~Her Mother's Daughter~

Nadia felt pleasurable warmth as she cuddled the sheets wrapped around her, smiling mindlessly with her eyes closed as she recalled the amazing dream she had last night.

A part of her was annoyed at relishing such a dream, but a bigger part wanted to fully embrace it as she hadn't felt so good in such a long time.

Her eyelashes shook when she perceived traces of sunlight seeping through the open windows. Her subconsciousness was glad it was summer, or she might have frozen to death overnight, but then something was wrong.

She couldn't feel any clothes on her skin, and this didn't feel like her bed.

Alarmed, she sat up instantly and took a good look around her, gasping in horror when she remembered the details of yesterday night.

Nadia covered her mouth with her palms as she tried to control her breathing. This could not possibly be happening to her. She came here to stop the one-night stand, not do it herself.

She was panicking; her world was turning upside down, and as much as she wanted to blame it on the devil, she knew she couldn't escape this.

Mustering all her strength, she got on her feet and looked down to see blood between her legs. Infuriated at the sight of red on her, she used the sheets to wipe them off and gathered her clothes, hastily putting them back on.

She had to get out of there fast—despite it being hard and painful for her to walk—as flashbacks of what had happened on that bed tormented her.

When she grabbed her phone and saw the time, she ran out of the hotel room and hurriedly took a cab back home, continuously telling the driver to go faster.

She had to be in her room before Father arrived, or he would kill her. She thought the worst of the man, as he became someone else after her mother died.

Her stepmother and stepsister were another problem, but above all, she had to get home first.

Nadia didn't know how she was going to hide this. How could she let this happen to her?

As soon as she reached the mansion, she hurried inside, ignoring the greetings of all the maids and staff. But before she could get to her room, cursing the mansion for being so big at a time like this, she heard her father's voice.

He was calling her.

"NADIA!!!"

She was done for.

Nadia stopped in her tracks as soon as she heard Ezekiel's voice and tried to make herself look as neat and innocent as possible as she rushed back downstairs to the living room. She began brainstorming excuses, but as she had never needed to lie in the past and was never very good at it, she couldn't think of anything.

It was only when she arrived that she realized that no lie or excuse would be able to save her.

Her stepsister was slouching on one of their expensive sofas, smiling, while her stepmother had her hands folded, looking angry, but Nadia could tell from her eyes that she was glad.

Anything that was good for them meant trouble for her.

She turned to Ezekiel, and had never seen him so mad and red. And before she could even breathe or process her thoughts, a slap from him sent Nadia to her hurting knees.

She held her face in shock, her eyes out of focus, and her mind blank. Ezekiel kicked her again, disgusted by her sight, as she fell flat on the expensive carpet of the living room, her voice held back by tears.

"Tell me the truth, young lady!"

'Young lady?' He had never called her that before. The fuming man couldn't even look at her face, and her heart broke as she heard her stepmother and Chloe laughing in the background.

"Where were you yesterday night?"

She tried to say something, to defend herself in any way, but when she couldn't and didn't answer, her stepmother came forward and fisted her hair in her hand, forcing Nadia to get back on her knees as she grunted in pain.

"Answer your father, girl. Where were you?" Nadia glared at her, wanting to kill her so badly, which made her receive another slap across the cheek. "Where were you?! Tell him!" She got another slap and another, and when Nadia couldn't take it anymore, she bit her stepmother's hand and wriggled herself free as the witch shouted in pain, blood on her hand and blood on Nadia's teeth.

Sitting on the floor, she dragged herself back, now glaring at Chloe, who was videoing everything that was happening.

"I will ask for the last time." Ezekiel's fists were shaking, his eyes were out, and she was afraid that if she didn't talk this time, he would strangle her to death. "Where were you last night? Did you or did you not sleep with a man?!"

"It was a mistake! I didn't mean for it to happen!" Nadia yelled back with tears in her eyes, her throat clogging up from all the pain she was feeling inside.

Never had she felt so abandoned and betrayed. Chloe had exposed her in the blink of an eye, though she had hid every disgusting thing she ever did.

Nadia wanted to jump off a roof and end her miserable life, but not unless Chloe was going down with her.

Ezekiel looked like he didn't believe what he was hearing while her stepmother shook her head, clicking her tongue in revulsion.

Nadia had to defend herself. She couldn't let this happen to her.

She pointed at Chloe, who didn't even fret. "Stepmother sent me to the hotel to stop her! It was her one-night stand! I only went there to..."

"Leave this house." Her heart dropped faster than a collapsing building when she heard that. She could see Chloe and her mother silently celebrating behind them, but all she could feel was what her father said.

It was only then that Nadia noticed the baggage sitting beside the door. It was hers. It was hers all along. Everything felt like a dream; it was all happening too fast.

"I did not raise a daughter like you. From here on, you are no one to me. Leave this house at once. I have nothing else to do with you."

She cried and begged for her father to change his words, but he walked away without turning back. Chloe and her mother threw the leftovers of their food on Nadia as she wept miserably on the floor, waiting for a miracle, for someone to come save her, but... that miracle never came.

Nadia was dragged out of her father's mansion like she hadn't lived there for the past eighteen years of her life. Everything crumbled down, and that was the last she saw of the Collins family.

She was no longer the beloved daughter of Pastor Ezekiel. She was an exile, the mother of her daughter... a Wilde.

And as for the strange devil who overturned her life, he was nowhere to be found.