Chapter 20 Can't Believe My Ears
Taisia's POV
As long as I go beg them and tell them what Selena has done, they'll definitely help me! They're Selena's biological parents. If they speak up, that bitch Selena won't dare disobey!
This thought was like a tiny firefly, instantly giving me hope.
I immediately turned the car around and headed toward the main house on the farm.
When I burst into the living room, the Harts were sitting on the sofa having tea.
Seeing me in such a disheveled state, they both froze.
"Taisia? Child, what happened to you?" Mrs. Hart immediately stood up, her face full of concern.
I couldn't hold it in anymore. I burst into tears with a loud sob and threw myself down, wrapping my arms around her legs.
"Mrs. Hart! Please, save us!" I cried my heart out. "The company is finished! Myrdal is going bankrupt too! Selena did all of this! She's trying to destroy us!"
I embellished my story about what happened in the greenhouse, of course painting myself as a poor sister who went to beg her older sister for mercy, only to be cruelly humiliated.
"She hit me! She even made me kneel!" I lifted my hair to show the handprint on my face that was already turning purple. "She said she wants to watch us descend into hell step by step! Mrs. Hart, my parents raised her for twenty years—how can she be so vicious!"
Mrs. Hart looked at the injury on my face and gasped, her eyes full of sympathy and disbelief.
"This... how could this..." She looked helplessly at Mr. Hart.
Mr. Hart's expression was also grim. He frowned, silent.
I saw hope and cried even harder. "Mr. Hart, Mrs. Hart, you're her biological parents, and you were once my parents too. Only you can talk sense into her! Please, make her stop! If she's willing to help, I... I'll do anything!"
I thought they would immediately agree, help me up with sympathy, and then go scold Selena harshly.
However, Mr. Hart remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking, his voice tinged with weariness. "Taisia, this is between you and Selena. We... it's not appropriate for us to interfere."
"What?" I froze, unable to believe my ears.
Not appropriate to interfere?
"We know Selena's personality," Mrs. Hart also sighed, her tone conflicted. "Once she's made up her mind, we can't change it either. And... child, what happened with the Kateson and Cater families, really... it was your own doing..."
She didn't finish, but I understood completely.
They weren't willing to help me!
They said they felt sorry for me, but when it came down to it, they still sided with that bitch Selena!
A fury of betrayal and deception instantly shot to my head, burning away the last shred of my rationality.
"You lied to me!" I suddenly jumped up from the floor, pointing at them and screaming.
"You're all liars! You said you felt sorry for me, said Selena was immature! And now? You're just watching her push me to my death!"
"You're as vicious as she is! You never considered me your daughter! You're just a bunch of country bumpkins! What do you know? What gives you the right to tell me what to do!"
The regret and sympathy on their faces instantly vanished, replaced by shock and anger.
"What did you say?" Mr. Hart stood up abruptly, his face ashen.
Just then, a cold voice came from behind me.
"Say that again."
I turned around to see Jonathan, who was always by Selena's side.
I don't know when he'd arrived, but his face showed no expression. Yet those eyes were like ice-cold knives, making my whole body go cold.
"I..." His presence scared me into taking a step back, but anger made me lose my reason. "Did I say something wrong? Aren't you just..."
"Enough!" He cut me off sharply, advancing toward me step by step. "Our Hart family kindly took you in, treated you as family, and this is how you repay us? Coming to our home and insulting my brother and sister-in-law?"
"I didn't!" I stubbornly denied it.
"Get out." He pointed at the door, his voice ice-cold. "Right now. We don't want ungrateful people like you in this house."
"What gives you the right to kick me out!" I screamed hysterically. "This is my home! I've lived here for twenty years!"
"This was never your home." Jonathan Hart looked at me coldly. "Not before, and certainly not now. Peter!"
The butler Peter appeared from somewhere, standing respectfully beside him.
"Please 'escort' this young lady out. From now on, without my permission, she is not allowed to set foot on this farm again."
"Yes, sir."
Two tall security guards walked over and grabbed my arms from both sides.
"Let go of me! Let go! You'll regret this! You'll definitely regret this!"
I clawed and screamed, fighting with everything I had, but they dragged me through the house and hurled me outside. I landed on the lawn in a heap, cast aside like trash.
The door slammed shut in my face with a thunderous crash.
I lay on the cold grass, my whole body aching, but it couldn't compare to the hatred in my heart.
Selena, the Harts... all of you are bullying me!
You think this will defeat me?
Dream on!
I got up from the ground, wiped my tears, and pulled out my phone.
With a twisted, crazed smile on my face, I dialed a number I'd saved long ago.
"Hello? Is this the reporter from the Empire Daily? I have a big story. About the Hart family's daughter, Selena Hart... Yes, the mysterious designer Astraea. She's ungrateful, pressuring her adoptive parents, suppressing her younger sister... I have evidence."
Selena, don't you care most about your reputation?
Then I'll ruin you!
I'll let the whole world see what kind of ugly, vicious face lies beneath that noble, cold mask of yours!
I want you dead!
Selena's POV
"Miss, Taisia has been 'escorted' off the farm." Anna walked in silently, standing behind me, her voice as calm as ever.
"Okay." I didn't look up.
"However," Anna's tone paused, "our security system recorded that immediately after leaving the farm's perimeter, she made a phone call. The recipient was Richard Smith, chief reporter for the Empire Daily."