Chapter 13
Scarlett immediately gave her daughter a call upon returning home. She could tell that the man who visited the hospital that afternoon was no ordinary person.
He had come looking for a medical record that she had altered back then, after all.
It was not like Scarlett was afraid of anything being discovered.
Jane was pregnant with twins, but she was already losing massive amounts of blood when she was brought into the hospital.
The baby boy could not be saved, and thus, only the baby girl survived.
If Jane had never saved Scarlett’s daughter, Taylor Walker, once in the past, Scarlett would not have gone out of her way to help Jane in return.
Jane and Taylor attended the same high school. Jane was overweight back then, and Taylor had freckles on her face. Both of them were isolated and bullied by their classmates, with Taylor’s classmates giving her the nickname “Freckles”.
Both Jane and Taylor lived in the same district, so they naturally grew close as they found warmth in each other’s company
Taylor’s parents were divorced, so she took on her mother’s last name. It was only during high
school that she lived with her father in Slate.
City.
In the first semester of her second year, Taylor worked up the courage to confess to Salem, but
she was rejected.
After that, a few delinquent girls who liked Salem locked Taylor in the bath and bullied
her for the confession. It was Jane who burst into the bathroom and saved Taylor.
Itax who
Jane always seemed like a soft and gentle person, but she was genuinely strong. She pushed the bullies aside and dragged Taylor out with her.
Taylor had always been grateful to Jane for that. The two of them remained close. Whenever they returned to their hometown during summer break, Jane would visit Taylor’s home several times. As such, they got to know each other better.
Given enough time, they became good friends.
That same night, Taylor called Valeria, explaining, “Don’t worry, my mom already edited your medical record for you. But still, Sebastian seems to care about you a lot.
“Why else would he go all the way out to a district far away just to investigate your past? Do you think he still-”
Valeria took a deep breath and interrupted Taylor. “No.”
She already knew what Taylor was going to say, so she continued, “Taylor, he already has a girlfriend, and his girlfriend’s my superior at the workplace. Their families are a good match for each other. They’re probably getting engaged soon.”
Even if Sabrina did not exist, there were still countless numbers of similarly accomplished women from prestigious families out there.
Valeria would never let Selena be branded as the Grant family’s illegitimate child. She had finally gotten herself a new lease on life, and she very much liked the peace and stability that she had now.
But even so, she could not bring herself to forget about what Sebastian had once said to her. ” It’s just for fun. I’m going abroad soon anyway.”
Valeria also would never forget the contemptuous look in Wendy’s eyes when she looked at her. It was as if Valeria were a mere ant on the ground. That look in Wendy’s eyes left Valeria so humiliated and furious that it branded into her memory.
་་
That night, Valeria lay in bed, gently patting Selena’s shoulders.
She read Selena a book on stories that were expressed by idioms, but her thoughts were slowly drifting elsewhere.
Everyone would meet someone unforgettable during their youth. For Valeria, it was Sebastian, but his appearance was back during her most miserable days living as Jane.
Back then, she was staying at her uncle’s house during high school
One day during her first year in high school, she had just gotten her period.
Valeria’s uncle, Thomas Crane, who worked at a distillery, was by no means treating her badly. However, he had only given pocket money to his own daughter, who was Valeria’s older
cousin.
Whenever Valeria got her period, she had to use the sanitary pads her cousin had bought. Whenever her cousin bought a pack of it, she would take only a few.
She also shared a bedroom with her cousin, which was separated only by a single curtain.
At 27 years old, Valeria might not have a high salary, but at the very least, she and her daughter were not as financially strained as she had been.
Back when she was 16 years old as Jane, she had to live under someone else’s roof and even had to ration her sanitary pads.
During a self-study session in the evening, she waited until all of her classmates had left the room before standing up to wipe off the bloodstain on her chair and then tying her school jacket around her waist.
On the way home, she was distracted by a math question in her mind when a thug started following her.
Women were especially vulnerable in society back then. Being average or even unattractive did not reduce the risk of harassment.
Even though Jane was a chubby lady back then, she still drew unwanted attention, especially toward her chest.
She wore the most basic kind of training bra with no additional support or shaping back then. She always hated being stared at by both other boys and girls, who would always gossip about
her chest.
It made her feel extremely ashamed, as she could not afford a better bra. She had to wear a
white cotton undershirt beneath her summer uniform instead.
Upon hearing footsteps coming from behind her, Jane panicked and began to walk faster.
The footsteps, however, quickened their paces as well.
Jane was on the verge of tears. Her stomach was cramping in pain, while a sleazy thug was following her. The distance left to reach her uncle’s house was still far away.
That was when Sebastian first appeared.
Valeria could not remember whether she had hidden behind his back first or if he had stepped
forward to shield her first.
Before that, she never once imagined associating words like ‘smoking’ and ‘internet cafe’ with
someone like him.
Sebastian was the school heartthrob of Nueve High School. He was known as a success as his
academic results made him stand out.
Even though he smoked, he still smoked differently from the other delinquent boys. His white and pristine school uniform was still buttoned all the way to the top.
There was only a faint wisp of smoke drifting out of his lips.
Sebastian did not smoke to look cool or because of addiction. He had simply chosen to smoke and could stop himself from smoking at any given time. He was in complete control of himself.
Beneath his cool and calm exterior was an untamable sense of arrogance and rebelliousness. He did not care if people saw him or whether he would be punished for what he had done.
Take a cab home.”
In the end, Jane still walked home.
She slipped that 100-dollar note between the pages of her diary.
It was not at all him coming to her rescue, but it was more than enough to stir the heart of a teenage girl, especially with him having such a flawlessly handsome face.
In her second year, Jane ended up in the same class as Sebastian and felt incredibly lucky about it. She was even luckier because she was seated at the same desk as Sebastian’s niece, Gabriella.
It was then that Jane learned that Sebastian was the youngest son of the Grant family, which was the richest family in Slate City.
Gabriella also talked about Sebastian having a middle-aged older brother.
Jane soon noticed that Sebastian treated even his own family with the same indifference and
cold attitude he did to others.
Smiling at Jane, Gabriella explained, “Sebastian’s always like that.”
Gabriella was a classic case of a spoiled little princess. She often bossed Jane around, asking her to move desks around or even carry bags for her, and Jane never once refused.
Jane was relatively strong anyway, so she just saw it as helping out a fellow classmate. Besides, she did not have any other friends in the class.
Jane tried her best to remain invisible, but she was still often isolated and
back. Her classmates called her a ‘fat pig’ and often made fun of her.
nocked behind her
All she could do was keep her head down and focus on studying. With it, her grades steadily improved, and the results showed it in every subsequent exam.
Of course, Sebastian always ranked first, but Jane gradually rose to second place.
Even so, there was still a big gap in the overall rankings.
Jane and Sebastian did have a photo together, as the class had taken a group photo of the top three students.
Gabriella, being the spoiled and arrogant girl that she was, deliberately signed up for the 800- meter race and then abandoned her post with the excuse of getting her period the day before. She then asked Jane to run the race in her place. “Jane, we’re good friends, aren’t we?”
As Jane struggled on the track, Gabriella was with the rest of the classmates shouting, “The fat
pig’s stuck in the last place!”
Afterward, Gabriella handed Jane a bottle of water and immediately put on a different look and tone. “I didn’t mean to say that, Jane, but everyone else was saying it, so I had to chime in as well. Don’t be upset, okay? We’re good friends, aren’t we?”
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