As she spoke, Julia left Terence behind and briskly walked away with Sherry.

Sherry glanced at Terence behind her, and caught up with Julia. She whispered, "Julia, is it really appropriate to leave him alone like this?"

"Why not?" Julia spoke in a hushed tone. "We no longer live in the same world. I don't need to pretend to be nice to him, or both of us will feel uncomfortable."

Sherry wanted to say something more, but Julia already hailed a taxi. She instructed her, "You should go ahead. I still have something to deal with."

"I should go with you," Sherry uttered. She was still unnerved from last night's events. She couldn't just let Julia go alone, could she?

Julia refused, "Don't worry. I won't drink. I'll be back soon." Her eyes looked apologetic but her voice was firm.

"But.."

"Please, trust me. Anyway, my ride's here." Julia gave her a quick smile and got in the taxi.

Julia a

s. "Did you hear this nonsense from other people? Let me tell you; what they said was a lie. You shouldn't believe anything they say."

"Really?" Julia sneered at Mandy. "What they told me is different from what you were saying."

"I've told you, the things they said were all lies." Mandy frowned and looked at Julia sincerely. "I'm your mother. Don't listen to nonsense from other people."

Julia took a deep breath to cool herself down. She calmly said, "I called you Mom because I had always regarded you as my biological mother all these years. I just kept a blind eye no matter how biased you were to Jean. I didn't talk back even after you treated me unfairly. I convinced myself that it was normal to spoil the younger child. I did this to comfort myself, and to make things bearable."

A faint and sad smile appeared on her face. "I thought you would love me too if I did what you asked me to do."