Worship The Ground You Walk On

The next day, Amber kept her words, which was rare.

At about 8 am, she drove to Kim's apartment and urged Claudia to go downstairs on the phone.

When she got into the car, Amber kept yawning and complained to her, "What took you so long? Do you know it costs me at least 4 hours to drive you to the sanatorium in the suburb!"

Claudia glanced at her. Who knew she would keep her words this time. Most of the time, she would pretend that she had never said that at all.

But now, Claudia didn't want to argue with her nor irritate her, since she only wanted to see her mother right away. Therefore, she had to be submissive to her temporarily, and that made Amber happy. She didn't hate Claudia personally, but she was the one who had competed against her for their father's love. That was the thing she hated most since she was young.

What's more, Claudia could always get all the love from her father by doing nothing!

That really pissed her off.

She was the direct descendant of the Evans family after all! Why this bastard would win her father's love!

Thinking about this, she felt much angrier. So she took a deep breath and saw Claudia from the corner of her eyes. Her face was beauteous as a painting, and all her gestures revealed that she was a well-bred lady.

She gritted her teeth in hatred and took another deep breath, pretending that she was fine. Let it be! Claudia would meet her doom in a few days, anyway!

After several hours, Amber couldn't stand the boredom anymore. Claudia couldn't speak, and the only thing she had been doing was driving the car.

So she turned on the music and played a song about breaking up, but soon she felt the song was satirizing her for hoping to win the love of Ben but always failed. And that made her turn off the music angrily. Claudia could feel her anger faintly. She didn't know what was going on, but for seeing her mother successfully, she did nothing but sit still, trying to stay a low profile.

Then, she received a message on the phone.

It was from Kim, "I can't imagine that Amber will be so kind to you. She has always been a rat, taking advantage of people and then dumping them. Be careful, don't fall into her trap like a pitiful chick." Claudia twitched her lips and replied, "I'm fine about you calling her a rat. But why do you call me a chick?"

She didn't think she was that little clucking thing at all.

Kim posted a laughing emoji and texted, "You are a little hen, laying eggs just for Ben!"

Claudia was wordless.

Amber noticed her expression and said, "Whom are you chatting with?"

Her voice broke the silence in the car and surprised Claudia. She raised her head and looked at Amber.

But Amber just snorted and said, "That must be Kim. She is the only person you can chat with after all."

Claudia lowed her head. Since she lost the ability to speak, her friends had been leaving her one by one, except Kim.

"Oh, I almost forgot that you still have your white knight!"

Claudia became serious. She clearly knew whom she was referring to.

"So, how is Marshall? Are you still having a connection with him?" Amber pointed out.

Claudia felt a bit of heartache when Amber mentioned him.

His loyalty and devotion were always turned down by her. She owed so much to him that didn't know how to pay off.

Seeing Claudia didn't react to her, she raised the corner of her lips in disdain. She stopped talking with Claudia and just focused on driving.

Another few hours later, they finally arrived at the sanatorium.

The nurse didn't know Claudia, but she did recognize Amber. So once she saw Amber, she walked up to her and said respectfully, "Welcome, Miss Evans!"

"Yeah. Where is Ann?" Amber said arrogantly, as conceited as she used to be.

The nurse glanced at Claudia who stood aside and pointed to the upper floor, "She is in No.1 room on the third floor. Please follow me."

Then, the nurse led them to the third floor.

No.1 room was at the end of the long hallway. Although they called it a sanatorium, the atmosphere here wasn't quite well.

The environment was gloomy and depressing, and the long hallway made you feel a kind of creepy when walking through it. Claudia accidentally noticed that they had stun rods in the room and the patient was taking 'treatment' from them. The horrible screams came out of the room, making the facility much scarier.

This sanatorium was more like a madhouse!

Then they reached the heavy gate of No.1 room. The nurse opened a huge lock and the other added locks on the door, and pushed it open. The room was quite small and dark and they couldn't see anything clearly until the light was on.

Once they turned on the light, an old woman, sitting at the corner of a battered wooden bed with disheveled hair, was frightened and mumbling with her hands protecting her head, "Don't beat me... Don't beat me..."

Seeing this, Claudia was shocked and couldn't hold her tears.

She rushed to her and hugged the crazy woman, but the woman was just crouching and trying to avoid her, and it seemed that she didn't recognize her at all.

The woman was even hitting her hard with her hands for self-protection, but Claudia just tolerated the pain and didn't let her go.

"Get away from me! Get away from me!" the women yelled and slapped. With that strained expression, she wasn't just acting like this.

Leaning on the jamb, Amber felt bored about this and said, "Look carefully! You are hitting your natural daughter Claudia!"

She felt surprised about hearing Claudia's name. Staring through the messy hair, she captured a blurred image of the young lady next to her and had a subtle change in her eyes. But soon, she continued the slapping and yelled, "Get out! Don't hit me!"

Then she pushed Claudia away heavily and crawled back to the corner, shivering and mumbling, "Go away... Go away..."

Claudia still remembered the time she met her mother before the wedding. Though she had a little bit of deliriousness, she never went crazy like this.

She turned to look at Amber confusedly, but Amber just said, "Don't look at me! I'm not responsible for this! She just went crazy for no reason. You can ask the doctor!"

And the nurse explained hurriedly, "It's true. Ann has been a lunatic for six months. We tried to treat her in many different ways but nothing worked."

Suddenly, Ann got off the bed and sit on the toilet in the room like she was going to relieve the bowels in front of everyone.

It was too gross for Amber to see, so she asked the nurse to lock the door and leave the room quickly with her.

While Claudia was still in the room and trying to get some tissue for Ann, she felt her hand was grabbed by someone.

"Sweetheart!"

That familiar voice and that tender call brought the good old memory back to Claudia's life.0000☐☐☐☐☐☐☐