Unloved Unwanted Unstoppable (Seraphina and Dominic) novel Chapter 3

After spending nearly a month in the hospital, Seraphina checked herself out.

During that entire month, neither Dominic nor Lily had visited her once.-

Lauren had been discharged long ago, and Seraphina saw her social media updates every single day.

Her location tags shifted from a snowy mountain town in Europe to a shopping street beside a castle. In the photos, Lily sat on Dominic's shoulders, smiling so brightly her eyes crinkled.

Another showed Lauren crouching down to tie Lily's shoelaces, and then the three of them stood huddled together in the snow, looking exactly like a perfect family of three.

Seraphina scrolled through the photos one by one, her heart aching more with each swipe.

She knew Lauren was posting them specifically for her to see.

Lauren was Seraphina's sister, though they shared no blood.

The Lennox family was Seraphina's biological family. She had gone missing as a child and was raised by the Sinclair family, only to be recognized and brought back when she was in college.

But the years of emotional absence meant her biological parents vastly preferred Lauren, the daughter they had raised since childhood.

On Seraphina's very first day back with the Lennox family, Lauren had declared she wouldn't let Seraphina take anything from her, and even vowed to steal everything that rightfully belonged to Seraphina.

So, petty provocations like these social media posts were nothing new. Lauren had pulled stunts like this plenty of times.

But Seraphina had never really cared about any of that.

What truly broke her heart was her husband and her daughter.

When she looked at the picture of her daughter holding Dominic's hand on one side and Lauren's on the other, laughing brightly at the camera, she felt as if a piece of her soul had been brutally gouged out.

She put her phone away and caught a cab back to the Lockwood estate.

"Yeah, Mom! Lauren is sick, so you should let her sleep in your big room."

Seraphina stared at her daughter in sheer disbelief. "Do you even realize what you're saying? That is the master bedroom. The master bedroom is for the owners of the house. You want me to give it to her?"

"I..." Lily choked on her words, her little face flushing bright red as she struggled to respond.

Seeing this, Lauren immediately hurried forward, spreading her arms to shield Lily behind her. With red, teary eyes, she pleaded, "Seraphina, please don't yell at the child. It's my fault for being in poor health, I shouldn't have come... I know you've always disliked me, but Lily just feels sorry for me. She didn't do anything wrong... I'll leave right now, just please don't scold her anymore."

As she spoke, she raised a hand to wipe the corners of her eyes and turned to leave. Suddenly, her body swayed. She hastily grabbed the back of a chair, struggling to steady herself, looking overwhelmingly fragile.

Lily panicked. She ran over and wrapped her arms tightly around Lauren's legs, looking up with tears streaming down her face. "Don't go, Lauren! You only got sick because you were spending time with me. I want you to stay at my house! Please!"

Dominic frowned. He looked over at Seraphina, his tone laced with blatant displeasure. "It's just a bedroom. There's no need for you to cause such a scene."