Chapter 3

Mia and I had been rivals since middle school.

We were like fire and water, incompatible.

Her mother had wormed her way into my family, and my mother became depressed and attempted suicide.

I nearly lost my mother.

In high school, we ended up at the same school again.

She was one point short of getting into First High. My father, Jason, pulled strings to get her in.

That year in high school, Mom went abroad.

I stayed at the Jane house.

I thought if I went too far, Mia and her mother would know when to back off.

My methods weren't sophisticated—rather stupid, actually.

I poured ink into their cups. I was afraid they'd actually drink it, so I used colored black ink.

I just wanted to scare them, to establish my authority in front of Mia.

Unexpectedly, Mia complained to Jason, whose face darkened as he scolded me with furrowed brows.

I hated them but didn't dare do anything truly excessive.

And everything I did only made Jason feel he'd wronged them.

After high school graduation, Mia and I finally weren't at the same school.

What made me completely give up on Jason was during my first winter break in college, when Jason brought Mia to a gala.

He didn't deny that Mia was his daughter.

He even wanted Mia to take the Jane surname.

I told him that if he let Mia take the Jane surname, I would change mine to my mother's maiden name.

His eyes filled with fury as he looked at me, his arm raised in midair about to strike me.

But a tall figure blocked it.

That person was Lincoln.

After graduation, I encountered Lincoln again.

I pursued him for a whole year.

Just when I was about to give up, he relented.

It wasn't until after marriage that I learned Mia was his ex-girlfriend.

And that Lincoln had visited the Jane house as Mia's boyfriend to meet Jason.

So when Jason learned I had married Lincoln, his face darkened, clutching his chest, barely able to breathe.

"Did you do this on purpose?"

"You knew full well that Mr. Lincoln was Mia's ex-boyfriend, yet you still married him?"

I was stunned for a long while.

During New Year's, I didn't want to return to the Jane house, but Lincoln insisted on taking me back.

At the Jane house, Mia and I got into another conflict.

We fell in the Jane house courtyard.

Lincoln reacted quickly, striding forward to catch Mia.

I took a fall.

At the hospital, I stubbornly asked Lincoln with red eyes why he didn't catch me.

He cut fruit with an indifferent expression. "I didn't see."

When Lincoln left the hospital room, Mia came to see me.

She smiled as she looked at me lying in the hospital bed, recounting everything about her and Lincoln in college.

In her telling, it was a side of Lincoln I didn't know.

My heart constricted.

After I was discharged, Mia and I crossed paths again.

We even ended up working at the same company.

She and I competed neck and neck, neither willing to submit to the other.

She wore the identity of Jason's daughter, making the director treat her with utmost respect.

Now she had an additional identity—the heir's ex-girlfriend.

Everyone fawned over her even more.

I knew my design proposal would most likely be rejected in the end, but I still led my team working overtime, rushing to complete the design proposal.