CHAPTER_DETAIL_H1

Swallowing hard, Winona asked, "When did you find out your biological child was sent to the Wynn family?"

"Ten years ago. Jeffrey got drunk and started screaming about the Wynns, and that's when I realized my baby girl was alive. Not just alive, but thriving. I cried for days. But I never dared to go to Empire City to find her. I forced myself to pretend she didn't exist."

Right after that revelation, Zane had been left comatose, and she had received her terminal diagnosis.

If she had tracked her daughter down, she would have only brought illness, poverty, and chaos into the girl's perfect life.

Sylvia picked nervously at her sleeves. "I knew Sienna was living like royalty with them, so I figured... letting sleeping dogs lie was the safest bet for everyone. I've been hiding in this apartment for ten years. Jeffrey probably assumed the cancer took me years ago. If I hadn't disappeared into thin air, a psychopath like him would have staged an 'accident' for Zane and me just to collect a massive insurance payout."

That sounded exactly like the monstrous, money-hungry Jeffrey.

Sylvia let out a long, exhausted sigh. "The only reason I was even working as a maid at the Wynn estate back then was because I was visiting relatives in Empire City and covering a shift for my cousin. One shift... and it destroyed everything."

That one fateful shift had permanently altered the trajectory of several lives.

She looked up, her voice gentle and naive. "Did you say people are talking about this on the internet?"

She never watched the news, spending her days scrubbing floors, cooking meager meals, and using a flip phone without social media access, completely oblivious to the digital witch hunt raging outside her door.

Winona abruptly stood up, an overwhelming wave of guilt crashing over her for invading this sanctuary.

Sylvia had sacrificed everything to hide in peace, and if Jeffrey managed to track her down, her final days would be an absolute nightmare.

She never should have come here.

As she turned toward the door, she heard panicked footsteps shuffling behind her.

Sylvia stood in the entryway, her sunken eyes welling with desperate anxiety. "Are you... are you living a good life?"

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