“Sophia, you really won’t take this card?”
“Once you go back to your real parents, getting money won’t be that easy anymore. I heard they live deep in the mountains. They can barely even afford food…”
Inside the Goodwin house, Patrick Goodwin looked at the girl standing in front of him, his eyes full of complicated emotion.
Who would’ve thought that the child he had raised for almost eighteen years was not his biological daughter at all?
If not for the accident two months ago, when Sophia Grange gave him blood and the blood type didn’t match, they never would have found out there was no blood relation between them.
No wonder this girl had never been close to them all these years. Turns out, she really wasn’t their flesh and blood.
Still, after recovering, he had gone through a lot of trouble to finally find his actual daughter.
At first, he had wanted to leave Sophia a place to stay, at least for a while. But who knew her biological parents would come so fast to take her away?
Thinking of the file that said Sophia’s real parents were from Huangyu Village, one of the poorest mountain areas in the entire Celestial Nation, Patrick sighed again. He still tried to push the bank card into her hand.
“Sophia, just take it. To the Goodwin family, this amount is nothing. We were family for years, after all. I don’t want your life to be too hard later on.”
Once she got to her real parents’ place, forget pocket money. She’d probably have to worry about whether she could even eat enough.
The girl called Sophia stood there in plain clothes, a simple tracksuit, a baseball cap, and a backpack with no brand logo on it slung over one shoulder. From head to toe, she looked low-key to the point of being invisible.
But her face was impossible to ignore.
Delicate, striking, coldly beautiful—her features were almost unreal. In those clear, indifferent eyes, there was a sharp chill tucked away, making people instinctively keep their distance.
Hearing Patrick’s repeated persuasion, she only lifted her eyes slightly and replied in a flat, steady voice, without the slightest ripple, “Thanks, but no.”
“What an ungrateful brat.”
Angela Goodwin finally snapped. She snatched the bank card away and stuffed it into her own bag. “Don’t give it to her. This dead girl loves acting all high and mighty. Let her be. As long as she doesn’t come back crying later, I’m good.”
The moment Angela thought about how her real daughter had suffered out there while this fake had spent years living like a princess in the richest family in Lake City, dressed in luxury and fed the best, rage burned in her chest. She was practically sick of the sight of Sophia.
“Mom, please calm down. Maybe my sister just can’t bear to leave you and Dad, so she’s acting out a little.”
“Please don’t blame her. She must feel awful too…”
The one speaking in that soft, syrupy, fake-considerate tone was Cecilia Goodwin, the real Goodwin daughter who had only just been brought back.
She had once overheard Patrick and Angela talking. She knew Sophia’s biological parents were not only from the poorest place possible, but had also had five sons already.
Sophia was the sixth child.
The five older brothers up there were all waiting to get married, and there was also a seriously ill grandmother at home waiting for treatment. Once Sophia Grange got sent back there, life was obviously going to be brutal.
Cecilia Goodwin was secretly thrilled, but on the surface she still looked gentle and sensible. "Sophia, Mom and Dad really do care about you. Please stop making them upset."
"Good girl. You're the only one who really gets it." Angela Goodwin patted the back of Cecilia's hand, then shot Sophia a resentful glare. "Unlike some ungrateful little brat. Raised her for nothing."
"That's enough, don't say it like that. Sophia is still our daughter too." Seeing Angela going too far, Patrick Goodwin finally couldn't help cutting in.
What he got in return was just a cold snort from Angela.
Patrick looked a little awkward, a little helpless. He turned to Sophia, only to find there wasn't the slightest ripple in the girl's expression, as if Angela didn't even exist in her world.
He couldn't help sighing again. Yeah... she really was impossible to warm up to.
"If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving first." Sophia gave Patrick and the others a small nod, then turned and walked out of the living room cleanly, without dragging it out for even a second.
"Sophia!" Cecilia's eyes flickered. She immediately turned back to the Goodwin couple. "Dad, Mom, I'll go see Sophia off!"
With that, she hurried after her and stepped in front of her to block the way.
Sophia stopped. Her eyes narrowed slightly.
For some reason, Cecilia's scalp tingled under that look. Still, the second she thought about what kind of life Sophia would have from now on, that smug little thrill came creeping back.