Chapter 6 A Mother and a Daughter

Chapter Six: A Mother and a daughter

Katherine had always treated Anna terribly. For the few years they had known each other, at least.

When Anna had found out about her twin sister, it had been the shock of her life. But she had been happy.

Excited, even. When her adoptive mother, Wendy, had told her about it, she had felt many emotions. Betrayed, most of all, yes. But also, curious.

The Steffanellis were powerful. Everyone knew them. Luca Stefanelli, her father, was a well-known businessman who had ties with global leaders. Carla, her mother, was a socialite with all the right connections.

Perhaps she had been instrumental in getting Katherine her fancy job managing many popular artists. When they had met, Katherine had been in an Ivy League university, studying Communication.

Anna had reached out to her sister on social media. She had waited weeks for a reply. She was patient because she knew Katherine was a busy person.

She would go through her social media pages for hours on end, wondering what kind of person her sister was. Would they be able to forge a sisterly bond at this late stage of their lives?

She certainly had hoped so, never envisioning the current state their relationship had come to.

When Katherine had finally replied, she asked Anna to come to Delia City to meet her and her parents. Anna remembered feeling a rush of euphoria. Her rich and successful sister wanted to meet her, associate with her.

And her mother, too. At the time, Anna had been unaware of the circumstances under which she had been given to Wendy to live at the farm. Unaware of how unwanted she was, how detested, she set out to catch the bus to Delia.

Meeting Katherine and her mother had been…eye opening, to say the least. Katherine as…very different from what Anna had imagined. She was haughty and arrogant, conceited, even. Full of herself. Selfish.

Anna had never detested anyone so much. But from the get go, Katherine had made it clear to her that Anna needed to stay away from her life. And she hadn’t even met her mother. Until that fateful day.

Did Anna regret sleep with Giorgio? Of course, she did. But they had both been drunk. Giorgio, more so. She had tried to explain to him, that she wasn’t Katherine, but he hadn’t understood in his drunk stupor.

She often wondered, if she had even tried hard enough. Giorgio was the kind of man who always got what he wanted. And he had wanted Anna that night.

And then a month later, she had found out.

“Are you sure it is his?” Katherine had screamed at her, “I’m sure a slut like you can’t fucking keep track of who she has opened her legs to.”

Her words had stung. But she was wrong. Anna had been a virgin before that night.

Katherine had forcefully taken her to their mother. Carla Stefanelli was a graceful woman, dressed elegantly, speaking eloquently. But when she spoke to Anna, she had spewed venom, “Shameless creature! You dare to seduce your sister’s fiancé and get pregnant with his child!”

Katherine was sobbing in her mother’s arms as she glared at Anna. Mom, I can’t bear it anymore. My little sister is carrying my fiancés baby. Oh Giorgio! If he finds out, honorable man that he is, he will marry her and leave me behind,” She turned to look at her twin, her eyes filled with hatred.

Anna understood why she was mad. And her explanation didn’t seem good enough to her. “Is that what you want? Is that why you did this? You’re fucking jealous I got the good life and you didn’t? I’ll ruin your fucking life, Anna!”

“I didn’t mean to!” Anna cried, “That night, her fiancé entered the wrong room. He was

drugged, and no matter what I said, he wouldn’t listen. It’s really not what you think, Mom...”

“You dare to call me Mom!” Carla’s hand came flying across Anna’s face. She didn’t even register the slap for a second. “How dare you argue with me! Remember this, Anna. It was Katherine who had sex with Giorgio Vittorio, the Boss of this city. And it was Katherine who got pregnant. You owe your sister for this. Now go back to your room and take good care of the baby!”

Sobbing, Anna ran away.

Behind her, without her knowledge, the mother and daughter conspired.

“Mom, can we really do this?”

“Then what should we do? It’s all your fault, stupid child. You drugged him. In the end, Anna benefits from all this for nothing.”

Anna finished delivering the food and went straight home. She stood in front of the door and raised her hand to knock.

Soon, a deliberately lowered voice came from inside...

"Rooster, hen, big plate of chicken."

They had to use a secret code again?

Anna chuckled helplessly and replied, "Thank you for the double tap."

"Circle, steel ring, hula hoop."

Anna sighed, "The magic power of love spins in circles."

Click! As the answers matched, the door finally opened.

A chubby little girl wearing a white princess dress popped out and hugged Anna's long legs.

