She has no family

The doors of the Los Angeles Mental Hospital slowly opened.

Lucy Morano, wearing a beige coat, her hair loose, walked out with her arms crossed.

The doors of the Los Angeles Mental Hospital slowly opened.

Lucy Morano, wearing a beige coat, her hair loose, walked out with her arms crossed.

Though she shivered from the cold, her mood was bright.

It was her daughter Susanna Williams’s birthday, and the two hadn’t seen each other for a whole year.

Now, her heart was pounding with eagerness. She couldn’t wait to get back and see her beloved daughter, nervous and hopeful about their reunion.

She hurried to the roadside and hailed a taxi. “Driver, please take me to...Long Beach Estate.”

After speaking to the driver, she instinctively leaned against the car door, turning her face towards the window.

The taxi moved slowly along the snow-covered streets, the city outside the window blanketed in white.

Lucy Morano’s heart pounded—not just from excitement, but from a blend of hope and worry. She pictured her daughter, feeling both joy and fear about how Susanna would receive her.

She vaguely remembered the day she left home a year ago, her daughter clinging tightly to her leg, crying pitifully, refusing to let her mother leave.

Now, a year later, imagining her daughter’s surprise and joy upon seeing her, Lucy couldn’t hold back a trembling smile, nervous about whether Susanna would be happy or upset to see her after all this time.

The car finally arrived at the manor gate.

Lucy Morano paid the fare, got out, and hurried towards the gate.

Upon reaching the gate, she instinctively reached for the fingerprint lock.

“Beep beep beep...”

Unexpectedly, the lock beeped as soon as she pressed her thumb.

She glanced down, thinking her hand must be frozen stiff, making her fingerprint unclear and unrecognizable.

So, she vigorously rubbed her thumb against her clothes to warm them and tried again.

Just like before, the alarm sounded.

Lucy Morano finally gave up hope. Only a year had passed, yet the locks were already changed.

She reluctantly raised her hand and rang the doorbell, eagerly awaiting her daughter’s cheerful footsteps.

After a long while, the door slowly opened, and the nanny, Marina Knight, peeked out, scrutinizing her for a long time.

She finally recognized her.

“Ms. Lucy Morano, what brings you… back?”

“Where’s Susanna?”

Lucy Morano asked calmly.

Ever since her parents passed away, William Fry had taken over everything in her family.

She went from a top student at the Los Angeles Medical School to a housewife.

Everything changed after that.

Now, her only attachment to this family was her daughter, Susanna William.

If it weren’t for seeing her daughter, she probably wouldn’t have come back here.

Marinet opened the door wider, stepping aside to let Lucy Morano in.

Seeing Lucy Morano’s thin and haggard appearance, she said with heartache,

“Ms. Lucy Morano, it’s cold outside. Please come inside and warm up.

Today is Ms. Susanna’s birthday, and everyone is celebrating her in the restaurant...”

Lucy Morano’s heart leaped with joy, her previous worries momentarily swept aside by hope. Ignoring everything else, she hurried towards the restaurant, desperate to be near her daughter.

Familiar decorations, unfamiliar silence.

Two feelings intertwined, making her even more eager to see her daughter.

Before even stepping into the restaurant, she heard laughter and cheerful voices.

Lucy Morano took a deep breath, tidied her slightly disheveled hair, and pushed open the restaurant door.

Inside, the restaurant was brightly lit, and the table was laden with exquisite dishes and a beautiful birthday cake.

The candles on the cake were flickering merrily.

But the moment she saw the scene before her, Lucy Morano’s smile instantly froze on her face. William Fry sat at the head of the table, a beautifully made-up and stylishly dressed stranger nestled beside him.

His daughter, Susanna William, sat next to the woman, chatting happily with her.

William Fry’s mother, Martha Parisey, and sister, Sunny Fry, were also present, their faces beaming with smiles.

At first glance, they appeared to be a family, while Lucy Morano, standing frozen at the doorway, felt painfully out of place, an ache growing in her chest as loneliness crept in.

