No Way Back

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Abandoned In A Fire

A fire broke out, and it quickly spread across the entire room.

Jane Fowler collapsed to the ground, motionless, her body racked by coughing fits from inhaling the thick smoke. Her eyes welled up with tears as she fought for air.

The ash that covered her face and her disheveled hair was not enough to hide the natural and unspoiled beauty of her features.

She was under the influence of something because she was paralyzed and couldn’t move a muscle while wondering when exactly she was drugged.

“Jane, gosh, you look disastrous,” Madelyn Fowler said as she approached, wearing a gas mask.

She was kneeling next to Jane, and from her white dress and gentle tone, she seemed like a sweet, innocent little girl.

Or at least, that was Jane’s long–held belief.

“Did you drug me, Madelyn?” Jane cried out, her expression one of shock and disbelief.

Jane just couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that her sweet, innocent sister could be capable of such vile acts.

“It’s just a test, Jane,” Madelyn replied, removing her gas mask to reveal a sly grin. “I’m interested to see if our family would believe more in you or me when they see this.”

Madelyn then placed her gas mask on Jane’s face and smeared a bit of ash on her own cheeks.

Then, with a gloved hand, she pulled a small knife from her pocket and deliberately sliced open her own arm. The wound was gushing with blood.

Madelyn tossed the knife aside and took off her gloves, which she then slid onto Jane’s paralyzed hands. After that, Madelyn clenched her injured arm and yelled at the top of her lungs, portraying an expression of pure terror.

Madelyn yelled, “Help! Daddy, Mommy! Help me! Janie has gone crazy!”

“Maddie!” A man yelled while he kicked the door open. From NôvelDrama.Org.

As her parents and seven brothers rushed to Madelyn’s aid, Jane watched in horror.

Madelyn continued to yell, “Daddy, Mommy! My wound hurts so much… Janie is crazy! She started the fire out of the blue and said she wanted to die with me. Then she cut me with a knife and told me I wasn’t good enough to be a Folwer daughter!”

After taking in Madelyn’s blood and her terrified, deer–like eyes, Jack Fowler glanced over at Jane, who was lying on the floor with a bloody knife and gloves on her hands.

Jack kicked Jane hard in the stomach, growling, “I don’t know how I managed to have such a vicious daughter!”

The force of the kick nearly twisted Jane’s intestines.

However, the suffering in her heart far outweighed the physical pain she was experiencing.

It was as if it were being torn in two.

Jane had once taken a bullet for Jack.

Jane and Madelyn were with him when Jack attended a business event, and he brought them along.

A psychopath broke into the event, brought a gun with him, and attempted to kill Jack.

It was Jane who had bravely stepped in to block the bullet, while Jack and Madelyn had fled the scene, leaving Jane lying on the ground, bleeding.

The police took Jane to the hospital, where she was rushed to intensive care, but she miraculously survived

her wounds.

The Fowlers didn’t come to see Jane in the hospital until a few days had passed, and they’d had a chance to

think about it.

Jack took an hour away from Madelyn to visit Jane.

Jack was embarrassed and only said a few words, but he did explain that Madelyn is an adopted daughter, and he hoped Jane would be more accepting of her situation. Madelyn had always feared that the family’s love and respect would shift away from her after the family found their biological daughter.

A scant hour later, Madelyn called to say she had an emergency, so the Fowlers left Jane in the ward for Madelyn as quickly as possible.

Those unfamiliar with their family history might assume that Madelyn was their biological daughter and that Jane was adopted.

However, Jane believed Jack at his word because he was her father and the family she had spent so much time and energy seeking. Blood, as they say, is thicker than water, so she had faith that the Flowers wouldn’t

abandon her.

So, Jane always gave in to almost everything Madelyn asked for.

No matter what Madelyn wanted, Jane always gave it to her.

Madelyn selected all the gifts first, choosing the best ones and leaving Jane with the remainder.

Jane hoped that the Fowlers would feel touched by her gesture and that she would be accepted as a “real daughter” at last.

The whole thing was just a joke, a stupid joke, now that Jane thought about it.

She saw the Fowler family cram Madelyn into their arms and rush her out of the fire, leaving her behind like discarded garbage.

As the flames engulfed her body and the intense pain consumed her senses, Jane could smell the burning.

She blinked back the tear running down her cheek and let out a heavy sigh as she closed her eyes.

She now felt glad that everything was coming to an end.

She paid her debt to the Fowler family and let go of her obsession with familial love,

If there was a next life, she wished she’d never meet these people again.

That night, the local news reported on the sudden fire at an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Stormton City.

It was reported that firefighters could only pull one burned body out of the blaze.

Unfortunately, the body vanished without a trace after being brought to the hospital for an autopsy.

The following day, the Fowler Corporation released a statement. They made it official that they severed all ties with Jane Fowler, the biological daughter they had just recently found, and acknowledged only Madelyn as their legitimate child in the family.

Whatever Jane did after that, whether she lived or died, had nothing to do with the Fowlers.

Like the sudden revelation of the Fowler family’s search for their true daughter, the name “Jane Fowler” became a hot topic of gossip.

Yet a few days later, as other newsworthy events came out, it faded away.