Chapter 1

There was a locked room in Ethan's house, and after six years together, he never once let me in.

Then, just before we were about to get our marriage license, my adopted sister Emily posted a video on her social media.

The video showed that very room, filled with gorgeous dresses, each one with Emily's name stitched on the hem.

In the center of the room was a breathtaking wedding dress, and Ethan stood next to it, looking at the camera with love in his eyes.

"Emily, I designed this wedding dress just for you. You'll look absolutely stunning in it," he said.

My heart was breaking, but I held myself together and rushed home to confront them.

But when I finally pried open the door to that room, the only thing inside was a wedding invitation.

On the invitation were the names of Ethan and Emily.

Tears slid down my cheeks, smudging the two names written side by side on the invitation.

The ink blurred as my tears soaked the paper, and I could barely stand.

Ethan was always known for his elegant handwriting, and I once asked if he could personally write the invitations for our wedding.

But he just dismissed me with a cold reply. He said, "The wedding can wait. Let's get the marriage license first."

I felt a bit let down at the time, but when he agreed to get the license, my joy quickly drowned out any disappointment.

But now, I finally realized. The wedding he'd been looking forward to was never for me, but for someone else.

Heartache crashed over me like a tidal wave. I forced myself to look away from the invitation and glanced around the study, now eerily empty.

The dresses and clothes with Emily's name stitched on them had vanished without a trace, like they'd never even been here.

Suddenly, Ethan's voice cut through the silence behind me, edged with anger. He snapped, "Natalie, who let you in here? Don't you know how to respect someone's privacy?"

When his eyes landed on my trembling hands, he sighed. He said, "This room is just where I go when I'm in a bad mood and need to be alone. Can't I even have that little bit of freedom?"

His voice startled me, and as I spun around, I banged into the corner of the desk, hissing in pain.

Ethan shot me a look and said calmly, "You're so careless. Get out, now."

I ignored him, hands shaking as I pulled out my phone, desperately searching Emily's social media for any sign of that video.

But no matter how hard I looked, there was nothing left.

It was like they'd planned it all. Before I even got home, every trace of it had been wiped away.

I stared Ethan down, pain shooting through me, but I pressed him for answers, refusing to back off.

I asked, "If this place is really just your private retreat, then why haven't you ever let me in, not even once, in all these six years?"

Annoyance flickered in Ethan's eyes, but he tried to sound gentle as he brushed me off.

He said, "You're overthinking things again. We're about to get married, and you're still acting all paranoid. Why don't you just help out around the house for once?

"Emily's running into problems at work, and Natalie, you don't even bother to lend her a hand."

Every time he mentioned Emily, his face would soften, his voice gentle.

It suddenly hit me—our relationship had always been lukewarm, but whenever he talked about Emily, he was always so gentle and attentive.

But I had never once been treated that way.

That realization hit me like a punch to the gut, and tears streamed down my face, falling like pearls from a broken string.

Ethan paused, frowning hard. He said, "Why are you crying again? Every time I bring up Emily, you get all worked up. Seriously, she's your sister."

"Sister? She's not my sister. We're not even related," I snapped back at him.

I went missing when I was a kid and didn't make it back home until I was a teenager.

By then, my family had already adopted Emily.

When I finally returned, my parents made no attempt to make it up to me. Instead, they just doted on Emily even more and left me out in the cold.

And now, even my fiancé only cared about Emily.