Lucy Morano stood frozen in the doorway, her feet seemingly nailed to the ground. A wave of disbelief and hurt washed over her, leaving her unable to move or speak.

She couldn’t believe that she had rushed back to celebrate her daughter’s birthday, only to witness this scene.

Everyone was immersed in the joyful atmosphere, and no one immediately noticed Lucy Morano standing there, stunned.

Her gaze was fixed on her daughter. Her eyes reddened with a mixture of longing and pain. Her lips trembled as she desperately tried to find a spark of recognition or affection in Susanna William’s expression.

Susanna William, preoccupied with chatting and laughing with Sally Breen beside her, was completely unaware of her mother’s arrival at the door. “Susanna...”

Lucy Morano murmured softly, her voice trembling slightly.

It sounded so weak in the bustling restaurant.

Hearing this familiar yet unfamiliar call, Susanna William froze, slowly turning her head.

The moment her gaze met Lucy Morano’s, Susanna’s eyes widened. Instead of joy, her face showed a storm of astonishment, anxiety, and a rush of avoidance, as if unsure how to react.

Her small hands unconsciously gripped Sally Breen’s hem, as if grasping at a straw.

William Fry followed Susanna William’s gaze, his expression darkening.

He quickly stood up, striding a few steps to Lucy Morano, standing like a cold, high wall separating her from everyone else in the room. He lowered his voice, angrily demanding, “Why are you back?”

“Today is my daughter Susanna’s birthday. As her mother, is it wrong for me to come back and celebrate with her?” Lucy's voice shook with emotion—determination to see her daughter, mixed with both pain and hope.

Lucy Morano raised her head, meeting William Fry’s gaze with neither servility nor arrogance. Her voice trembled slightly, but it carried an undeniable firmness.

A flicker of panic crossed William Fry’s eyes. He suppressed his anger, gritting his teeth as he said, “Lucy Morano, I didn’t say you couldn’t come back to celebrate Susanna’s birthday. You could have told me beforehand, and I could have come to pick you up.

Your abrupt return will frighten Susanna.”

His words sounded nice, but Lucy Morano’s heart twinged with resentment. She knew perfectly well what he meant, and the bitterness stung anew.

If she had told him beforehand, he would have done everything in his power to keep her from leaving the mental hospital. Just like back then, he stopped her from investigating the truth behind her parents’ deaths, claiming it was for her own good.

“William is right. You spent a year in a mental hospital; you must have developed a lot of problems. Coming back like this will only spoil everyone’s mood.”

William Fry’s mother, Martha Parisy, chimed in, reprimanding her son.

For the past four years, she had never argued back, no matter what William Fry’s mother said about her; she had simply endured it all.

Finally, she developed depression. A year ago, she experienced somatization and excruciating headaches, and William Fry, under the pretext of taking her to see a doctor, sent her to a mental hospital.

She stayed there for a year!

Now, she had finally been released, and she no longer wanted to be as cowardly as before.

Lucy Morano took a deep breath, looked directly into William Frye’s mother’s eyes, and said, word by word:

“I’m Susanna’s biological mother. I haven’t seen my daughter for a year. I missed her and came back to see her. Is that wrong?

You locked me up in a mental hospital for a year, and you’re saying I’m wrong!”

“Lucy Morano, you…”

Martha Parisey was speechless, her face turning pale with anger, her blood pressure soaring.

Seeing this, her sister, Sunny Frye, jumped up like a turkey, hands on her hips, her face contorted with rage, and roared:

“Lucy Morano, don’t be ungrateful. My brother and mother are doing this for your own good. You spent a year in a mental hospital; who knows if you’re even mentally sound now?

You come back and start causing trouble, making the whole house unhappy. Are you doing this on purpose?”

“I’ve said it before, I’m only back to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. None of you have the right to stop me.”

Lucy Morano, having just arrived home exhausted, was too tired to argue with them any longer and decided to state her position directly.

Then, she crouched low and walked slowly towards her daughter, a gentle smile appearing on her weary face.

As she walked, she pulled a hand-sewn Kuromi-shaped woolen doll from her bo