I was so excited for my daughter to be born. I never imagined that as soon as she was born, she would be swapped by the family’s nanny!’
’The nanny’s daughter took my daughter’s place and enjoyed over twenty years of a life of luxury.’
’While the nanny’s daughter enjoyed a life of wealth with the Lancasters, my biological daughter was starving.’
’Then, by so miracle, my real daughter finally had a chance to return to my side, but I pushed her away with my own hands.’
’For the sake of the nanny’s daughter, I abandoned my own flesh and blood.’
’There is no mother in this world more foolish than !’
’And this girl in front of , this nanny’s daughter that I raised with my own hands, had the audacity to seduce my own son!’
At that thought, all of Elaine Hughes’s inner pain transford into rage.
She pushed herself up on her numb legs, staggering to her feet.
Then, eting Sylvia Lancaster’s anxious and expectant gaze, she raised her hand and viciously slapped her across the face!
A sharp CRACK echoed through the empty entryway.
Elaine Hughes had put her all into that slap. Sylvia Lancaster felt nothing but a fiery sting across her cheek.
She clutched her face, staring at Elaine Hughes in disbelief. "Mom?!" she stamred. "...Y-you... why did you hit again?!"
’This is the second ti!’
This was the second ti Elaine Hughes had hit her!
Ever since Sylvia Lancaster had transmigrated into this world, Elaine Hughes—who had once doted on her, treasured her, treated her like the apple of her eye—was like a completely different person!
In the span of just two days, Elaine Hughes had hit her twice!
The completely different treatnt across two lifetis, the stark contrast—it was more than Sylvia Lancaster could accept!
She felt a tide of grievance and indignation wash over her. Not only did her face burn with pain, but her heart ached as well.
Sylvia Lancaster’s eyes filled with tears. In a trembling voice, she said to Elaine Hughes, "Mom! I’m your daughter! How could you treat like this?!"
Faced with Sylvia Lancaster’s grievance-filled eyes, Elaine Hughes remained completely unmoved.
Hearing Sylvia Lancaster ntion the word "daughter," her anger flared even hotter. She roared at Sylvia in a hoarse voice, "Shut up! You are not my daughter!"
When Sylvia Lancaster heard this, it felt like a knife stabbing into her heart.
She clutched her chest and choked out, "Even if I’m not your biological daughter, I’ve still been with you for over twenty years! For twenty years, I’ve been by your side, fulfilling my duties as a daughter. How can you have the heart to treat like this?!"
Sylvia Lancaster’s words only served to remind Elaine Hughes that she, as the nanny’s daughter, had usurped a place that wasn’t hers, enjoying the life that should have belonged to her own daughter for over twenty years.
"Shut up! Just shut up!"
Overco with rage, Elaine Hughes lunged at Sylvia Lancaster. Casting aside all composure, she grabbed Sylvia’s neck and scread in a raspy voice, "It’s all your fault! This is all your fault!"
Caught completely off guard, Sylvia Lancaster was tackled to the ground by Elaine Hughes, her heart pounding with panic.
Elaine Hughes kept strangling Sylvia Lancaster’s neck, treating her as if she were a sworn enemy.
Sylvia Lancaster couldn’t breathe at all. She struggled desperately, but Elaine Hughes refused to let her go.
Just as Sylvia Lancaster was about to pass out from the choking, Simon Lancaster, having heard the commotion, rushed over.
The scene horrified Simon Lancaster, and he quickly stepped forward to pull them apart.
"Mom, what are you doing!"
Simon Lancaster pulled Sylvia—whose eyes were rolling back in her head—into his arms, questioning Elaine Hughes in confusion, "Didn’t we all agree to let the past be the past and live well as a family from now on? Why are you giving Sylvia a hard ti again? No matter what, Sylvia is still the daughter you raised with your own hands! How could you treat her like this?"
Seeing the pity on Simon Lancaster’s face as he held Sylvia, Elaine Hughes grew even more furious. Her eyes were bloodshot as she yelled at him, "She is not my daughter! Don’t you understand? It was her biological mother who personally switched her with your own sister!"
At these words, not only was Simon Lancaster stunned, but Robert Lancaster, who had also co running at the sound, was shocked as well.
Robert Lancaster imdiately pressed Elaine Hughes for answers. "What did you just say? What do you an, ’personally switched the child’? What’s going on?"
Elaine Hughes looked at Robert Lancaster with sorrowful eyes and answered in a hoarse voice, "Honey, do you rember? Right after our daughter was born, we hired a new nanny. That young nanny said her na was Lily. She was fair-skinned and looked very delicate."
"It was that nanny nad Lily! She was the one who swapped our daughter!"
Then Elaine Hughes stretched out a hand, pointing angrily at Sylvia Lancaster. "She is that nanny’s daughter! Our daughter wasn’t accidentally switched at the hospital! She was deliberately replaced!"
This had been a preditated usurpation!
Sylvia Lancaster was the beneficiary of this conspiracy. She was not at all as innocent as the Lancasters had originally thought!
Robert Lancaster was also utterly shocked by this revelation.
He desperately searched his mory, trying to recall events from twenty years ago. He could only rember that a young nanny had indeed worked for them back then.
’Unlike the other nannies, she was delicate and gentle-looking, yet she worked more diligently than anyone else.’
As the pieces fell into place, Robert Lancaster murmured, "So it was her... the nanny... switched the children... so that’s how it was..."
The question that had lingered in the minds of the Lancasters for so many years finally had an answer.
The great Lancaster Family had been completely fooled by a re young nanny!
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