Her Rebirth of Retribution
Chapter 8 Her Hideout

After all that happened, Calista wanted to go to their grandparent's place - could it be that Calista found out about her plans?

After letting everything out, Calista felt much better inside. Her personality had gone through a violent transformation, but she had not forgotten what the most important thing was.

"I forgot to turn on the security system earlier - there are many valuable things in Grandpa and Grandma's safe, I'm afraid someone might break in."

Calista simply made up an excuse, but the mother and daughter pair in the car became anxious, because those things that her grandmother left to Calista were supposed to land in their hands and nobody else's!

Yelena let anger overtake her worry and said, "What a careless child! Hank, hurry to the house now!"

Once they were on their way, everyone in the car did not continue the earlier quarrel and remained silent.

Quincy and her mother saw that Calista was behaving like a mad dog, biting anyone she talked to, and decided not to agitate her further - the things that Grandma left behind were more important.

In the dead silence, Benedict couldn't help but take a look at his wife seated next to him. In the dim lighting of the car, he suddenly felt that the tense expression on his wife's face looked terrifying. Had she really been a good stepmother?

All this time he thought everyone in the family got along well - or was that all a sham?

When he thought about what Callie had said and considered it carefully, he realized that his younger daughter had indeed said nothing but words to smear Callie's reputation throughout the party, and his wife had joined in...he suddenly shuddered out of fear at this thought.

If Callie had not insisted on clearing up the whole misunderstanding, his family would be completely disgraced.

It seemed that his elder daughter was not in the wrong, but said a lot of nasty things merely in a fit of anger.

As for himself...it seemed like he was indeed biased.

It was still raining, but slowly getting lighter, and the air in the car became even heavier than before.

Quincy couldn't help but lower the car windows a little, thinking to herself what she had to do to secure some benefits for herself. Her father was around too - when he sees so many valuable things in the house that Grandma unfairly left to Calista alone, she would probably get one or two things, right?

Calista knew exactly what was in their hearts even without looking at them. She focused on listening to the rain beating on the windows and slowly calmed her heart. It had been such a long time since she last heard the sound of rain. "Sir, we've arrived."

Calista slowly opened her eyes when she heard Hank's voice.

Quincy quickly interjected, "Callie, I know this place has a security alarm system all set up, but it's not really safe out here. Why don't you bring back Grandpa and Grandma's things home instead?"

Yelena snorted loudly, and said with a sneer, "How can we be a family if you hide even small things like this? Not sure who you're even hiding from!"

In the past, Benedict did not think much of Calista running to this house all the time, but after what happened earlier, he suddenly realized that his family was not living in harmony like he had imagined, and he hoped that Calista could stay at home more often and bond with the family.

So he said, "Your mother is right, bring the things home - it's safe at home."

Safe?

Calista hid the feelings of taunting in her eyes - in her previous life, this was the day that her reputation was completely destroyed by Quincy, and was locked up in the room after she got home.

That very same night, Quincy took her safe key and opened the safe, taking away not just what Grandma had left behind, but also the medical research and results she had accumulated over the years, claiming they were hers.

By the time she knew about this, it was already too late. She wanted to report Quincy, but she was already dismissed as a hopeless child, and her father would have never allowed her to destroy his only other daughter.

So all the relatives told her that the Staffords needed a successor, and since she couldn't take up this position, she mustn't ruin her sister's future.

At that time she didn't know that the two men were in cahoots with Quincy, so she was persuaded and gave in begrudgingly.

After that she was slowly pressured by Quincy, and her intelligence and capabilities were used to create Quincy's success. Everything started from this very night.

So she was determined not to give her enemies another chance.

She suppressed the agitated feelings she felt in her heart and spoke calmly, "Sure, I'll bring some important things back, then I'll come less often in the future."

Upon hearing this, Benedict felt that this daughter was still the obedient daughter he knew, and so the snarky comments earlier must have resulted from the fact that she was traumatized by the events, and he quickly nodded. Quincy saw what was happening and was about to say she wanted to go in with Calista, but Calista spoke before she could say anything, "Dad, that place was my private space during my childhood, so I would like to go in alone to pack up." Benedict gave Quincy a look, then said to Calista, "Sure, go ahead. We'll wait here for you." Calista then slowly got out of the car.

The rain had stopped, but the ground was all wet. Calista started walking towards the back of the bamboo forest when she suddenly felt feelings of apprehension. The Staffords were a family of doctors, and her grandparents were very capable people, but they had only one son and spoiled him too much, resulting in his weak but stubborn character, and by the time they realized this, it was too late to change him.

Her great grandfather was a doctor to the royal family, and so were the nine generations before him, so several valuable treasures were passed down over the years.

When she was young, her grandfather saw her talent and was not pleased with his son marrying Yelena, so he took her in and raised her until she was eleven years old. Her grandmother was from a well-to-do family, so she was literate and well versed in literature and arts. She also had dowry that was passed down from generation to generation, and every item was of extremely high value.

The old couple were kind and mild mannered, so they always taught her to be humble and courteous, to be filial and honest.

But they never taught her how to stand up for herself.

Suddenly a small house appeared in front of her, and it looked very old and shabby.

Her grandparents were wealthy, but after they became older, they just wanted to live near nature and weren't used to fancy electrical appliances. If not for the sake of safekeeping those out-of-print books, her grandparents would have never prepared such a technologically advanced safe. The trees around the house were all planted by her grandfather, and as she stood in front of the door, she could imagine her grandmother playing the violin and her grandfather practicing his calligraphy.

The moment she pushed open the wooden door, the smell of ink made her freeze slightly, and she began to recall everything that happened.

At that moment, she was no longer a thirty something year old who had lived a life of humiliation and torture, eventually dying horribly and full of hatred.

Instead, she was now eighteen again, a weak spirited girl thoroughly bullied by her stepmother and younger sister. Every time she was bullied when she was younger, she would run and hide in this house to cry by herself.

But from today onwards, she will not do this again.

Calista pressed the ear stud on her left ear, turning off the security alarm. This security alarm was installed after she discovered Quincy had secretly entered the house, and she used up all her savings to install it. Once this alarm was triggered, the police would reach the house in three minutes. Perhaps...back then she already had a feeling that Quincy wanted to steal her things, but she was too cowardly to do anything else besides just installing a security system.

After entering the house, she turned on the lights - besides the lights, alarm system and safe, there was no sign of modernity in this little wooden house. Even if she were blindfolded she could still replace her way around every part of the house, and each part carried many memories for her.