Chapter 3

Emily turned to face me, her face dropping the sweet act she always put on for Emma. Instead, she wore that cold, vicious look I'd been dealing with for two years.

Emily smirked, "Sophia, long time no see."

Her mocking smile instantly reminded me of the time she locked me in the equipment room like it was nothing.

That was the day she finally showed her true colors. While the others were busy changing, she dragged me to the pool and kept forcing my head under the water, over and over.

I swallowed a ton of water, my nose burned, my head was spinning, and I thought I was going to die.

She still didn't let me off the hook. Using the excuse that I wasn't feeling well, she shut me in the equipment room while I was too weak to fight back.

It was the last class of the day, and everyone else was happily heading home after PE.

But I was left behind, locked in the equipment room long after the school gates had shut for the night. I came down with a fever, and in the dead of night, it was James who showed up to rescue me.

I was shaking all over and instinctively stepped back from Emily.

When she saw I was still scared of her, Emily curled her lips into a smirk, looking pleased with herself.

She said, "Sophia, even when you were the Bennett family's little princess, I could bully you. And I still can."

The sound of heels echoed down the hallway.

Emily flashed me a sly, knowing smile, her voice barely above a whisper, meant just for me.

She murmured, "Just remember, you only get what I throw away."

With that, she raised her hand and slapped herself hard across the face.

I stared in shock as a bright red handprint appeared on her pale skin. Just then, James came around the corner.

Emily threw herself into his arms, tears streaming down her face, her voice muffled by sobs.

She sobbed, "James, she hit me. She said I was stealing her stuff.

"She said Dad and you are hers."

Emily was sobbing, and James had this gentle look on his face that I'd never seen before. He wrapped his arms around her and softly comforted her.

I noticed the diamond bracelet on Emily's wrist. It looked perfect, way fancier than mine. I also had one, but compared to hers, mine was nothing special.

Mine looked cheap, almost like a knockoff. I used to think James must have gotten ripped off when he bought it, but I wore it for a whole year to spare his feelings.

My mind went blank, and for a moment, I couldn't tell if any of this was real or some twisted nightmare.

When I saw Frank, it felt like I'd grabbed onto a lifeline, and hope flickered in my eyes.

"Dad, I didn't do it," I blurted out.

I'd been with the Bennett family for eighteen years. He knew what kind of person I was.

Nervous, I blurted out "Dad" before I could stop myself.

He didn't push me away, but he shattered that last bit of hope.

He snapped, "If you didn't do it, are you saying Emily slapped herself?

"Sophia, Emily has been living the life you should've had, suffering for eighteen years instead of you. Not only are you ungrateful, but you even hit her?

"You really don't know your place, do you?"

Frank's face turned downright menacing. He grabbed my wrist and dragged me to Emma's bedroom door. When he finally let go, I nearly lost my balance and had to grab the doorframe to steady myself.

James didn't glance my way, but Emily, nestled in his arms, looked up at him and shot me a smug, mocking smile.

Frank sneered, "This is the kind of daughter you raised."

He was fuming, and right on cue, Emily let everyone see her flushed cheek.

She said softly, "It's fine, Dad. She didn't do it on purpose.

"Mom used to spoil her a little too much."

Emily's gentle, understanding tone only made Emma feel more guilty.

Emma knew deep down that I wasn't capable of something like that, but she couldn't bring herself to believe Emily could be that cruel either. In the end, she said nothing.

I could feel my heart slowly turning to ice.

"I'm sorry," I said.

I couldn't stand to make Emma suffer any more, so I bowed to Emily and apologized as if I'd done so many times before.

Then, with Emma's guilty eyes following me, I left there.

But before I walked out, I clenched that strand of hair in my palm harder as if it was the only thing keeping me together.

No matter what I went through tonight, I never loosened my grip on that hair.

I'd already taken both mine and Emma's hair to the hospital for a DNA test. The results wouldn't come back until tomorrow.

Chloe also managed to dig up info on Emily's adoptive parents.

I quickly flipped through the stack of documents while Chloe took a sip of coffee to clear her throat.

She said, "It's strange. Emily's adoptive parents never had any connection to the Bennett family, and there was no grudge between them, so they had no reason to swap kids.

"Emma gave birth at the city's First Hospital, but Emily's adoptive parents never went there. So, how could they have swapped the babies?

"And the craziest part is Emily's adoptive father isn't able to have kids."

I jerked my head up, heart racing.

"Wait, so I'm not their daughter?" I stammered.

Chloe handed me two photos, giving me a confident nod.

She said, "You don't look anything like them."

I took the photos and stared at the couple in them, who are total strangers. There wasn't a single feature I shared with them, and they didn't resemble Emily at all, either.

Chloe said, "But get this. Emily's adoptive parents suddenly had a ton of money for a while, and right before that, Emily appeared in their family out of nowhere.

"But after Emily got a bit older, those two started beating her and yelling at her all the time. The neighbors saw it all.

"Things only got better for her when she started middle school. Her family wasn't rich anymore, but every year she'd get some fancy luxury gift and always show it off at school.

"She even had a bracelet that looked a lot like the one James gave you, but way fancier.

"And James showed up for Emily and handled her high school admission for her."

Chloe's voice was grave.

She continued, "Sophia, I'm starting to think James and Emily have been in cahoots this whole time.

"Maybe James is the snake who's been eyeing your family's money, plotting to swap you out so that when your parents are gone, he can step in and claim everything for himself."

My mind was all over the place. It felt like I was about to figure something out, but the moment I reached for it, it vanished again.

I asked, "But how did Emily suddenly become part of the Carter family? And how did they suddenly come into all that money? James was just a kid back then. There was no way he had enough cash to support Emily living with them."

Chloe handed me another photo, and just one look sent a chill straight through me.

She said, "Sophia, Emily used to have monolids.

"So why did she get double eyelid surgery? Because in the Quinn family and the Bennett family, nobody has ever had monolids."

I remembered the first time I saw Emily at school. She had single eyelids. Later, when she started isolating me and pretending to be my friend, she'd always fixate on my eyes, watching them like she was obsessed.

Sometimes, even in the middle of the night in our dorm, she'd crawl onto my bed and reach out to touch my eyelids.

After we had our big falling out, she nearly blinded me.

I forced myself to calm down, but my voice was still trembling.

"We'll know for sure once the DNA test results come back tomorrow," I said.

Chloe came with me to pick up the DNA results. I was clutching that thin sheet of paper, hands shaking, too scared to look. What if the truth was something I couldn't handle? What if I weren't Emma's daughter?

Chloe didn't hesitate and opened it right away.

She gasped, "Sophia, you are Emma's daughter."