Chapter 1

At my 28th birthday party, Julian publicly carried Serena, who had fallen into the pool, back to her room.

Everyone thought I’d just swallow the insult and stay silent.

Instead, I trashed the banquet hall and demanded a divorce.

Julian turned to look at me, a smirk on his face, utterly despicable. “Are you sure about this? There’s no turning back with me.”

I nodded. “I know.”

Three years after I left, I went to pick up my doctor boyfriend from work.

But I bumped into Julian, holding an adorable little girl, consulting Asher about her condition.

The moment our eyes met, he gave a cold sneer, pointed at me, and said to the little girl:

“Looking for your mom? That’s her.”

The hallway was bustling with people, the clinic door already closed by the patient who’d just entered.

Julian’s long strides stopped right in front of me.

His chiseled face was as cold and rigid as I remembered.

His impeccably tailored suit outlined his perfectly proportioned, model-like physique.

And the little girl in his arms, wearing a couture princess dress, was absolutely adorable.

She clung to Julian’s neck, timidly eyeing me up and down.

“What, don’t recognize your own child?”

Julian’s thin lips curved, but no warmth reached his eyes.

“Right, you haven’t seen her in years. How could you possibly recognize her?”

I stiffened, a bitter feeling instantly flooding my heart.

Back then, to get the divorce finalized quickly, I asked for nothing, not even the baby, who was still in diapers.

Everyone called me heartless.

Even my own parents thought so.

The first time I brought up divorce, my mom specifically called me home.

“You’re getting divorced, why didn’t you take the child? She’s your own flesh and blood, how could you be so cruel?”

Seeing me look down and stay silent, she grew frantic:

“Once you divorce, your stepsister will marry Julian before long. Are you just going to let her be your daughter’s stepmom?”

I clenched my icy fingers.

Turns out, in her heart, this marriage had always belonged to Serena.

And I was nothing more than a temporary occupant, a stranger.

But Serena wasn’t my biological sister.

Fate played a cruel trick on us; she and I were swapped at birth.

When I was finally brought home, the arranged marriage with Julian fell to me.

Serena was forced to separate from Julian. In a fit of anger, she moved abroad and stopped contacting the family.

I don’t know how they convinced Julian, but he eventually agreed to marry me.

For two years, we maintained a civil, almost cordial relationship, relatively harmonious.

But everyone knew Julian was still looking for Serena.