Rebirth: Love me Again - Chapter 308

Chapter 308: Behind the Mask of Family
[EVE]

When I got back to the house, I immediately confronted my father.

“Did you do it?” I asked, my voice sharp, demanding answers.

He turned to me with a frown. “Eve, I haven’t touched anything in that office,” he denied, his tone controlled but laced with irritation.

I wanted to believe him—I really did. But my gut twisted with doubt. He was the only one acting suspicious, the only stranger in the office who had access to all the files.

No one else had a reason to betray me like this.

But . . . he was my father.

He wouldn’t do this to me, right?

“Eve, your father didn’t do it,” my mother suddenly cut in, stepping closer as if to shield him. “I’m sure it was one of your staff. They’re lying to you.”

I turned to her, feeling my breath hitch. “You think my staff—who’ve been with me since the beginning—would steal from us? Why would they do that?”

“Because they’re strangers,” my father snapped, his voice dripping with disdain. “You think they’re trustworthy? They’re low life, Eve. People like them always have a price. Someone must have offered them enough money to sell you out.”

“Lowlives?” My hands curled into fists at my sides. “Those so-called ‘lowlives’ are my friends. My trusted team. They’ve worked day and night to help build that studio from the ground up. And you’re saying they are the ones who stole from me?”

“Go on then!” My father scoffed, throwing his hands up. “Pick them over your own family. I understand. We weren’t in your life long enough for you to feel any loyalty toward us.”

His words hit a nerve, but I refused to let them shake me.

“This isn’t about loyalty, Dad. It’s about logic.” I inhaled sharply. “You were the only one with access to those files at the time. Besides Hyun and Georgina, no one else could have done it.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “Then maybe one of them did it.”

I clenched my teeth, my patience wearing dangerously thin. “Hyun has worked tirelessly on this collection. He wouldn’t just hand it over to someone for money. And Georgina? She’s too proud, too professional to sell out her own work. She’d rather die than let herself be bought.”

Silence.

A tense, suffocating silence filled the air between us.

Then—

My father laughed.

A low, mocking chuckle that sent ice through my veins.

“You’re so naive,” he sneered, shaking his head. “Trusting people like them over your own blood.”

I felt something inside me snap.

“You know what, Dad?” I said, my voice trembling—not with fear, but with barely contained rage. “I trusted you. I gave you the benefit of the doubt because I wanted to believe that maybe—just maybe—you actually cared about me. But the moment something goes wrong, you don’t try to help. You don’t try to find a solution. No, you just turn around and call the people who have stood by me from the beginning lowlives.”

I took a step closer, meeting his gaze head-on. “That tells me everything I need to know about you.”

For the first time, something flickered in his expression—anger, irritation, or maybe hate. But it was gone in an instant, replaced by cold indifference.

“Believe whatever you want,” he said dismissively. “Just don’t come crying to me when those ‘trusted friends’ stab you in the back.”

I exhaled sharply, my chest burning with emotions I didn’t have time to process.

I was done with this conversation.

Without another word, I turned on my heel and walked away, leaving my so-called family behind.

I thought I had finally found my loving family.

For years, I had dreamed of this—being surrounded by the warmth of real parents, of people who truly cared about me, not for what I could give them, but simply because I was their daughter.

But as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks stretched into months, that dream began to crack.

At first, it was subtle. Small things.

They enjoyed the comfort of their new lives, which was only natural—I wanted them to feel at home. But then, comfort turned into complacency.

And complacency turned into entitlement.

The days of them offering to help around the house vanished. My mother, who once insisted on doing things herself, suddenly refused to lift a finger. When I asked her to handle simple chores, she only sighed dramatically and hired maids instead.

Cooking? A thing of the past.

Every meal was takeout, and not the affordable kind, but lavish dinners from high-end restaurants delivered straight to our doorstep.

Shopping? A weekly ritual.

No—more than weekly. It was constant.

If it wasn’t designer clothes, it was luxury bags. If it wasn’t jewelry, it was the latest tech, furniture, perfumes, cars.

Every day, new packages arrived, filling up closets that were already overflowing with things they didn’t need but wanted.

And the worst part?

The more they had, the more they wanted.

Money vanished like water slipping through my fingers, no matter how much I made. No matter how hard I worked.

If this kept up, I would go bankrupt.

I pressed a hand to my temple, feeling the dull throb of an oncoming headache.

This wasn’t the family I had imagined.

This wasn’t the life I had hoped for.

And yet, I was the one who had let it happen.

And for the first time, I realized something painful but true—

They were only “family” in name. Nothing more.

In the end, I let it go.

There was nothing I could do anyway. What was done was done. No amount of frustration would change the past, so all I could do was be more careful next time.

With a weary sigh, I headed to my room and focused on something I actually had control over—getting ready for dinner date.

Hopefully, tonight would go smoothly.

I chose something simple yet elegant—black pants and a long-sleeved top, understated but polished. I tied my hair back into a neat ponytail, opting for a look that was effortless yet put-together.

As soon as I stepped out of my room, Haley was already waiting for me, her sharp eyes scanning me from head to toe.

“Are you going out?” she asked, arms crossed.

“Yeah.” I ignored her demanding tone like she was the big sister and I was the little sister.

Her lips curved into a knowing smirk. “Oh? Is it a date?”

I shrugged. “Somewhat.”

Before she could pry further, I stepped into the elevator and let the doors close behind me, cutting off any more unnecessary questions.