After Betrayal, I Chose Myself
Chapter 1 A Fatal Mistake?
Boom-
Finished
The deafening explosion shook the lab to its core. The blast knocked the three people around the lab table off their feet, slamming them hard onto the floor.
Naomi Judd’s head smashed against the edge of the table, pain shooting through her skull like a blade.
What the hell…? Wasn’t she already beaten to death in prison How could she still be-
“Sarah!”
Harvey Judd didn’t even check his own injuries. He stumbled toward Sarah, panic flooding his voice. “Are you okay? Where does it hurt?”
He glanced toward the stunned researchers frozen at the door and barked, “What are you waiting for? Call an ambulance!”
“Harvey… my hand hurts so bad… and my chest, too… Am I gonna die? I’m scared…”
Sarah’s hand was bleeding from where shards of glass had sliced her skin.
“It’s okay, don’t be scared. I’m here. I’ve got you-”
Watching this familiar scene play out, Naomi felt dazed
This… this was the explosion from when she was twenty She’d been working in the lab with Harvey and Sarah when Sarah made a mistake during an experiment, causing the accident.
Had she… come back to life?
Blood trickled down Naomi’s forehead, burning her eyes and painting her vision red.
Just before her consciousness slipped away, she saw Harvey scoop Sarah into his arms and rush out of the lab.
Not once did he look at Naomi.
Not once.
It was like she didn’t exist–like she’d never been in the room at all.
Naomi’s lips parted, but she didn’t even have the strength to speak. Her vision faded to black.
“Naomi’s getting more and more unreliable. She couldn’t even keep an eye on her sister. Letting our Sarah get so badly hurt like that… She knew that step was the most dangerous and still let Sarah handle it.”
When Naomi came to, she heard her father, Flynn Judd, complaining irritably.
“Exactly. What was she even thinking?” her second brother, Nolan, chimed in lazily from where he leaned against the wall.
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Chapter 1 A Fatal Mistake?
Finished
Her third brother, Foster, frowned as he gently wiped Sarah’s face. “This time, it really was Mimi’s fault.”
“Dad, Nolan, Foster, I’m okay. Don’t blame Naomi too harshly… I’m sure she didn’t mean it. Maybe she was just scared too…”
Sarah’s voice was soft and gentle, full of innocence. So understanding, so sweet.
Everyone crowded around Sarah’s hospital bed.
No one stood beside Naomi.
And yet–Naomi was the one most seriously injured. Sarah’s hand had just been cut.
“If that experiment had worked, would you still be saying all this, Sarah?”
A hoarse, cold voice rang out.
Only then did the Judd family seem to remember Naomi was still in the room.
“Mimi, what kind of question is that?” Their eldest brother, Jeremy, frowned. “Sarah’s speaking up for you.. The least you could do is say thank you instead of throwing shade.”
Nolan sneered, “Told you. Naomi’s always been ungrateful. Maybe now you’ll finally believe me.”
Beneath the blanket, Naomi’s fists clenched tightly. She stared coldly at the faces of these all–too–familiar people. Her chest twisted with seething hatred..
Before Sarah came into the family, Naomi had been the youngest, the baby, the treasured little princess of the Judd family.
Everyone doted on her. She had everything.
But then, when she was sixteen, a fire broke out at home. It destroyed everything.
She and her parents were trapped in the flames. The housekeeper had charged in and saved them–but Jessica, her mother, still died. And the housekeeper ended up in a coma from her injuries.
Out of guilt, Flynn took in the housekeeper’s daughter Sarah.
Naomi understood. The housekeeper had saved their lives. So when Sarah came to live with them, Naomi gave her the best of everything. She treated her like a real sister.
At first, Sarah was sweet and humble.
But at some point, that changed.
She started playing tricks to win affection. She’d spill tea and blame Naomi, making her clean up shards of porcelain until her hands bled. She stole their parents‘ money. and pinned it on Naomi, getting her punished and left to freeze overnight.
Even her brothers–those who had once adored Naomi–slowly turned their backs on her.
At twenty–two, Sarah called her upstairs, pretending she wanted to make peace, Naomi, foolishly hopeful, thought maybe things would go back to the way they used to be.
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Chapter 1 A–Fatal Mistake?
Instead, Sarah shoved her down the stairs.
Three floors. Naomi nearly died.
And Sarah? She collapsed into Jeremy’s arms, crying.
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Finished
“Don’t blame Naomi… I made her so mad that she lost her footing and fell. I know I don’t belong here. I’m just the housekeeper’s daughter…”
Naomi had blacked out from the fall, but before she lost consciousness, all she heard were her family’s voices–cold, harsh, full of judgment.
From that day forward, she was no longer their daughter.
Still, she hoped. She clung to the desperate dream that one day they’d come back to her.
She helped Jeremy draft company proposals. She assembled the top team for Nolan’s game company and helped it climb to number one in the industry.
She burned the midnight oil to create cutting–edge algorithms for Foster’s internet firm.
When Sarah stole her research and gave it to Harvey to pass off as his own, Naomi said nothing.
Even Logan, the youngest, whose hit songs topped charts since debut–Naomi had written every melody and lyric for him in secret.
But none of it mattered.
No one ever acknowledged her.
When Sarah killed someone by accident at twenty–six, they demanded Naomi take the blame.
She was sent to prison.
As she was led away, she saw her whole family smiling, welcoming Sarah home.
And no one–not a single one–turned around to look at her.
In that dark, filthy cell, Naomi was beaten, humiliated, forced to apologize, tormented beyond reason.
She waited for them.
Waited for someone to come. To take her home.
But no one came.
She died waiting.
Why? she’d screamed inside her own mind. Why did the people who shared my blood treat me like I was nothing?
Even now, those bitter memories wrapped around her like thorny vines, suffocating her.
I act life che grave everything for her family—and they let her die
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Chapter 1 A Fatal Mistake?
This timer
This time, she would never lift a finger for these blind, heartless fools again.
They thought she was a burden?
Fine. Let them rot.
Thud, thud, thud-
Suddenly, the lab door swung open.
“We’re here to investigate the incident that occurred earlier today. Who’s Harvey Judd?”
The man leading the inspection team looked around the room.
Finished
When he asked who had made the error, Sarah’s pupils shrank. A layer of cold sweat broke out across her back.
She looked at Harvey, pleading silently.
Harvey’s fists clenched at his sides. After a long pause, he finally said, voice low and hesitant,
“It… it was my sister, Naomi. She made the mistake that caused the explosion.”
✩
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