Filed to story: The Daughter in the Shadows (Yunice) Book by Una Norris
He stared at her and said, “I finally understand why you didn’t run.”
Yunice was preparing an injection, flicking the air bubbles out of the syringe, not even looking up.
“You’re not doing this to be a hero. You’re doing it for the glory,” he said. “So that when this is all over, you’ll walk out covered in accolades. Wyatt will pull some strings, and you’ll rise to the top-cutting corners with fabricated credentials. Before long, they’ll hand you a hospital to run, no questions asked.”
Yunice glanced at him. He really has an imagination. But he wasn’t entirely wrong.
She sneered, “Wasn’t this your plan for Elsie, too? You of all people should know exactly how capable she really is.”
Owen defended, “Elsie works hard. She just didn’t have a strong foundation. With time, she’ll earn her place.”
“And what, I don’t work hard?” Yunice shot back.
“Elsie worked hard, sure. But she gave up this hospital. She didn’t stay to fight with you. I did. So now I’m the one getting this ‘golden opportunity.’ And what? You regret it?”
Owen flushed. “That’s not what I meant.”
“What I mean,” he said, regaining composure, “is that if you really wanted to succeed, you’d study properly-not take shortcuts and game the system.”
Yunice was getting annoyed. Why was he always like this? Always so condescending.
She finally set the syringe down and asked, “You really believe I have no real ability?”
Owen looked at her, stunned. His bewildered face said it all-he honestly thought her useless.
That confirmed it: all his years of dismissing her hadn’t been calculated malice. He simply believed she was nothing.
Yunice said quietly, “Remember your graduate thesis? It was rejected three times before you passed. Elsie helped you with the final revision, right?”
Owen stared at her through the translucent barrier, eyes slightly widening.
“You’re wondering how I know that, right?” she continued. “Because it wasn’t Elsie who fixed it.”
Yunice laughed coldly. “It was me.”
“Bullshit,” Owen muttered, voice tight. “Don’t make things up.”
“I even revised your SCI paper,” she said plainly.
Owen’s hands curled into fists, his expression growing complicated.
With his diagnosis now hanging over him like a death sentence, Yunice figured it was time to lay the truth bare.
“Elsie was just the delivery girl,” she said. “You thought she helped you. But everything she gave you, I was the one who created. She just stole it. Early on, when you started getting praise from the professors, I actually thought you had taken my work. I treated you like a brother. I didn’t approve of what you did-but I didn’t want to ruin your reputation in front of your advisors.”
Yunice let out a slow breath. “I never thought my silence would give Elsie the chance to steal from me over and over. She used my work to win you over, and when I caught her, you defended her, said I was jealous. You two covered for each other so tightly – afraid I’d call you out.”
“That’s not true,” Owen said, disbelief etched into every word. “You couldn’t even pass your SATs without cheating-“
“I didn’t cheat,” Yunice snapped, eyes cold. “That was Lily’s slander. You never got the court notice? Oh, right – you didn’t, because Lily panicked and fled the country the moment she got it. She never told you the SAT scandal was a smear campaign she started herself.”
Owen’s brows pulled together tightly. Yunice’s words were turning his entire worldview upside down. In his mind, every word she was saying now had always been impossible.
Seeing his skepticism, Yunice added, “Even Paul knows the Anning Cardiotonic Formula developed at Wellinges Pharma was improved by me. Yet here you are, still treating me like I’m useless.”
Owen was finally speechless. His expression became almost comical – a man so unsure of what was real or fake anymore.
Yunice turned her focus to the treatment. She prepared the medication, connected the injection to his IV drip, and injected the medicine.
“This is a corticosteroid,” she said.
Once it was administered, she added, “Tommy will bring you a bottle of nourishing herbal liquid. Don’t assume it’s over. The joint task force and Wellinges Pharma have finalized a new protocol. It’s working better than expected. Who knows – you might get lucky.”
As she turned to leave, Owen sat up and called out, “Wait…”
Yunice paused, and he said softly, “Can you stay a little longer? I… I want to hear more.”
He gave a self-deprecating smile. “It’s been so long since we talked like this.”
His eyes were red-rimmed, his tone heavy with longing for family.
Yunice stared back. “So all the things I just said… You thought I was telling you bedtime stories?”
“I just want to talk,” Owen said quietly. “I’ve realized I don’t really know you at all. I’ve overlooked you all these years.”
Maybe it was the fear of death – maybe just the isolation – but Owen desperately needed someone to be with him, to talk about warm things from the past.
But Yunice knew, deep down, he hadn’t really heard her. Not truly. Not the pain, not the betrayal. Which meant he wasn’t ashamed, not even angry.
She looked into his pleading, vulnerable eyes and asked calmly, “If Elsie were the one in here right now, would you be telling her to stay away in case she got infected? Or would you beg her to stay and chat with you?”
Owen froze. His face twisted in awkward shame. The difference between love and obligation was glaring. Even he didn’t realize how much he favored Elsie – and how, for Yunice, he’d only ever felt a distant need.
She called it out plainly, and Owen no longer had the face to ask her to stay.
Yunice walked away without looking back. Owen’s eyes turned red again.
They were siblings. Twins. The closest kind of kin in the world. And yet, this was what they had become. He was dying, and Yunice still couldn’t bring herself to offer him even a word of comfort.
The 13th day of the Saunders Hospital lockdown.
Paul had just walked out of the North City project office. His mood was terrible. He yanked at his tie and slammed the car door behind him.
“That lunatic Taylor just won’t quit – and worse, she refuses to die!” He flopped back in the seat, long legs sprawled.
His driver turned to him. “Sir, we investigated. Yunice never actually enrolled in medical university.”
Paul lifted his head. “Then where is she?”
“That’s the strange part. We can’t find her at all.”
Paul sneered. “There’s no such thing as ‘can’t find someone.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What about the people tracking Wyatt? Aside from visiting the Gardison Residence, has he been going anywhere else regularly?”
“He hasn’t been to Gardison for a while,” the driver answered. “And no unusual activity, really. Except…”
He hesitated.
“Except what?” Paul pressed.
“He’s been financially supporting Saunders Hospital… fairly often.”
Paul’s gaze sharpened. “Supporting the Saunders family? That’s the biggest red flag of all.”
It was no coincidence that Mr. Gerardo fell ill there.
In fact, Paul had orchestrated the whole thing.
He had his men intercept Mr. Gerardo’s car on the way back from the airport, forcing him to change routes and stop at Saunders Hospital to save his assistant.
Then he deliberately sent Elsie to delay the emergency treatment. A calculated move – and one that was now unraveling.