Chapter 1

My older brother, Julian, desperate for the family inheritance, framed me for plagiarizing his jewelry design.

I was expelled from school, disowned by my parents, and left to fend for myself on the streets.

After graduation, Julian smoothly secured the inheritance. He then broke up with Caleb Sterling, the head of the powerful Sterling family, and moved abroad.

“My younger brother likes you, and as an older brother, I shouldn't take what my younger brother wants, so... I’m giving you back to him.”

Julian used me as his excuse for the breakup.

He even told Caleb that I had always been in love with him.

Caleb hated me. He forced me to marry him, treating me like a stand-in, a plaything, unleashing all his rage on me.

Under his prolonged torment, my scent gland was severely damaged, but he didn't care. My parents acted as if I didn't exist.

Not until I was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Then, they begged me not to forget them.

In the two years I was married to Caleb, I managed my heats solely with suppressants.

But his ruts? He always sought me out to vent his frustrations.

Julian wanted to break up with Caleb but didn't want to offend the Sterling family.

So he used me as a shield.

He said, “My younger brother likes you, and as an older brother, I shouldn't take what my younger brother wants, so... I’m giving you back to him.”

That’s why Caleb believed I had meticulously planned their breakup.

He forced me to marry him, tormenting me day and night.

This torment happened countless times, yet I could never get used to it.

I cried, tears blurring my vision, begging him to be gentler.

But he sneered, humiliating me viciously, “Does it hurt? When you plagiarized Julian’s jewelry design, when you made Julian break up with me, did you ever imagine this day would come? And you still have the nerve to cry? That’s f***ing disgusting!”

“I didn’t! It hurts so much...”

I shook my head. I didn’t plagiarize Julian Blackwood’s jewelry design; it was *my* own design. I didn't force him to break up with you either! None of this was my doing!

I had explained it countless times, but Caleb Sterling never believed me...

During my junior year of college, the school held a jewelry design competition.

My parents declared that whoever, my brother or I, won the competition would inherit the family estate.

To outsiders, it seemed like fair competition, but only I knew that my parents favored my brother.

Since I was a child, barely forming my first memories, Mom always said I was just an accident, that she only ever planned to have Julian.

If it weren't for that accident, I would never have been born into this world.

They favored Julian in everything, never considering my feelings.

If Julian got even a minor scratch, they’d panic and rush him to the hospital. But if I scraped my knee and cried in pain, they'd just casually tell me, “Don’t be such a baby.”

At Julian’s birthday parties, the outpouring of well wishes and the room full of gifts were things I could only dream of.

...

Bathed in their love and attention, Julian excelled academically and grew more outgoing.

Meanwhile, due to my parents’ utter neglect, I gradually became silent and insecure, turning into what teachers and my parents called a troublemaker.

Later, after Julian displayed an extraordinary talent for playing the piano, he forever became my parents’ pride and joy.

In college, Caleb Sterling, the Alpha I’d loved for eight years, confessed his feelings to my brother.

It seemed everything I cherished always ended up belonging to Julian.

I only felt a pang of wistful admiration, never jealousy.