Chapter 154: Chapter 154: I Am Your Mother

It was one in the morning, and the Hayes family’s villa was silent. Most people had already fallen asleep.

Glancing at Hector Hayes, who was snoring like thunder beside her, Lily Adler gently pushed away the hand resting on her waist and stealthily slipped out of bed.

She threw on some clothes, tiptoed to the guest room where Sylvia Lancaster was staying, and knocked softly on the door.

The knocking was exceptionally clear in the dead of night, startling Sylvia Lancaster awake at once.

She thought it was Clara Hayes, so she hurriedly threw on some clothes and got up to open the door.

But to her surprise, when she opened the door, a strange woman was standing outside.

Sylvia Lancaster jumped in fright. She eyed the woman before her warily and asked hesitantly, "Excuse me... Can I help you?"

Unexpectedly, the woman walked straight in and closed the door behind her.

As Sylvia Lancaster stared in panic, Lily Adler fixed her gaze on Sylvia’s face and asked in a small, trembling voice, "Are... are you Sylvia Lancaster?"

Sylvia Lancaster hesitated for a moment before nodding. She frowned slightly and asked in confusion, "And you are...?"

Hearing this, Lily Adler first smiled in relief, but then she covered her face, her shoulders trembling slightly as she began to sob uncontrollably.

A long while later, as a bewildered Sylvia Lancaster stood there, completely at a loss, Lily Adler calmed herself and answered in a tear-choked voice, "My child, I... I’m your mother."

Sylvia Lancaster was so shocked she cried out, "What?!"

Lily Adler quickly stepped forward and covered Sylvia Lancaster’s mouth, whispering in her ear, "Shhh—child, keep your voice down. Don’t wake the Hayes family."

After speaking, Lily Adler wiped the tears from her face. She pulled the stunned Sylvia Lancaster over to sit on the bed and quietly told her everything that had happened all those years ago.

Back then, when Lily Adler found out she was pregnant, she was determined to have the baby. ’A man’s affection was unreliable,’ she knew, ’I need a child as a bargaining chip.’

But because of Mrs. Hayes’s domineering nature, Lily Adler could only find an excuse to secretly leave Hector Hayes and go into hiding.

She rented a house in a rural town and gave birth to Sylvia Lancaster all by herself. Later, due to financial pressure, she entrusted the baby to her landlord and went out to find work.

As it happened, the wealthy Lancaster family was hiring a nanny at the time, so Lily Adler applied for the job.

It was only after she arrived at the Lancaster home that Lily Adler discovered that the lady of the house, Elaine Hughes, had also just given birth. Lily Adler secretly looked at the infant and found that the baby looked and was built very similarly to her own daughter.

And so, a dangerous idea formed in her mind...

’She would swap her child with Mrs. Lancaster’s.’

Originally, Lily Adler had planned to raise the child herself and wait for the right opportunity to bring her back to be acknowledged by Hector Hayes.

But when she arrived at the Lancaster family home and saw their environment, she realized that returning to the Hayes family was not the best choice for her daughter.

First, although Hector Hayes was rich, the Hayes family was involved in organized crime, making them far less stable than the "clean" and wealthy Lancaster family.

Second, even if Hector Hayes acknowledged the daughter she bore him, she would only be an illegitimate child.

’In a wealthy family, illegitimate children were never presentable. My daughter would be destined to be overshadowed by Mrs. Hayes’s children.’

’If I can swap the two babies and let my daughter become the Lancaster family’s young miss, it would be much better than bringing her back to the Hayes family to be an illegitimate child with no proper status.’

Once this thought appeared in Lily Adler’s mind, it refused to go away.

Lily Adler spent every day scheming about how to carry out this plan.

A few days later, it was as if fate itself was helping her. The maternity nurse in charge of the Lancaster’s young miss happened to have a family emergency and took half a month’s leave.

So, Lily Adler volunteered to take over for the maternity nurse and care for the baby for half a month.

Mrs. Lancaster saw that she was steady and capable, and since she had also given birth before, she agreed. After all, it was only for half a month, and Mrs. Lancaster couldn’t be bothered to hire another maternity nurse.

So, Lily Adler took a risk and gave her own daughter sleeping pills. She placed the sleeping child in a suitcase and brought her to the Lancaster home.

Then, when the other nannies in the house weren’t looking, she gave the Lancaster’s young miss sleeping pills as well. Just like that, she swapped the two children, placing the sleeping, true Lancaster heiress into the suitcase and taking her back to her rented room under the cover of night.

After doing all this, she was constantly on edge, terrified that the child’s mother, Mrs. Lancaster, would notice something was amiss.

