Dad, I'm No Illegitimate Child

---- Chapter 4 I stopped listening. I already knew that the body wasn't mine. I had been killed just the night before, and the abductor had butchered my corpse and thrown the pieces into the river to feed the fish. The only part left was my heart, the one Dad had kicked away like trash. What I didn't understand was why Dad sounded so strictly professional. In his eyes, was I really no different from any other victim? When he learned the corpse wasn't mine, didn't he feel the slightest bit relieved? When he learned I was missing, wasn't he afraid?

When I was five, he once took me to his precinct. I was always quiet and never fussed or cried as I sat off to the side with my toys. His eyes had softened when he looked at me then. " Edith, sweetheart, are you bored?" Ismiled brightly at him. "Not at all. I love being with you while you work." His colleagues teased him enviously. ---- "Mr. Carter, you're lucky. She's such a sweet little girl. "Edith is so adorable. I wish I had a daughter like her." "Seriously, how can anyone compete with William?" Every time they said things like that, Dad laughed with pride.

"You brats don't even have wives. Stop dreaming about having daughters." When they dispersed, he would scoop me up and kiss my chubby cheeks. "Edith is Daddy's little angel. Daddy loves you." Did he really? Or was that just something he told himself? Because once Helen was born, his eyes and heart belonged entirely to her. He installed a car seat for her, saying a child's neck was fragile and must be protected. He was always so busy, yet he still made time to attend early-education classes with Agnes and Helen, insisting a father must be involved in his child's growth.

---- He even hired a nanny and a nutritionist for Helen so she could develop well. When she was old enough, he sent her to the best kindergarten in the city, where the tuition fees started in the five digits. Then he even bought a house in a top school district and made it her permanent address so she would receive the best education. Yet he left the old house as my permanent address. Everything Helen had was something I never had. lenvied her, yes, but I never hated her. I had once received Dad's love too. And truly, what was there to envy?

Should I have envied the fact that she wasn't even Dad's biological child? After Agnes became pregnant, Dad treated her as if she were fragile, protecting her at every step. But I clearly saw another man coming over whenever Dad left for work. He embraced her openly. When I threatened to tell Dad, Agnes told me, "Edith, sweetheart, that man is my older brother." Iwas young and naive-I believed her. ---- She said it was a secret between girls and that I must never tell Dad because he didn't like her brother, and she didn't want to lose her only sibling. So I promised her.

She even gave me a chocolate. It was rich and sweet, but after eating it, I grew terribly sleepy. She gave me that kind of chocolate often, and I slept each time after having it. One day, the man came again before I had eaten the chocolate. They thought I was asleep and went into the bedroom. I crept to the door and peered through a crack. The man pinned Agnes to the bed and kissed her while murmuring strange things. She hit his shoulder and whispered, "You're pressing on our baby." He reached over with a grin, resting his hand on her belly. "Look at that.

William's been raising my child for me. What a dutiful man. That fool wears betrayal so well, it's like it was made for him." Agnes shoved him playfully, but their laughter only grew darker.