The Sweet Rival (Mango Shen and Nathaniel Ye)

"What are you doing?"

Laney was so frightened that she took two steps back, but she hit the wall behind her and cried out in pain again.

Mango said with some embarrassment, "I...I just wanted to see you. I have a cell phone here. Although there is no signal, we can still use the flashlight."

Hearing this, Laney muttered, "Don't...don't look at me. I'm afraid that I'll scare you."

"It doesn't matter. You are Sisi's mother. I have to make sure that, right? Otherwise, how can I tell you about Sisi?"

Mango's words silenced Laney.

She quickly found the phone and turned on the flashlight, but she almost screamed when she saw Laney. Laney was no longer a human being.

She was deformed and was very skinny. The most important thing was that her face had been disfigured!

"Your face..." "Kolton said that I had a charming face and that it would only harm others, so he ruined it for me."

Laney smiled faintly as she talked about it. However, her smile seemed a little terrifying to Mango.

Laney's face had been damaged by acid. Except for her nose, eyes, and mouth, the rest of her face looked horrible. Mango's heart couldn't help but ache.

"I heard from Sisi that she would video call you once in a while. Doesn't she know about your face?"

"I haven't video- called Sisi recently. She and I haven't contacted each other for a long time. Kolton was angry lately, so he only came here to take his anger out on me. He would never let me see Sisi. There were times where I suspected he had killed Sisi. Maybe Sisi wasn't his favourite child, or maybe it was because of me, but he threw her away two days after she was born. It took me a lot of effort to find my child. I thought Kolten would bring her back. Like many years ago, he came to the orphanage like a prince and took Marissa and me away together, but I was wrong. He isn't a human being, let alone a prince! Maybe he is only Marrisa's prince!"

Laney cried as she spoke.

"I miss Sisi very much. When I gave birth to her, I had a hard time conceiving her. It took me four days and four nights to gave birth to her. At that time, her breathing was weak, and I was afraid that she would not survive. But she managed to survive with her strength. I didn't have breast milk. While watching the child crying because of hunger, I begged Kolton to give her something to eat, but he took her away. I thought that even if he didn't like me, he would at least treat his daughter better. But who would have thought that he would send Sisi to an orphanage? Poor Sisi didn't even have the chance to drink a sip of milk, and I didn't even get to feed her. Now she should be in her twenties. But I can only see her through videos. The last time I saw her, she didn't know how she got blind for some reason, but I didn't dare to ask as I was afraid she would blame me."

Laney cried louder as she spoke of it.

Mango was also a mother, so she naturally knew what kind of feelings a mother had for a child.

She patted Laney on the shoulder and comforted her in a low voice. "Sisi didn't hurt any nerves inside her eyes, so her condition could still be cured. In fact, not long ago, my husband, Nathaniel, cured her eyes. She is still as beautiful as before."

"Your husband, Nathaniel? Is he the baby that Kolton and Nanny Zhang made with test tubes?"

"Yes."

Mango didn't like it when other people talked about her husband, but this was an indelible fact. She couldn't do anything about it.

Laney sighed and said, "Kolton committed quite a lot of sins for Marrisa. Sisi was a mistake that I made when I fell in love with Kolton. I thought that I could give him a baby to make him happy, but I offended him. He didn't want to have anything to do with any other woman, except for Marrisa, in his life. But she couldn't satisfy him at all. He was loyal and lovely to Marrisa but cruel and mean to others. He could go against the world for her! I don't understand why he would fall in love with Marrisa all of a sudden! Is it because she is more beautiful than I am?"

"It's hard to say when it comes to feelings. Although looks may be one of the reasons, it's not everything. Perhaps they have something common that we don't know about. Aunt Laney, there's no use thinking about it anymore. If you let go of your feelings with Kolton and fall in love with someone else instead, maybe you and Sisi's lives will be different, won't they? But could you control your feelings at that time?" Laney fell silent as she heard Mango's words.

Yes, if she didn't fell for Kolton and didn't use those ways to get Kolton, would her and Sisi's life

be different?

Laney remained silent, and Mango rested for a while.

