Chapter 4

I did not hear Julie's reply, but it was a no-brainer. Who would not want a healthy heart in place of their diseased one?

Besides, it would not be the first time that two of them conspired against me. I did not mind it one bit, because I had a better surprise waiting in store.

Whenever Julie's birthday rolled around, Sophie would be even better prepared than me. I did not even need to do anything because Sophie would have everything covered for Julie's birthday party. That year was arguably the most important one because it was Julie's 18th birthday—the year that marked her transition into adulthood.

Needless to say, Sophie had gone all out. She oversaw everything, from the cake to the party decorations, and had even taken to cooking all of the party food herself. In order to perfect every recipe, she tried and experimented countless times, just to get every morsel of food down to perfection.

That was rather excessive to me. I could not help but mock Sophie for it, joking that not even the Queen received such treatment for her birthday party.

Sophie rolled her eyes. "What do you know? We must be very cautious when it comes to the food children put into their mouths. I saw on the news that a bitter woman poisoned the food at a child's birthday party, all because she was jealous that she could not conceive a child of her own. Not to mention that with Julie's popularity, there will certainly be plenty of people who are envious of her. I won't risk it!"

I could not help replying tersely, "Well, in that case, how come you never put in so much effort for your own daughter? Emma always looks malnourished, and one time, I even caught her rifling through the trash, looking for scraps of food to eat. Aren't you at all concerned about her getting poisoned?"

The color drained from Sophie's face, and she explained hastily, "Why did you have to bring her up? This is all just part of my training her to be more resilient and hardworking. Besides, you're overthinking this. There are plenty of people in this world, but not all of them are bad! I'm sure her chances of getting poisoned are impossible!"

What a hypocrite. I did not even attempt to call her out.

Instead, I watched in silence as Sophie fed Julie with her own hands, trying to get her approval of the food.

They should both spend more time with each other while they still could.

On the day of Julie's birthday, our relatives gathered around the table and compared the two girls' report cards.

"My, my. Julie is the epitome of a child genius! I can't believe it! She got into an ivy league school! She has a bright future ahead of her, this one!"

"Indeed! You can't say the same for Emma over here. Look at her grades! Dismal! At this rate, she might not even get into a community college!"

Sophie grinned from ear to ear, but she still tried to put on a show. She replied, sounding not at all convincing, "You can't deny that some people have more talent than others. Perhaps it's genetics, but we mustn't be too harsh, you know!"

Everyone seemed rather perplexed by that. Why was Sophie so happy since her own child was the one failing her studies?

Since Sophie had everyone's attention, that was the moment she had been waiting for.

With everyone's eyes on her, she took out the DNA report that she had hidden for almost two decades and announced, "Ladies and gentleman, behold the truth! Julie is doing so well in life because she's inherited my genetics! Yes, that's right! You heard me correctly! Julie is my biological daughter!"

The entire room erupted into shocked whispers.

"What's this? Do my eyes deceive me? Did she seriously plant her child in another family's house and reaped the benefits?"

"Poor Claire and Andrew! What rotten luck they have!"

"Yes, I heard her as well! How can she do such a thing? She let another couple raise her daughter, and then reclaimed the child after all the time, effort, and energy they had put into child rearing. I'm mortified!"

My husband, Andrew Williams, was so outraged that he slammed his palm against the table. "You did this on purpose! You knew that Julie was your biological daughter, so you spoiled her whilst mistreating my Emma! You abused my daughter!"

Sophie was not at all fazed by the accusations.

She replied coolly, "This is all for her greater good, you know. Emma is such a dim-witted child. If I hadn't cracked down on her, who knows what she would've become?

"Aside from this, I have another announcement to make. I have decided that Emma shall donate her heart to Julie. I've already spoken to Emma about this, and she agrees that Julie's happiness should be above anything. She's willing to sacrifice herself in exchange for Julie's health."

Andrew hurled a cup across the room at her, where it shattered against the wall.

He roared, "You evil witch! I'm going to kill you!"

Not even our relatives could take it any longer. They all snapped.

"Sophie, this is out of line!"

"Claire and Andrew poured so much into raising Julie, and now you're claiming their hard work! Not only that, but you even have the audacity to make Emma donate her heart to Julie. You're murdering the poor child!"

"This is outrageous!"

Sophie was having none of it. She countered, "What do you know about raising a child? It's people like you who end up raising the imbeciles that roam this earth! Don't you know the law of evolution? Evolution decrees that only the fittest survive! It's not my fault that Emma can't survive in this world! It's her own fault!

"Besides, what right do you have to reprimand me? Emma should be grateful that I'm even allowing her hideous heart to reside within my darling Julie's body! This is the greatest honor she can ever do with her life!"

The relatives had to physically restrain Andrew to stop him from hitting Sophie on the spot. I, on the other hand, sat in my chair with tears streaming down my face.

Everyone thought I was so overcome by sadness at my best friend's betrayal, but unbeknownst to them, the tears I shed were tears of joy.

Things were finally about to come to an end.