Chapter 148

Chapter 148

Third–person POV

Th

Amber and Mary sat across from each other in an empty restaurant. It was a quiet place, offering a sense of privacy for their conversation. Mary settled into her chair, her posture rigid and a look of disdain etched on her face. She rested her purse on her lap and crossed her legs, ready to address the reason they were there.

Amber, with a calm expression, spoke up first.

“I want to thank you for agreeing to meet with me today, Mary,” Amber said, her

voice dripping with false sincerity. “I know this must be difficult for you, especially with what’s going on with Marlene.”

Mary’s eyes rolled involuntarily at Amber’s words. She had little patience for pleasantries and small talk. “Don’t involve Marlene, and just get to the point, Amber,” Mary replied impatiently. “Why did you want to meet with me?”

*

Amber’s calm demeanor faltered for a moment, but Mary’s directness didn’t catch

her off guard. She took a deep breath before responding, her voice tinged with a hint of forced vulnerability. “Mary, I know this is going to sound strange, but I have to ask, why do you hate me so much?” Amber said, her gaze

unwavering. “I genuinely want to understand what I ever did to make you hate me

this much.”

Mary seemed taken aback by Amber’s question; a mixture of surprise and

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irritation flashed across her face. She scoffed before replying, her voice laced with bitterness. “Isn’t it obvious, Amber?” Mary shot back. “Your existence alone has always been torture for me, because you’re the daughter of the bitch that took everything from me. Need I say more?”

Amber sighed, her eyes searching Mary’s face for any signs of understanding. She honestly didn’t understand what exactly her mother had taken from Mary to make Mary so hateful and resentful, even after twenty years of legally being her mother. “I know you hate my mother, Mary. You’ve made that quite clear over the years,” Amber stated calmly. “But I can’t understand what my mother did so wrong for you to hate her so much. What did she ever do to you? Why do you hate her so much? I honestly can’t comprehend how you could hate your childhood best friend so deeply to the point of taking it out on her daughter.”

Mary’s features hardened as she stared at Amber, her voice low and laced with emotion. “Don’t you get it, Amber?” Mary retorted, her frustration evident. “You remind me of your no–good mother. The pain, the betrayal, and the self–loathing that I experienced because of your mother. I see her in you, and that’s why I hate you.”

Amber felt a growing frustration building in her as Mary’s expected responses continued. The lack of a direct confession only fueled her irritation, but she knew that losing her composure wouldn’t get her the answers she wanted. With a deep breath, she composed herself, maintaining a calm voice as she addressed Mary’s evasiveness.

“Listen, Mary, you’re not telling me what I want to know,” Amber said, her tone steady. “I need to understand why you hate my mother so deeply and why that hatred extended to me even though you raised me as your own. I want to hear vour instification Mary So heln me understand

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As Amber spoke, Mary could feel her anger rising. She clenched her fists,

subconsciously aware of the boiling emotions threatening to consume her. Her

gaze wandered around the empty restaurant as she dove deep into her memories from over thirty years ago.

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Memories flooded her mind, unearthing the time when her heart started to be

filled with anger. And then the image of Elena, her once–best friend, surfaced.

Mary’s eyes flickered with a mix of disgust and delight as she turned her

attention back to Amber, her voice dripping with bitterness.

IFE

“You want to know something, Amber?” Mary sneered, her voice laced with venom.

“The happiest day of my life happened twenty–two years ago, and it was the day

I heard that Elena had been run over by a car and had died on the spot. That

was the beginning of my happiness in life.”

Amber’s shock was evident, her eyes widening at the harshness in Mary’s voice.

She couldn’t fathom the depth of Mary’s hatred or the genuine satisfaction she

could hear in Mary’s words.

“You can’t be serious,” Amber whispered, her voice trembling. “You… you mean to tell me that you consider my mother’s death as the beginning of your happiness in life?”

Mary’s smile twisted with pleasure. “Yes, it was,” she replied coldly. “Words cannot begin to describe the joy I felt when I heard the news. All those years of torment and anger were finally worth it. Elena’s death set me free.”

Amber stared at Mary in disbelief, her mind reeling from the bitter words that had just poured out of Mary’s mouth. She couldn’t fathom the depth of the

at that had tal-

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resentment that had taken root in Mary’s heart. Slowly regaining her composure,

she mustered the courage to voice her confusion.

“What did my mother ever do to you, Mary?” Amber asked, her voice tinged with both concern and frustration. “I don’t understand why you hate her so much.

What could she have possibly done to deserve your hatred for so many years?”

Mary simply shrugged, her gaze distant and detached. “Elena was just Elena,

Amber,” she nonchalantly replied. “She just existed, and at some point, I realized I was always in her shadow. And I hated that.”

