Chapter 5

Amelia's POV

My origins in the New York business world had always been a mystery no one dared to pry into.

The media only knew that I grew up in an orphanage, won a beauty pageant with my stunning looks, and then plunged into Ethan's business empire.

But only I knew that for over two decades, I had never given up searching for my birth parents.

The day after the charity gala, my long-term private investigator finally delivered a thick DNA test report and background check to my desk.

The report showed that I wasn't an abandoned orphan at all, but the daughter of the prominent Boston Sterling family, lost for twenty-two years.

Yet, fate seemed to have a cruel sense of humor.

Attached to the last page of the investigation report was a recent family photo of the Sterling household.

In the photo, my parents were celebrating a girl's birthday, their faces beaming with loving smiles.

The girl, wearing a crown and smiling with innocent joy, was Lily Sterling.

Lily Sterling, the replacement child adopted from an orphanage by the Sterling family, who were heartbroken after losing their daughter.

The woman who stole my man had also brazenly occupied my rightful life.

I stared at the report, my fingers trembling slightly.

An indescribable sense of absurdity enveloped me.

I didn't contact the Sterling family immediately. Instead, clutching the report, I drove to Ethan's exclusive club.

Deep down, I still held a faint, fragile glimmer of hope.

I wanted to tell him that I had found my family, that I was no longer the destitute orphan.

I wanted to see if, upon learning the truth, he would show even a trace of emotion.

The club's corridors were thickly carpeted, my footsteps barely audible.

As I reached the door of Ethan's private VIP suite, it was slightly ajar, and Lily's suppressed, tearful sobs drifted out.

"Ethan, I'm so scared... The Sterling family is looking for their biological daughter from years ago. I heard they already have a lead. If that girl comes back, Mom and Dad won't love me anymore. I'm just a replacement; I'll lose everything..."

I stopped, my hand frozen on the doorknob.

Then came Ethan's deep, gentle, and utterly doting voice, filled with boundless indulgence.

"Don't be afraid, Lily. With me, no one can take what's yours."

"But what if their biological daughter tries to kick me out? What if she hates me?" Lily cried piteously.

"Then I'll make sure she can't survive in the entire business world." Ethan's voice suddenly turned cold, laced with a chilling cruelty.

"I don't care whether the Sterlings agree to let their biological daughter come home. But on my turf, as long as I'm here, you are the Sterling family's only heiress. Anyone who dares to make you suffer will pay the price. Even the Sterling's biological daughter."

Outside the door, I felt as if plunged into an ice bath.

A chill shot from the soles of my feet to the top of my head, freezing my entire body.

I looked down at the crumpled DNA report in my hand, suddenly finding it incredibly laughable.

I had foolishly hoped to share the joy of finding my family with him, yet he had already preemptively warned me off, his own biological daughter, for his mistress's sake.

It turned out the boundary between love and no love could be so stark.

For Lily Sterling, he could relentlessly destroy anyone, including Amelia, the woman who had helped him build his career and taken a knife for him.

I didn't push the door open.

I stood quietly outside, listening to the man's tender words to another woman within.

Then, slowly, I tore the DNA test report in my hand into shreds.

White paper flakes drifted from my fingers, like a silent snowfall, burying my last shred of hope and weakness.

I turned to leave, my spine still straight.

But the heart that had loved Ethan for seven years had, at that moment, completely stopped beating.

From now on, I needed no love, no family.