"Congratulations, Mommy answered all the questions correctly! You're allowed to come home!"

Anna smiled. After a terrible day like this, seeing her daughter’s face made Anna’s heart swell with joy.

Penny had a strong sense of safety and always had the correct answers to the secret code. She was a very well-behaved and sensible girl.

And she was Anna's biological daughter!

Six years ago, after leaving the hospital, Anna gave birth to another girl in the car. It turned out that she was pregnant with a pair of twins! But her sister was afraid that the prenatal check-up would leak the news, so she never allowed her to have one, resulting in them both being unaware.

The doctor would probably have known. But he had not told her.

Later, Anna couldn't bear to do it, so she begged the driver and secretly stayed behind.

Penny's existence must never be known to her sister and the blind man!

"Penny, you forgot to call me Fairy Anna."

"Okay, Mommy, Penny knows."

Was there any hope for her daughter's intelligence? She was indeed only six years old, but Anna knew she was a little behind her peers.

"Oh, by the way, Mommy, Grandma said she needs to talk to you."

As soon as she finished speaking, creak! Wendy, wearing a green nightgown, came out of the room.

Her hair was in camel-colored wool curls, her face was covered in a face mask, her lips were bright red. Even though Wendy she was born in the countryside and had lived there all her life, but she had managed to maintain a somewhat noble appearance with the Stefanelli family's adoption fee.

She placed a homemade dish on the table and said, "Tomorrow night at 7 o'clock, deliver this to Jack's Nightclub to Mr. Jack."

Mr. Jack, weighing 200 pounds, covered in freckles, only 40 years old, and divorced five times, a fat and ugly man that everyone in Crownhaven knew, a lecher.

Anna's eyebrows twisted, and she instinctively refused, "I don't usually go to that area."

Wendy's face drooped, "Mr. Jack spent money to buy my exclusive pickled dish. I already collected the money. How can I explain if you don't go? Besides, I wanted to use the money to buy new clothes for Penny for this season, not for myself."

Anna didn't expect Wendy to buy new clothes for Penny. Considering Penny's sake, she no longer refused. It was just a delivery. She was still suspicious of whether Wendy was truly concerned about her daughter or not. Knowing her, she wasn’t. But the small hope that Penny might now have new clothes, that Anna absolutely couldn’t afford, made her say yes to this request.

"Fine." Since she had some time tomorrow, she could go and deliver it.

Wendy looked at Anna's cold figure walking away, her eyes getting darker and more sinister.

This adopted daughter of theirs was never close to her whenever they were together. It seemed that adoption was just adoption, and they never grew close. She had needed the money, and the Stefanellis had paid so much. One child she could keep around for labor wasn’t a bad deal.

Once Mr. Jack had been properly handled, they would see how high and mighty she could be.

...

The next day, Anna sent Penny to school as usual, went to work as usual, and when there was no order, she took the time to go to Jack's Nightclub.

When she arrived at her designated spot, there was no one there. It was only evening, so it made sense that the club was empty.

She sat down, and took out her phone to make a call.

Eventually, Jack ran out, "Anna, you're here. Sorry, I just went to the bathroom. Take a look at what you want to eat, and I'll pay."

Actually, Jack's Nightclub was exorbitant, even a simple lemonade cost 25 dollars. He was reluctant to spend money on her, but in order to give Anna a 'wealthy' impression, he pretended to be open-minded and allowed her to order casually.

Anna gave a polite smile and placed the item on the table. Meanwhile, a waitress placed a glass of water on the table. She drank it one gulp. "Mr. Jack, I won't eat anything. This is something my mother asked me to deliver to you. I need to get back to work, so I'll leave now."

"Huh, why the rush?" Jack grabbed her arm, wearing a friendly and enthusiastic smile tainted with lust. "We've met before, so we're friends.”

“Thank you, Mr. Jack. I appreciate that. However, I must leave now.”

“You are so beautiful, Anna. How about marrying me? I'll make you live a happy and extravagant life every day." He looked around the area, “You can see, I am very wealthy.”

As he spoke, his hand began to wander towards her, while his greasy face and the smell of cigarettes and alcohol made her almost gag.

With a snap, Anna slapped away his hand in surprise and panic. "Mr. Jack, I prefer to rely on my own abilities. I advise you to behave!"

Having said that, she stood up and prepared to leave.

However, her head suddenly felt dizzy, and her body went weak. She fell back onto the sofa without warning.

"What... what did you put in the water?"