Fortunately, Mrs. Lancaster’s mind was not on her newborn daughter.

At the time, Elaine Hughes felt that she had been out of the media spotlight for too long during her confinement. She needed to maintain her fame and popularity, so right after giving birth, she was busy making appearances in the media and attending various social events.

Elaine Hughes moved between various fashion banquets and charity galas, leaving early and returning late every day. When she got home, her time was spent on her appearance and figure, ensuring she would be the center of attention at every event.

During those few days when Lily Adler was on pins and needles, Elaine Hughes never once checked on the baby when she came home. She was either taking baths and getting massages to relax or memorizing scripts and coordinating outfits in preparation for media interviews. As a result, she never discovered that the child had been switched.

Robert Lancaster was even more of a hands-off manager. He said that the sound of a baby crying annoyed him, so aside from providing money, he had basically nothing to do with the child’s affairs.

Lily Adler spent half a month in this state of terror.

Newborns are still developing and change day by day. Half a month later, the original nanny returned and didn’t notice anything unusual.

Only then did Lily Adler finally feel at ease.

As for the swapped Lancaster heiress, she had her landlord raise the baby for a while. Later, feeling it was too troublesome and expensive, she simply left the child on the side of the road to fend for herself.

At that time, abandoning female infants was common. You could wake up and find the bodies of baby girls under the village bridge or in the river.

Some of the baby girls who were lucky enough to survive would be sent to orphanages, but most of them froze to death. So, Lily Adler wasn’t at all afraid of being discovered for abandoning a child.

Two or three years passed like this. Lily Adler’s daughter, as the Lancaster family’s young miss, Sylvia Lancaster, enjoyed the family’s meticulous love and care.

Even her crib was a hand-carved luxury item air-freighted from Valeria, said to be worth over a million.

Lily Adler had originally planned to stay and watch her daughter grow up, but one day, another nanny in the house joked with her, saying that Sylvia Lancaster’s nose and mouth looked a bit like hers. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

They were just joking words, but upon hearing them, Lily Adler broke out in a cold sweat.

’I can’t stay in the Lancaster family’s house anymore,’ she thought. ’The child is growing day by day. If she starts looking more and more like me, Mrs. Lancaster and Mr. Lancaster will definitely become suspicious!’

So, despite her immense reluctance, Lily Adler resigned and left the Lancaster family.

After leaving the Lancaster family, Lily Adler lived on her own for a few more years. Then, she heard that Hector Hayes’s wife had passed away.

Lily Adler then returned to Hector Hayes’s side.

Hector Hayes had never forgotten her, and after some back and forth, the two of them got back together.

All these years by Hector Hayes’s side, Lily Adler seemed to have secured her position, but in reality, she spent every day cautiously managing her situation.

Mrs. Hayes’s three legitimate children were not to be trifled with.

Raymond Hayes had even personally sought her out to warn her, telling her not to even think about having children. That was why Lily Adler didn’t dare to secretly go back and see Sylvia Lancaster.

Later, when Lily Adler heard the Lancaster family had gone bankrupt, she considered revealing her identity to Sylvia Lancaster and secretly taking her away so she wouldn’t be dragged down by the family’s misfortune.

But then she heard that Sylvia Lancaster had married into the Sutton family and had become the wife of their eldest son, Ethan Sutton.

Learning that the Sutton family was well-off, Lily Adler felt relieved.

But she never expected that the next time she heard news of Sylvia Lancaster, it would be in the Hayes family’s own home, and that Sylvia had suffered a miscarriage and been kicked out of her marital home.

Lily Adler could no longer resist the urge to reunite with her daughter.

Listening to Lily Adler recount these events in bits and pieces, Sylvia Lancaster was so shocked that she couldn’t come back to her senses for a long time.

Sylvia Lancaster couldn’t even imagine it. ’I’m actually Hector Hayes’s daughter?!’

’I’m actually blood-sisters with Clara Hayes?!’

Sylvia Lancaster felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck her, leaving her dizzy and unable to think.

Lily Adler gently took Sylvia Lancaster’s hand and asked with a frown, "Child, how did you end up like this? Why did you have a miscarriage?"

But Sylvia Lancaster just shook her head. She didn’t answer Lily Adler’s question. Instead, she asked with a suspicious look, "Are... are you really my mother? You’re not mistaken, are you? ...What proof do you have?"

Lily Adler was taken aback by the question. Then she said, "Child, if you’re worried, we can get a DNA test once you’ve recovered."

Hearing this, Sylvia Lancaster fell into deep thought. After a long while, she gave a slightly hesitant nod.