"Lydia, you vicious woman!"
A hard slap came flying across her face. Half of Lydia’s cheek went numb at once, and her ear rang so badly it buzzed nonstop.
Victor Harlow stood right in front of her, chest heaving. His eyes were locked on her, full of disgust. "If anything happens to Diana or the baby, you just wait."
After throwing out those words, he yanked the door open and stormed off. The slam echoed through the room for a long while.
Lydia did not move. She just stood there with her head lowered.
She barely tugged at the corner of her mouth, and a sharp pain shot through the injured side of her face. She sucked in a breath and clenched her teeth.
What rotten luck.
Of all things, she had ended up transmigrating into the body of a nasty female side character.
In the past, if anyone so much as laid a finger on her, she would have paid it back double.
But now, she truly had no ground to stand on.
The door opened again.
A middle-aged woman in a blue jacket hurried in, breathing hard. It was Kate Lennox, the mother of this body.
She had obviously rushed over the moment she heard what happened. The second she stepped inside and saw her daughter’s swollen half-face, her heart twisted with both anger and pain. She quickly walked over and leaned in for a closer look.
"Who hit you? How could they strike you that hard?"
Lydia’s throat moved. In a low voice, she called out, "Mom... I..."
"Victor hit you, didn’t he?" Kate Lennox did not wait for her to finish. She pulled her over to sit on the long bench, both hands gripping her daughter’s hand tightly.
"This time, you really went too far. Before this, no matter how much nonsense you pulled, your father and I looked the other way.
But Diana is carrying a child. You went and shoved her. Do you understand how serious that is?
If something had really happened, that would’ve been two lives, not some little quarrel. That’s the kind of thing people go to jail for. No one would’ve been able to save you."
Lydia stayed silent, head lowered, eyes fixed on the floor.
What could she even say?
Say she wasn’t really Lydia Harlow at all?
Say she’d somehow, for no clear reason, ended up inside this body?
Or say she never touched Diana Harlow?
But the original owner’s memories were sitting there plain as day in her head—she had pushed her. She truly had. She’d done it with the child in mind too, hoping Diana would lose it. There was no unfair accusation in this, not one bit.
Seeing her daughter sitting there so wilted, head lowered and spirit gone, Kate Lennox felt a sharp ache in her chest.
She had said these words over and over already, but if it meant keeping her daughter from walking straight into ruin, then she would say them one more time.
"I know you still can’t let Victor Harlow go, but have you ever stopped to think that he never held you in his heart to begin with?
"And besides, Victor Harlow and Diana Harlow got their certificate and set up a proper home together. That’s fate. There was never any such tie between you and him.
"When it’s time to give up, you have to give up. Truth be told, your father and I are at fault too. We should’ve kept a closer eye on you."
"When Victor Harlow and Diana Harlow got married, you came running home saying you wanted to marry his cousin Sebastian Harlow. Your father and I thought you’d finally come to your senses, so we gladly married you off in good order. Who would’ve guessed you were still thinking about Victor Harlow all along!
"For a whole year, instead of living your own life properly, you kept forcing your way into their marriage. And now look at this—you’ve gone and done something this foolish!"
Kate Lennox let out a heavy sigh. In all her life, nothing had ever weighed on her heart like this.
Lydia Harlow sighed too.
Every word Kate Lennox said was the plain truth. That was exactly what the original owner had been.
She had loved Victor Harlow so blindly it was almost madness. She chased him, clung to him, wore herself out over him, and in the end all she got was watching him turn around and marry Diana Harlow. Even then, she still refused to accept it.
She had actually come up with that kind of idea—marry Sebastian Harlow, Victor Harlow’s cousin, move under the same roof, and spend every day watching that couple’s every move. She had done more than a few ridiculous things, the sort that made people shake their heads and sigh.
And once Diana Harlow got pregnant, she seemed to lose her senses even more, carrying nothing in her heart but the wish that something would go wrong.
In the end, she really did lay hands on her.
She pushed Diana Harlow.
"All right, you stay here and rest for now. I’m going to check on Diana Harlow and see how things are over there."
Kate Lennox was already a doctor at the township clinic. She had no idea how much of what she’d just said her daughter had actually taken in. Right now, the proper thing was to deal with what was right in front of them first.
All she could do was pray heaven showed a little mercy, that Diana Harlow and the child would both come through safe. Otherwise, with what her daughter had done, whether she and Thomas Lennox could protect her at all was hard to say.
Kate Lennox got up and headed out. After only two steps, something hit her, and she turned right back around. "Look at me, my head’s gone to pieces. Tell me this—does Sebastian Harlow know you pushed Diana Harlow?"