Ruby's heart skipped a beat as she touched the ruby necklace around her neck.
She looked helplessly at Lilian, tears immediately welling up in her eyes.
"Sister, I'm sorry, it's not that I don't want to give it to you... but this is a token of love from Eugene," Ruby said weakly, tears falling steadily.
Lilian frowned. "Adora, you shouldn't covet what belongs to others."
"But how is she not coveting what was mine?"
Adora's light, airy question left both Lilian and Ruby speechless.
Eugene was her childhood sweetheart.
Now he was Ruby's fiancé.
Wasn’t stealing her sister's boyfriend the very definition of coveting what belonged to someone else?
Adora dropped this remark without bothering to observe their reactions.
She gathered up her jewelry and headed to the housekeeper's room.
She hadn’t accepted the mistreatment willingly, but she’d rather keep her distance from this family, so she didn’t bother fighting for a bedroom upstairs.
She wouldn't be staying long anyway.
Early the next morning, the Matthews family woke to find Adora gone, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where did my sister go so early?" Ruby asked curiously, then added with concern, "She doesn't have any money. How will she manage outside?"
Peter said, "Maybe she went to find a friend."
"But with her condition, who would dare to meet with her..." Ruby muttered.
"Ah... I couldn't sleep all night. Thinking about Adora's return, and in such a state, it cuts like a knife through my heart," Lilian sighed heavily, her face filled with worry.
Ruby spooned a bowl of nourishing soup and placed it in front of her, offering a comforting smile. "Mom, please don’t be upset. You still have me and Peter."
Peter furrowed his brow, his expression troubled. "Adora clearly has mental issues. We need to take her to see a psychiatrist."
"Sister will never admit it. You see how she's full of lies now, denying everything..." Ruby mumbled.
Lilian sighed again, then looked toward her silent husband. "Theodore, why aren't you saying anything? What do you think we should do about this?"
Theodore ground his teeth silently.
She wasn't short of money; she simply didn't want to keep these pieces that would only irritate her and benefit Ruby.
She asked the owner for one hundred thousand dollars in cash and wrote a cashier's check for the remaining one million, redeemable at any time.
Leaving the secondhand luxury store, Adora walked into a shopping mall and bought herself a complete new wardrobe, then promptly threw Ruby's clothes that she had been wearing into a trash bin.
She placed the several hundred thousand in cash into a backpack, which she carried directly on her back.
After getting a new haircut, she bought a new phone, then took a taxi straight to the hospital.
On the way, she logged into her stock account on her phone, and a satisfied smile appeared at the corner of her lips.
Her initial investment of four million dollars had multiplied fivefold in three years.
Her stock account now held a small fortune.
Her mood suddenly brightened.
As she turned to look at the brilliant sun outside the car window, a ray of light finally broke through the darkness and despair of the past three years, bringing a touch of warmth to her heart.
Adora waited for her emotions to settle before calmly logging into a stock trading forum.

Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: When I Flash-Married a Billionaire, My Ex Went on a Hunger Strike