Chapter 4

My life changed drastically with ten as the dividing line. From ten, I was trying to get used to living without relying on anyone.

I lowered my expectations of everyone.

As long as I didn’t have expectations, I wouldn’t be disappointed, nor would I fall into despair when disappointments piled up.

But after all, I’m human and can’t be as carefree as I imagined. Declan pursued me for a year and cared for me for the next three.

In total, he spent four years gradually moving me, making me feel I had someone to rely on. But stories are always so cliché.

Just when I thought I had found someone I could truly trust, he changed his heart.

He fell for my adoptive sister. Initially, it was sympathy for her childhood background.

Then it was her lively and charming personality, which deeply attracted his attention.

Later, listening to Daphne talk about her passion for dance and witnessing her excellence on stage, he realized his true feelings.

Declan said he had never seen someone so special, as sincere as a flame.

Because of her, he discovered that love should burn passionately.

With me, it was more of a familial attachment and a habit in life.

This was Declan’s drunken confession.

After that, he started preparing to pursue Daphne and break up with me. Of course, I was also preparing for the same thing.

I would exit their world, just trying to do it as gracefully as possible.

This was something I often did in the first twenty years of my life, getting used to being unnoticed and quietly stepping back.

But these thoughts changed entirely the moment I opened my eyes after surgery. I realized it shouldn’t be me who steps back.

Aunt was the first to notice my change. She sat by my hospital bed, peeling an apple and sharing stories to comfort me.

Then she realized I didn’t seem to need comforting. In her eyes, I was always quiet and rarely expressed my needs.

But she could always see from my eyes that I still longed for my parents’ attention, for the complete family affection that should have been mine. But now, that longing was gone.