They Chose Her Over Me In Two Lives Chapter 05
That night, a storm hit.
Wind howled against the windows. Rain pounded the glass, hard and relentless.
My parents and Ryan stayed in Jade’s room.
No one mentioned me.
Thunder cracked, loud enough to rattle the walls.
Mom couldn’t hold it in any longer. She called for the housekeeper, her voice cold and tight.
“Did she knock? Did she beg?”
The housekeeper shook her head.
“Miss Lily isn’t outside the door.”
Ryan was comforting Jade, who was afraid of the thunder. He snorted.
“In this weather? Where would she go?”
“She probably slipped back in quietly. Scheming at ten years old.”
Dad sighed. Then he stood up.
“Forget it. She’s a child. She’ll get sick.”
“I’ll bring her some hot tea.”
Then Jade coughed weakly, twice, small and fragile.
She looked up at them, eyes wide and shining.
“Mom, Dad, I’m feeling much better. Go see Lily. Otherwise she’ll be upset again.”
Mom looked at Jade and felt her heart ache.
In both lives, they’d spoiled Jade. Made her willful. Made her fearless.
Now, trying to make it up to Lily, they’d let Jade suffer twice.
The girl who’d once been so bright and bold had become cautious.
But they didn’t know.
The soul inside Jade’s body was no longer a ten–year–old’s.
Mom’s eyes welled up. She hugged Jade tenderly, stroking her hair.
Then she called out to Dad.
“She hid Jade’s medicine just to throw a tantrum. If we’d been one minute later, would Jade have
survived?”
“If she gets sick, she deserves it.”
After that, Dad and Ryan never mentioned going to see me.
When it was time for bed, Jade felt something hard under the mattress.
She pulled it out and tossed it aside.
“What is this ugly thing? Did Lily put it here to hurt me?”
Mom stood up to comfort her.
“Don’t be upset, sweetheart. Lily’s just used to being poor.”
“Mom will throw it out.”
But when she picked it up, she froze.
The Model Magic figures were crude, uneven, clearly made by small hands.
But they had clearly been made with care.
She recognized them instantly.
Four figures: her, Dad, Ryan, and Jade.
Dad and Ryan came over, curious. They froze too.
On the base, crooked letters had been carved.
“A family.”
Mom felt something crack inside her chest.
Her voice was hoarse.
“Did she make these?”
No one answered.
No one needed to.
Children raised in group homes grew up fast. They could make anything.
Model Magic figures were nothing.
Ryan took the figures from his mother’s hands.
His voice was urgent.
“They’re ugly.”
But he slipped them into his pocket.
He didn’t throw them away.
The next morning.
For the first time, Mom stood at the door to the storage room with a gift box.
She looked at it, uncomfortable, turning it over in her hands.
It was her birthday gift for me.
Inside was a bracelet Jade had once called too childish.
But Mom didn’t see anything wrong with that.
In their past life, right up until Jade killed me, they’d never given me a decent gift.
Mom was confident.
Based on what she knew of me from two lifetimes, she was sure I’d be happy when she saw it.
But when she said it the third time-“Lily, I brought your birthday gift“-and there was still no
sound from inside-
Mom finally panicked.
