Chapter 1

The Andrus couple had known for years that I was their real daughter, but they never took me home. They just watched as I struggled out there, going through hell all alone.

All because they didn't want the fake heiress, Zelda, to feel even a little bit wronged.

It wasn't until their only son, Harry, developed kidney failure and desperately needed my kidney to survive that they finally came for me.

I saved Harry, and that was the only reason I ended up living with the Andrus family.

But Zelda said she felt she didn't belong anymore and threw herself into the sea.

The Andrus family was heartbroken beyond words. They said it was all my fault Zelda died, and shoved me off the cliff into the waves, wishing me drowned just like her.

When I woke up, I found myself back on the day my birth mom, Tiffany, first came to me.

*****

"Can you hurry up? It's just a coffee. I've been waiting ten minutes already.

"Look at you, so clumsy and stupid. You're moving at a snail's pace!" The heavyset woman at the counter was getting impatient, snapping at me.

I was already working as fast as I could. I was the only one here—handling the register, cleaning up, and making all the coffee myself. How fast could I possibly go?

The customer just kept cursing at me, not letting up for a second.

For a moment, I honestly felt like throwing the coffee right in her face.

But I held back. I needed this gig just to keep myself afloat.

And once my shift here ended, I still had to hustle over to the barbecue joint and wait tables.

"Emily! I finally found you.

"Poor thing, it's all our fault you've had to suffer like this." Just then, a familiar voice called out from outside the shop.

It finally hit me—I'd been brought back to life.

I looked up and saw my birth mom standing there, dressed in a designer suit and carrying a rare Hermès bag. She was gazing at me with a loving expression, tears shimmering in her eyes.

I barely glanced at her and replied in a flat voice, "Ma'am, if you want coffee, just scan the code to order."

She was stunned for a moment, her voice shaking as she said, "Emily, I'm your real mom.

"We've been looking for you everywhere, and finally!"

Back in my previous life, when they found me, they said the same things to me.

I believed them completely, threw myself into their arms, sobbing my heart out, thinking I'd finally found my real family.

I didn't care that I was half-starved and running on fumes, or that the doctors begged me to wait. I just marched straight into the operating room and gave Harry my kidney.

But now, having been given a second chance, I knew the whole truth.

They'd known I was their real daughter ever since I was five.

But they never brought me home, because they couldn't bear to let Zelda, the fake heiress, feel even a little bit wronged.

Zelda was so sweet and delicate. Even just a little pout and a single tear was like a knife to their hearts.

Meanwhile, I was just a rough, wild kid, scrounging for scraps with stray dogs on the streets every day.

My foster dad was always passed out drunk, and my foster mom just couldn't stop gambling. Nobody ever cared whether I lived or died.

But the Andrus family never gave a damn about me—until my last year of high school, when their only son, Harry, came down with kidney failure and only I could help. That was when they finally bothered to find me.

When I followed them back to their villa, the moment I walked in, Zelda, dressed up like a princess in her fancy gown, rushed over with tears in her eyes and hugged me tight, not caring that I was sweaty and disheveled.

"Emily! You're finally home. Harry can be saved now.

"I'm so useless. I've been eating and living here for free all these years, but I couldn't do anything to help Harry." She sobbed uncontrollably, looking both miserable and guilty, her delicate, pale face streaked with sparkling tears.

The Andrus couple was so distressed that they immediately left me standing there and hurried over to Zelda, wrapping her in their arms and speaking to her gently, "Zelda, don't be upset. You'll always be Mom and Dad's dearest little girl."