The Daughter in the Shadows (by Una Norris) novel Chapter 42

Chapter 42 Unwanted Daughter

“If I make that call to complain, they’ll just say I’m stirring up trouble. Ruining family harmony. Everyone knows I’m being mistreated, but the moment I speak up, I’m the one who’s ‘being difficult

Gill was so angry she nearly cried. “She’s your real mother, and she takes Elsie on vacation to relax while leaving you locked outside the house? What kind of mother does that!”

Yunice suddenly remembered what Lily once said–If only you had been the one born in the mountains.

How much must she hate me to say something like that?

Yunice clutched the bowl of ginger soup. The bowl was hot, but her heart felt cold.

She still remembered when Lily had first returned to their lives–how they had once shared a long, heartfelt conversation.

Lily had sat at the edge of her bed and told her how she was kidnapped and trafficked into the mountains, how she was beaten and abused, how she’d barely survived childbirth. How Elsie had become her only reason to live.

She told Yunice that Elsie, born a girl and unwanted by her father, went unnamed for half a month. Lily had looked at the bright, full moon overhead and given her the name Elsie.

Lily said Elsie was her hope–her anchor. That it was Elsie who gave her the strength to escape the mountains and return to her family.

That’s why she hoped Yunice and Oscar and Owen would treat Elsie like a precious gem–because it was the Saunders family that owed Elsie a debt

Without Elsie, there wouldn’t be a reunited family.

At the time, Yunice had felt something wasn’t quite right with that logic

Elsie may have been Lily’s emotional lifeline—but weren’t she and her brothers also Lily’s children?

If Lily could cling to hope for Elsie, why had she never once missed her other children? Why hadn’t she lived for them too? Elsie was pitiful, yes–but Yunice and her brothers were innocent. They had grown up without a drop of motherly love. So how did they end up owing Elsie something?

But back then, both Oscar and Owen had already gone soft for Elsie. Yunice didn’t dare say any of that out loud.

Instead, she tried harder–more obedient, more sensible, more quiet. She thought maybe that way she could hold on to the love of her brothers.

But in the end, she was the one who didn’t belong.

She blew gently on the ginger soup. Still too hot to sip.

Just as she lifted the bowl to try, a knock sounded at the door.

It was fast, impatient.

Gill frowned. Who would be knocking at this hour?

Yunice checked the security monitor–and nearly spilled the soup.

On the screen stood Wyatt, dressed in black, leaning on his cane with a tight, anxious expression.

When no one answered, he grew impatient and motioned for his men to pick the lock.

She had already set the bowl down and slung her canvas bag over her shoulder. She jogged over. “Let’s go!”

“Wyatt hadn’t even had time to explain why he came.

“Miss, your soup–1” Gill called out, worried.

But Yunice had already stepped into the elevator. “I’ll drink it when I get back!”

Yunice confirmed her guess. “Madam Johnson’s having another episode!”

Yunice continued, “I told you her condition wasn’t fully treated. If a normal hospital could help, she wouldn’t have gone looking for my father back then.”

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