Amber’s brow furrowed as she struggled to comprehend Mary’s vague response. “I still don’t understand,” she admitted. “How can you hate someone so fiercely just for being themselves?”

A bitter chuckle escaped Mary’s lips as she met Amber’s gaze, her eyes filled with a mix of resentment and pain. “What’s so hard to understand, Amber?” Mary retorted, her voice laced with bitterness. “So, Elena and I grew up together, and we have been best friends since middle school. I genuinely liked her…

until I didn’t.”

Confusion deepened on Amber’s face as she listened to Mary’s words. “But why? What changed?” she asked.

Mary’s expression hardened, her voice dripping with anger. “Because Elena was like a witch, sucking all the attention and admiration from everything and

everyone,” she spat out. “Even the men that came our way, they all fell for her. I was just the pitiful friend, never chosen, and always in her shadow.”

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Amber’s eyes widened at the venom in Mary’s words, struggling to comprehend the depth of her stepmother’s bitterness. She couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that Mary harbored so much hatred for her mother over what seemed like

such an insignificant reason, one that wasn’t even her mother’s fault.

“Are you being serious? Is it really worth hating my mother for such an insignificant reason?” Amber asked.

曲

Visibly seething with anger, Mary hissed at Amber indignantly, unwilling to entertain any notion of her reasons being insignificant. “How dare you call it insignificant?” she shot back, her tone sharp and cutting. “Do you have any idea what it feels like to be invisible, to feel invincible while everyone else seems to prefer your supposed best friend?”

Mary’s voice trembled with raw fury as she faced Amber, unable to contain her

frustration.

“Not once did anyone see me!” Mary exclaimed, her voice laced with bitterness. “All they saw was Elena. Anywhere we went, all people cared about was the beautiful girl, who looked like an angel. Men would come to me, buying me little presents, making me think I was finally getting some genuine attention. But it was all a facade because, at the end of the day, it’d turn out that they were just using me to get closer to Elena.”

“At first, I thought it was normal. Elena was beautiful, and I felt lucky that someone like her wanted to be friends with someone like me. But one day, I had my awakening, and I realized that Elena never saw me as a friend at all.”

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“Don’t be ridiculous, Mary,” Amber scoffed, her voice laced with incredulity. “As far as I can remember, before my mother cut off contact with you for whatever reason, she never stopped talking about how much she cared about you. She considered you one of her closest confidantes. You were the person she trusted the most.”

Mary let out a bitter laugh and a mirthless sound. She met Amber’s gaze, pain and anger flickering in her eyes. “Of course, Elena considered me someone she could count on,” Mary said, her voice dripping with bitterness. “But it was never because she valued our friendship. To her, I was nothing more than a minion, someone she could manipulate and control. Someone she could share her dirty secrets with, like getting pregnant, while believing that I’d never tell anyone else about it.”

“What are you talking about, Mary?” Amber hissed.

Mary’s gaze hardened. “To Elena, I was the friend she could keep around so that everyone would glorify her even more,” she explained, her words laced with bitter contempt. “She knew that by being seen as kind enough to be best friends with a person as mediocre–looking as me, she would enhance her own image. I was the less attractive girl who was best friends with the most attractive girl.”

“Are you admitting that you were jealous of my mother? And that because of that jealousy, you made it your mission to hate on her for over thirty years, even after her death?” Amber asked, aiming to trigger Mary.

Mary scoffed, her bitterness permeating the room. “Jealousy doesn’t even begin to cover it,” she replied, her voice dripping with resentment. “The moment Martin came into our lives, everything became ten times worse. I had met him

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first and built a connection with him, but when he and Elena finally crossed paths, I became invisible to him. He poured all his love and attention into her, while I stood lonely on the sidelines as a third wheel.”

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“He treated Elena like a goddess,” Mary continued, her voice filled with a mix of sadness and anger. “He did everything he could to get Elena to fall in love with him, and they eventually got together. But all I could do was watch as the man I loved chose my best friend over me.”

“It’s not my mother’s fault, Mary. She’s not to blame for your jealousy or for how people reacted to her because of her looks. Your reasons make no sense,” Amber responded.

Mary’s eyes narrowed, and her voice was sharp with resentment. “Don’t simplify it like that, Amber,” she retorted. “Elena was more than someone I was jealous of. She was a witch who took everything from me, and she enjoyed making me look like an idiot, like I was insignificant. So I had every reason to hate her.”

Folding her arms across her chest, Amber finally saw that it was time to ask the questions that she was really curious about. “And is that why you killed my sister, Diana?”

Mary’s face contorted with confusion and disbelief, and her eyes were wide with shock, but she quickly composed herself. “What are you talking about?” she asked, her voice a mix of confusion and denial. “Who in the world is Diana?”

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