I Pretended to Be Dead and They All Panicked Chapter 06

I Pretended to Be Dead and They All Panicked Chapter 06

“If you keep treating her like this, aren’t you just 

pushing her toward suicide?” 

Julian’s eyes were red as he finally screamed the 

words. 

Mom went rigid. 

She grabbed his arm. 

“What did you just say? Say that again.” 

Julian took a deep breath and repeated himself. 

Then he slammed a thick stack of investigative 

reports onto the table. Tears streamed down his face as guilt consumed him. 

“Cordelia disappeared because of my negligence. 

I’ve spent years blaming myself for losing her, so I 

secretly investigated what happened during the 

years she was gone. I wanted to find some way to make up for what she’d been through.” 

His voice broke. 

“I never imagined she’d suffered this much.” 

He opened the report with shaking hands. 

Every line made the room feel heavier. 

“Cordelia was adopted, but the life she lived was worse than anything you’d expect for livestock on a farm.” 

“When she was three, she was sent to an isolated town deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Her adoptive parents had originally wanted a boy. When they realized the child they’d brought home was a girl, they decided she was nothing but a burden.” 

“From that point on, they treated her like free labor. She was only three years old, but they forced her to clean the house, take care of livestock, and perform hard physical work no child her age. should ever have been expected to do. If she 

made a mistake, they screamed at her. Sometimes they beat her.” 

Julian’s voice grew heavier with every word. 

“When Cordelia was seven, her adoptive father 

accumulated a massive amount of debt. Then he 

heard through an underground network that 

human organs could fetch a fortune on the black 

market.” 

“He actually considered selling Cordelia to an. 

illegal organ trafficking ring.” 

“Cordelia overheard them talking about it by 

accident. That night, after everyone had fallen asleep, she ran away.” 

“She was only seven years old. She crossed the mountains alone, following dirt roads and highways through the night. She didn’t dare look 

back. She didn’t dare stop. She kept walking until 

dawn.” 

“That was when a passing couple found her. They took her in, helped her recover, and eventually 

became her new adoptive parents.” 

Julian took a shaky breath and pointed to another 

section of the report. 

“When Cordelia was seven and started school, the 

other children isolated and bullied her because 

she was older than them. Once, they even locked 

her inside a storage cabinet and nearly killed her.” 

“It’s possible that Cordelia began thinking about. 

suicide when she was only seven. The only reason. 

she managed to keep going was because her new 

adoptive parents treated her with some kindness. 

They gave her a little warmth and affection, and 

that was enough to keep her alive.” 

“Three years later, they had a child of their own.” 

“And suddenly, Cordelia became an outsider in her 

own home.” 

“Eventually, they deliberately tricked her into going 

with them to a town fair. What Cordelia didn’t 

know was that they were already aware of a child 

trafficking ring operating nearby.” 

“They actually intended to stand there and watch. 

someone take her away.” 

That explained everything. 

So when a human trafficker had clamped a hand 

over my mouth and nose until I could barely 

breathe, I had stopped fighting. 

I had almost welcomed death. 

The trafficker was inexperienced, though. It was his first time doing something like this. When he noticed my body growing cold and realized I had stopped responding, he panicked. 

He dumped me outside the emergency room and 

fled. 

By the time I was discharged and the police took me back to my adoptive parents‘ house, they had 

already packed up and disappeared overnight. 

I had nowhere else to go. 

The state child welfare system took custody of 

me, and I was eventually placed into foster care. 

That was why my rule for surviving had always 

been simple: 

If I could keep going, I kept going. 

If I couldn’t, I died. 

The moment anything went seriously wrong, my 

first instinct was suicide. 

Because in my mind, dying was easier than 

dealing with another disaster. 

Julian covered his face and sank to the floor, 

sobbing. 

“Cordelia wasn’t faking her death to get attention. 

She learned a long time ago that this was how she 

protected herself. She learned not to fight back.” 

Plop. 

Mom’s designer handbag slipped from her fingers 

and hit the floor. 

She stared blankly ahead, her lips trembling. 

“So that’s what happened…” 

“My daughter went through all of that. She 

suffered all those years, and I didn’t know a thing.” 

Dad leaned heavily against the wall. 

Then something suddenly occurred to him. 

He looked at Julian angrily. 

“Then why didn’t the doctor mention Cordelia’s 

depression when he examined her today? We were completely misled.” 

Julian let out a cold laugh and turned toward 

Evangeline. 

“Mom, Dad, that’s something you should ask 

Evangeline about.” 

He looked directly at her. 

“If I’m not mistaken, the whole thing with Cordelia 

supposedly stealing those things today was your 

setup, wasn’t it?” 

“And bringing her to this hospital was part of the 

plan too. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had already 

paid off that doctor.” 

Every word struck directly at the secret Evangeline 

had been desperately trying to hide. 

She immediately shook her head. 

“Julian, I didn’t.” 

But Julian wasn’t about to let her off the hook. 

“Then let me investigate your bank records for the past few days.” 

The room fell into an eerie silence. 

Evangeline’s eyes darted around the room. She 

couldn’t even bring herself to look up. 

Mom stared at her in disbelief. 

Then she raised her hand and slapped her hard across the face. 

“How could you be this calculating, Evangeline?” 

Her voice shook with fury. 

“I just realized what you were doing earlier. You kept hinting that Cordelia had jumped on purpose.” 

“If Julian hadn’t come here today and told us the truth, would we have just stood by and watched Cordelia die?” 

Evangeline covered her cheek, tears streaming 

down her face. 

“I was just afraid she’d take you away from me! I 

didn’t mean anything else!” 

“Ever since she came back, she’s all you care 

about. Neither of you even looks at me anymore!” 

She covered her face and ran out of the room. 

My parents watched her disappear down the hallway and could only sigh helplessly. 

After a long silence, Mom’s voice broke. 

“Eva was spoiled. We gave her too much and 

expected too little from her.” 

She wiped away her tears. 

“From now on, we need to make it up to Cordelia. 

We owe her all these years. We have to give her 

back everything she was denied.” 

Evangeline had not gone far enough to miss a 

single word. 

She stopped in the hallway. 

Her hands curled into fists. 

A vicious look flashed across her tear–streaked 

face. 

“You little bitch,” she whispered through clenched 

teeth. “Just wait.”