She leaned against the wall and suddenly asked as she thought of Marrisa and Kolton, "Aunt Laney, do you know what's wrong with Marrisa? I feel that she not only has congenital disorders, but she's most likely been poisoned."

Laney took a deep breath.

"Have you learnt medicine before?"

"No, Nanny Zhang was born in a Chinese medicine family. When I went to her hometown with my husband, a lot of books about medical skills were in her house. I would read a few of them when I ad nothing to do, and I remember seeing Marrisa's symptoms in one of the books. She was probably poisoned when she was in her mother's womb. When she was born, her body was in a shade of purple and blue. She could die out of suffocation easily, but she could breathe normally at times. I think that her family sent her to the orphanage because of these. After all, cases like these are uncommon. Many people will think that there is something wrong with their child and give them away."

Mango said in a low voice.

Laney nodded and said, "Perhaps that's it. Marrisa and I grew up in an orphanage. We were like sisters. She once told me that sometimes she felt suffocated. There were times where people would think she died, but when really she only fell asleep. So ever since she was little, she had no friends except me. I used to be a little scared, but I didn't give much thought to it since she was always fine the next day. When Mango heard this, she was even more certain of her own speculations.

"Actually, it's easy to find out if Marrisa is really poisoned. Just do a blood test for her. I don't believe that Kolton didn't do such a simple thing?"

"Haha!"

Laney laughed in an extremely ironic way.

"As I said before, Kolton is a fool when it comes to Marrisa. From the very beginning, he decided that Marrisa had congenital disorders and wouldn't listen to what others say. Just like today, he threw you in here because he didn't believe it was simple food poisoning. What else is there to say?"

Mango was a little frustrated.

Kolton was indeed a fool.

Mango sighed, feeling a little cold.

"When can we go out?"

"I can't get out of here. He keeps me alive because I need to test Marrisa's medicine as our body and blood type are similar. Hence, the only reason why I am alive is because of Marissa. But you're different. If you're useless to him, he won't take you to this island. To him, this is a sacred island that belonged to them. He wouldn't allow just anyone to come here. Therefore, since you've been caught here, you must be useful. After he makes sure that Marrisa's condition is stable, he will let you out."

Laney's words caused Mango to sympathize with her once again.

"You have the same blood type as Marrisa? Is your blood type rare?"

"RH negative blood."

Laney said with a wry smile, "Hah...I finally understand why he took me away back then. He just wanted to find a blood bank for Marrisa. Alas! How sad and pitiful my life is!"

Mango wanted to comfort Laney, but she didn't know how to do so. There were some things that she couldn't interfere with or comment on.

She sighed and quickly changed the subject.

"Aunt Laney, I want to ask you something. Can you tell me?" "What is it? I'll tell you as long as I know. I only hope that when you leave here, you can help me take care of my Sisi. Sisi is a poor child. Kolton used her because of me. Tell her to not care about me anymore and say that I'm dead. As long as Sisi knows that I'm dead, she will never be used by Kolton again. By then, Sisi will live her own life and not under the shadow of Kolton and me."

Laney couldn't the tears flowing out of her eyes as she spoke about Sisi.

Mango immediately nodded her head.

"I will. Don't worry, I will help you take care of Sisi, and at the same time, I will try my best to take you out of here. Aunty Laney, your life is still very long, and you will have all kinds of possibilities."

"I don't want to think about it anymore. I used to think about escaping and leaving here. But now, with my appearance, I'm afraid that many people will be scared to death if I go out. So it's better that I don't do anything. As long as Sisi is well, I have no regrets in life."

Laney was optimistic, but to Mango, such a life was too tragic!

She was so upset that she could not breathe.

She took a deep breath and knew that it was not the time for her to show sympathy.

Mango looked at Laney and asked in a low voice, "Laney, I'm Dennis's daughter, Mango. I want to know if his body was left on this island by Kolton. Why did he my father's body here? My father has been dead for more than twenty years, yet he is still detaining him. He probably did some tests on him as well. As a child, I cannot let this happen anymore. I want to bring him home! If you know, can you please tell me?"