Too Late to be My Dads

My mother was a player in a quest.

Once her mission was a success, she exited this world, leaving me behind with four fathers.

The first was a billionaire CEO.

The second was a famous movie star.

The third was a world-renowned doctor, while the fourth was incredibly powerful and influential.

My four fathers spoiled me rotten for sixteen years, giving me everything I ever wanted.

That was until three years ago when Sadie, the daughter of the one that got away, returned.

Since then, my four fathers believed her over me.

Sadie claimed that my mouth was filthier than a dog’s, so they threw me in the dog kennel and fed me dog food.

When she accused me of rallying the other students and bullying her in school, my fathers got me expelled and hired three street gangsters to beat me up for months.

Once again, Sadie insisted that I pushed her, and as a consequence, my fathers locked me in a cage for three whole days in the name of teaching me a lesson.

As I lay there in hunger, my mother’s voice rang in my ear.

“Niamh, do you want to come back to Mommy?”

I snapped awake right away.

It quickly hit me that it wasn’t my mother, Kylee Seville, talking to me. It was the System.

The System told me that Kylee had left an opportunity for me before disappearing from this world. If I wanted to, I had the option to travel to her world.

Of course, I did.

However, I swallowed my answer before the words rolled off my tongue.

I asked the System, “Will things be better with Mom than right now? If she loved me, why didn’t she take me with her back then?”

The System explained that Kylee accepted the quest because her mother was gravely ill. She came into this world to save her mother.

Back in her world, Kylee was only a college student in her second year. It took all her savings to save her mother, and still, she was buried in debt.

At the time, my four fathers had promised that they would treat me as their own, regardless of who my father was. All they asked was for Kylee to have something to remember her by.

Parents who loved their children would always think long-term for them.

The last thing Kylee wanted was for me to suffer with her, so she left me behind in this world.

“Niamh.” The System’s voice was gentle like a caress. “Your mother has been waiting for you all these years. She never dated or married anyone. She bought a quaint home in hopes you might one day come back to her. Are you willing to go to her?”

I nodded.

Relieved, the System expressed that I would only reunite with Kylee once my physical body stopped breathing.

With that, I took my clothes off and tied them into a knot against the cage.

I had seen a scene on TV before. If I slipped my head through the loop, gravity would take care of the rest.

It was a good thing that the cage was large enough, and I was short enough.

As soon as I placed my head into the knot, the suffocating darkness gripped my neck.

Despite my consciousness slipping, I was glad.

It wouldn’t be long before I would see Kylee again.

I barely had two seconds to enjoy my happiness before someone called my name.

The dog cage was flung open, and I was pulled down.

As air filled my lungs, I looked up and met a pair of panicked eyes.

“Dad Ethan,” before I knew it, I blurted right out.

It didn’t take long for me to kick myself.

The terror in Ethan Longham’s eyes was replaced by disgust.

“Don’t call me that! You’re not worthy!”

Ethan was my CEO father.

Out of my four daddies, he spoiled me the most.

Many assumed that Ethan was my biological father.

I had his eyes.

For years, I lived in Ethan’s mansion.

Ethan brought me everything my heart desired.

He said that even if I wanted the stars in the sky, he’d find a way to bring them to earth for me.

However, that unconditional love came to a halt three years ago.

That was when Ethan brought Sadie Cook back from abroad.

I learned then that apart from Kylee, there was one woman who held a special place in my four fathers’ hearts.

Back then, the woman had sold the four of them out and fled abroad after securing a massive payout.

Kylee showed up and was there for them, pulling them out of the shadows of betrayal bit by bit.

Later, the woman on her deathbed gave Ethan a call to apologize, and her last wish was for him to take her daughter, Sadie, in.

Since Sadie was a little younger than me, my four dads expected me to play nice with her.

I tried to be a good sister to Sadie.

Yet, Sadie’s intention was to hog all my fathers’ love for herself.

She would have random injuries all over her body, claiming that I hit her.

Out of nowhere, she would roll down the stairs and point her finger at me.

As the accusations against me grew, so did my fathers’ disappointment.

It all came to a head when Sadie was violated by a group of punks in a street alley.

Once the attackers were caught, they named me the mastermind.

There was nothing I could say to prove my innocence.

From then on, I was the one they saw as guilty in this family.

I was no longer allowed to call them my dads.

My room was downgraded from a princess suite to a dog crate.

The household staff labeled me a murderer.

Physical and verbal abuse, along with starvation, became my new norm.

With that in mind, I hung my head low and apologized, “I’m sorry, Mr. Longham.”

Even so, Ethan wouldn’t drop the matter. “What are you trying to pull, Niamh? Is this a loud cry for attention?

“Aren’t you silly to stage a suicide here? It reeks here. No one would notice even if your body was rotting.”

Oh, Ethan thought I was putting on an act.

Not refuting one bit, I expressed my confusion. “Why are you here, Mr. Longham? Aren’t you obsessed with cleanliness?”

Ethan furrowed his brows, “This is my home. I’m free to go anywhere I want. I’m only here to give you a warning. It’s Sadie’s birthday today, so don’t start anything. At the very least, don’t die on my property.”

I nodded compliantly.

As it turned out, he only saved my life to stop me from ruining things for Sadie.

In that case, I could just end my life somewhere else.