Chapter 12

I couldn't stop myself from asking. My eyes stayed locked on Felix, full of anticipation. "She's intelligent and kind," he said. "I heard she secured the development rights for that piece of land in the northern part of the city. That's no small achievement, and I really admire her for it." It was a simple, honest response, yet it filled me with a joy I hadn't known before. Praise had always been rare for me growing up. I remembered school clearly. I aced every subject, scoring perfect marks every single time. Meanwhile, Helen's total across all her subjects often couldn't even match one of mine. Our parents always comforted Helen about her grades. They would tell her she was beautiful and talented at the piano, downplaying her poor grades as a minor flaw. But they never once praised me. Instead, they'd call me a bookworm who only cared about studying. Sometimes, my mother would even accuse me of deliberately getting high marks just to make Helen look bad. After high school, He