Chapter 2

Mom smiled and affectionately ruffled my hair.

"My good girl is almost getting married, but you still love to act spoiled just like before," she said.

My eyes grew dim. The word "marriage" wiped the smile off my face.

Paul and I grew up together. We were childhood friends.

My father was a sharp businessman, and under his leadership, Finch Group kept climbing to new heights.

Paul's father, Brian Anderson, was a notorious playboy in his youth, always chasing after women, so the Anderson family had more than just Paul as a son.

When I turned eighteen, Paul's mother, Tamzin Anderson, wanted me to get engaged to Paul. She hoped that the Finch family's influence would help him secure his place as the heir.

Seeing how close Paul and I had been since we were kids, my parents thought they knew everything about him, so they agreed to the engagement.

If it weren't for Janet, I would've thought I'd spend my whole life with my childhood sweetheart, growing old together.

But fate had other plans. It was all just my wishful thinking.

Just as I was drowning in my sorrow, a servant rushed in.

"Mrs. Anderson, Miss Finch, something's wrong! There's trouble in the front hall!"

I froze for a second, then it hit me.

Today was supposed to be my wedding day with Paul. Tamzin had promised me a grand, world-famous wedding.

She'd invited all the influential families from Cherton. Janet was among them, of course.

Janet was the daughter of Paul's nanny, Kate. Unlike the other maids, Kate had been with him since he was little, almost like a mother to him in Paul's eyes.

Most rich kids were hardly ever raised by their real moms.

Because Paul was so fond of Kate, his affection naturally extended to her daughter. He cared for Janet because she was Kate's child.

During their school days, Paul always took care of Janet.

Janet's father was addicted to gambling and chasing after women, always hanging around nightclubs and gambling dens, barely paying any attention to his wife and daughter.

Kate raised Janet all by herself, and the two of them leaned on each other to survive.

Paul felt sorry for Janet's difficult upbringing, so he often brought her along to all sorts of high-society events and even transferred her from a public school to a prestigious private school. He said it was to repay the nanny for her years of raising him.

Brian felt proud of Paul's compassion.

But Janet was always a misfit, never really blending in with the rest of us. The upper-class crowd wasn't exactly her scene, so she didn't even try to force her way in. Instead, she stuck to her resilient little wallflower persona, strong on the outside, delicate on the inside.

At my birthday party, she was quick with her biting sarcasm, saying that rich girls like us loved flaunting our wealth, spending our parents' money as if it grew on trees, and throwing extravagant parties without a care.

She even called out those of us who posted our lavish lives online, basically saying we were so out of touch it was like telling the poor to eat cake.

Her logic was simple. If the poor never knew what light was, they could put up with darkness their whole lives.

I couldn't help but laugh.

What kind of reasoning was that?

I'd seen it myself. Her liked videos were all about the everyday lives of the rich and famous.

Wasn't she just envious?

Every one of us Cherton heiresses came from families whose ancestors busted their backs to build up our empires. We were not lazy heirs waiting for the money to run out.

My dad took me to charity events all year, making real contributions. Did she ever notice any of that?

Sure, we might look like we had never had to struggle.

But from the day we were born, we carried the weight of our family's legacy. We had to master music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and speak four languages as a baseline.

Things like managing company accounts and running projects, we had to learn and work for every bit.

And yet, all that effort and dedication got completely torn apart by Janet's one snarky comment about us being out of touch.

The other heiresses in high society looked down on girls like her, who was always quick with sarcasm and snide remarks.

Over time, even with Paul trying to help Janet blend in, she was still ignored by everyone.

But Paul was convinced I was the mastermind behind all the heiresses ostracizing Janet, thinking I was picking on her.

No matter how much I tried to explain, he insisted I was calculating and jealous of someone as innocent and sweet as Janet.