Chapter 1

Mom disappeared ten years ago, and Dad has hated me for ten years.

He hates me for causing Mom's disappearance. He hates my face that looks nothing like hers.

So he adopted a girl who resembles Mom eighty percent, and spoiled her rotten.

Dad took her traveling everywhere, brought her on parent-child variety shows, took her on talk shows, announcing to the whole world that she was the only daughter of the Foster family.

Meanwhile, I wore ill-fitting clothes and lived in the servants' quarters of the Foster house.

He let her bully me, slander me, and push me--someone who couldn't swim--into the artificial lake.

He said this was what I deserved.

I thought this was what I deserved too.

Until my sixteenth birthday, when Mom came back.

Three days from now would be my sixteenth birthday.

Every year on this day, Dad would throw a birthday party for Sophia Foster.

Every classmate except me had received Sophia Foster's birthday invitation.

"Chloe, don't take it personally. Maybe the butler miscounted and missed one," Sophia said, standing by my desk with an apologetic expression.

I kept my head down, working through practice problems with a blank face, not even glancing at her.

I'd experienced Sophia Foster's endless little tricks for nearly ten years. I was used to it by now.

"Sophia, why are you explaining anything to her?" A classmate who couldn't stand watching stood up to defend Sophia. "You're just too nice. That's why she keeps bullying you."

"Exactly! She's just a maid's daughter who shamelessly lives at your house, freeloading off you. Mr. Foster even sponsors her education, but instead of being grateful, she steals from you! Only someone as kind as you would put up with it. If it were me, I'd have kicked her out long ago!"

"She's an ungrateful wretch!"

"Sophia, she's definitely jealous of you--jealous of your family background, your grades, your popularity."

"Better not invite her. Who knows what trouble she'll cause? Don't let her ruin your birthday."

"She lives at the Foster house anyway. Does she even need an invitation? When the master's family has a birthday, she should be helping out with the other servants."

"Good point!"

After they finished, Sophia finally spoke slowly. "Oh, I couldn't possibly make Chloe do that. Any other day would be fine, but that day is Chloe's birthday too."

She said ambiguously, "Chloe, I'm sorry. I originally wanted to invite you to cut the cake together, but Dad wouldn't allow it. Who told you to do what you did back then? Can't blame Dad for disliking you."

I threw my pen at her face. "Fuck off!"

Ten years ago, Mom disappeared while picking up a birthday present she'd reserved for me. Whether she was alive or dead, no one knew.

Dad frantically searched for Mom everywhere but couldn't find her.

I cried every day, wanting Mom.

Mom had spoiled me into a little tyrant. In the past, I only had to cry a little and I'd get whatever I wanted.

One day, the nanny couldn't calm me down and carried me to Dad.

Dad stared at me with hatred for a while, then kicked me away.

"Fuck off!"

"You have the nerve to cry!?"

"If you hadn't insisted on celebrating your birthday, why would Vivian have disappeared?"

"Don't let me see you again. Get out!"

From that day on, I went from being the little princess Mom cherished to a burden everyone despised.

Whether I could eat depended entirely on the nanny's mood.

Later, Dad adopted a girl from an orphanage who looked very much like Mom.

He gave her my room, gave her my princess dresses, gave her my birthday, and gave her my identity too.

When he took six-year-old her on parent-child variety shows, I was being abused at home by the nanny, eating spoiled food.

The day he publicly announced that Sophia Foster was his only daughter, I realized I had lost my father.