Chapter 276

Chapter 276

She took a deep breath and typed: [How do I get her there?]

The reply came almost instantly.

[Tell her you want to apologize in person. Set it at the abandoned chemical plant warehouse on the west side of the city. Say you're too embarrassed to do it in front of the family and want to talk to her alone. She'll come.]

Dahlia's eyes stopped on the words "abandoned warehouse." Her heart pounded hard and fast.

Her hands shook as she typed: [Will you hurt her?]

A pause of a few seconds. Then: [No. Just a talk.]

Dahlia stared at the message.

She didn't fully believe it. But she was out of options.

She wanted to stay with the Douglas family. She wanted her parents to look at her again. She wanted to reclaim the place where she could stand firm.

She closed her eyes. Then typed: [I'll do it.]

The next afternoon, the sky was overcast.

Dahlia, eyes red, knocked on Lucinda's door.

The door opened. Lucinda stood inside, gaze calm and steady.

Dahlia dug her nails into her palms, voice trembling with forced restraint. "Lucinda... I've realized my mistake. I promise I won't compete with you anymore. I want to apologize to you properly. Will you come out with me? Just the two of us."

Lucinda's expression was cool. She saw through the clumsy act in a single glance.

But she didn't refuse.

"Alright."

Dahlia quietly exhaled in relief, though a flicker of triumph crossed her eyes.

Half an hour later, an ordinary taxi left the city limits.

Outside the window, skyscrapers gradually gave way to desolate ruins. The car headed west. The roads grew rougher, more remote.

The abandoned warehouse on the west side.

The place had been deserted for years, overgrown with weeds.

When they reached the entrance, Lucinda got out of the car.

She tilted her head almost imperceptibly, her peripheral vision catching a black van parked not far away.

No license plate. Windows tinted dark with blast-resistant film. Inside, faint movements—breathing, shifting.

Lucinda's steps paused for a fraction of a second. Her lashes lowered, hiding the cold glint that flashed in her eyes.

Then, as if she'd noticed nothing, she continued forward.

"Let's go in."

Dahlia's voice was tight, guilt creeping in as she hurriedly pushed open the rusted warehouse door.

Lucinda stepped inside.

The heavy iron door slammed shut behind her from the outside.

Then came the sound of a lock clicking into place.

Dahlia stood outside, heart pounding like a drum.

She didn't actually know what was going to happen inside. But it was too late now. All she could do was wait.

The light dropped sharply. The warehouse was vast and cold.

Faint footsteps echoed through the hollow space.

A woman wearing a hat and mask slowly emerged from the shadows.

Her exposed eyes locked onto Lucinda, cold and unblinking.

"So you're Lucinda."

Through the warehouse's broken windows, dim light fell across the woman's silhouette.

Outside, Dahlia peered through the crack in the door. The moment she recognized that figure, she froze as if struck by lightning.

It was the maid who had cared for her at the Douglas Estate for over a decade—who had doted on her, even sneaking her little gifts in secret.

Dahlia was about to cry out when Lucinda spoke first.

"Violette."

Lucinda stood still, hands casually in her pockets, posture cool and composed.

"Former maid of the Douglas family. Also Dahlia's biological mother."

Each word was sharp as a blade.

The masked woman's body went rigid.

How did she know?

Outside the door, Dahlia's mind went blank. A deafening roar filled her head.

What?

Violette... was her biological mother?

She wasn't the Douglas family's treasured daughter. She wasn't even an ordinary person's child. She was just a maid's daughter?

Violette clenched the short knife hidden in her sleeve, panic flashing in her eyes. "How... how do you know that?"

But before she could finish, another voice—low, sinister—came from the deepest shadows of the warehouse. "Stop wasting time on her."

Footsteps.

A man emerged from the darkness, step by step.

He had a limp, his gait uneven. But the scar running across half his face made him look utterly vicious.

Lucinda slowly turned her head, her gaze landing on the man's face. Her lips curved into a faint smile.

"Harold Rogers."

She said his name without hesitation.

"Head of the Rogers Group twenty years ago. Lost to the Douglas Group in a new energy project. Company went bankrupt, drowned in debt. Tried to jump off a building, failed, and broke a leg."

Her tone was light. "And you're the one who orchestrated the airport incident all those years ago. You used Violette to swap the Douglas family's child."

Harold's expression twisted into something monstrous.

Impossible...

This secret from twenty years ago—even the Douglas family couldn't uncover it. How did she find out?

Outside the door.

Dahlia stood frozen, staring through the crack, as if she'd been plunged into ice.

So this... this was a kidnapping?

They'd said they just wanted to talk. That they'd send her abroad. What happened to that?

Dahlia couldn't keep up the act anymore. She slammed her foot into the half-closed door and stormed into the warehouse like a woman possessed.

"Violette! Harold!" Dahlia's voice was hysterical. "You lied to me! You said you wouldn't hurt her! You're kidnapping her?"

Violette's face went pale when she saw Dahlia burst in. She turned her face away, unable to meet her eyes.

Harold looked at the screaming Dahlia, contempt filling his gaze. He let out a cold laugh. "What are you calling her? Violette?"

He pointed at the woman beside him. "She's your biological mother! And you're calling her by name like that? Everything she's done, I told her to do."

Dahlia stared at him, her whole body trembling uncontrollably. "No... that's impossible. You're my mother? You've been advising me this whole time?"

Violette's guilt deepened, but the words that came out of her mouth made Dahlia's blood run cold.

"Dahlia... I had no choice. If I didn't do what he said, he would've killed us both!"

Harold laughed. "Twenty years ago, I had her infiltrate the Douglas family as a maid. She waited for the right moment, took Wesley's newborn daughter, and threw her away. Then she put you—a maid's daughter—in her place. Raised as a precious heiress."

His voice was dark, twisted with vengeful satisfaction. "I wanted Wesley, that hypocrite, to raise his enemy's child for twenty years! I wanted to watch him pour all his fatherly love into a bastard! And when the truth finally came out, I wanted him to suffer. To regret everything!"

"No... this isn't real..."

Dahlia stumbled backward, tears streaming down her face.

So she wasn't the Douglas family's noble daughter.

The twenty years of wealth and privilege she'd enjoyed—it was all because she was a tool for revenge against the Douglas family?