Chapter 21
The harsh voice of the city worker pierced Sophie’s heart like a dagger.
Stomping her foot in frustration, she snapped, “Fine! I’ll leave, okay?”
She quickly made a call to hire a moving truck to take her belongings away.
With nowhere to go, the driver grew impatient, asking repeatedly where she wanted to be
dropped off.
After a long pause, she finally muttered the name of her previous neighborhood: “Flora
Apartments.”
Her only option was to contact her old landlord and negotiate to rent the apartment again.
Fortunately, the property hadn’t been rented out yet since she had left only days ago.
But as soon as Sophie arrived at Flora Apartments, she was met with a shocking sight–her entire family waiting at the entrance.
The Reed family, though dressed plainly, appeared tidy and clean. Yet Sophie was filled with nothing but disgust at the sight of them.
She tried to tell the driver to turn around and leave, but he was already unloading her
luggage.
“Sophie! Pay us back!”
Before Sophie could even step out of the car, her father, Liam, and mother, Emma,
surrounded the car door.
Her grandparents, along with a group of children and her younger brother, rushed forward to grab at her belongings.
Valuable items like bags and clothes were quickly tossed into tattered sacks, while less valuable things were discarded carelessly onto the ground.
“Let go! Those are my things! You can’t take them!”
Years of Longing
13.3%
Chapter 21
No matter how much Sophie tried to stop them, she couldn’t fight off the many hands pulling at her luggage.
Her belongings were ripped open, scattering everywhere, drawing a growing crowd of onlookers who pointed and whispered among themselves.
The Reed family showed no shame, loudly proclaiming,
“Our daughter stole all the family savings. What’s wrong with us taking some of her stuff
back?”
When Sophie tried to persuade them to move upstairs into the apartment, the Reed family made a scene by lying on the floor and shamelessly barking orders at her.
They demanded she cook meals for the entire family, clean the apartment, and handle all their dirty laundry.
Whenever Sophie resisted, they threatened to air her dirty laundry–both literally and figuratively–to the neighbors.
Terrified of further humiliation, Sophie swallowed her pride and complied.
Even that wasn’t enough to satisfy the Reed family. They pushed her to go out and find a job to earn money for them.
Sophie’s days became a blur of job hunting by day, housework by night, and relentless scolding in between.
Her physical and mental state deteriorated rapidly.
Within a matter of days, she looked as though she had aged years, her face pale and sallow. Her body trembled with exhaustion, barely able to stand.
It was enough to drive her to the brink of madness.
Desperate and with nowhere else to turn, Sophie went to seek forgiveness from Jaziel and
Nolan.
She knelt outside the lakeside villa, her voice hoarse from screaming:
13.09
Forsaking the Years of Longing
13.6%
** Jarirdi. Ndard 1 we were way was weg! shouldice have harmed Charlotte 14 realized my med
she cried and begged repeatedly, hey pixeling through the night
But the ville remained eerily empty.
Jaziel and Nolan had already moved back to their old house, leaving the villa vacant ones
more
Even though they were gone, the security guards reported the situation to them.
“Don’t pay her any attention,” Jaziel’s calm, detached voice instructed over the phone.
Let her kneel. She’ll leave eventually.”
The guard hung up and continued patrolling the area, keeping a close watch to prevent Sophie from sneaking inside.
After all, her appearance alone, with her shabby clothes, clearly marked her as someone who no longer belonged in such a place.
