Chapter 1

I was the real heiress who had finally made it back to the Dawson family.

But because the fake heiress accused me of pushing her down the stairs, I was thrown out again.

The next time we met, Sophie Dawson was checking into a five-star hotel with my parents by her side.

And I was the cleaning lady trailing behind them.

To make things hard for me, Sophie Dawson tossed her pearl earrings, worth around 300 thousand dollars, into the toilet and made me fish them out with my bare hands.

I reached in with my faintly trembling right hand, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get them out.

My mom, Linda Dawson, frowned the second she saw that and started scolding me. "You'd rather do this filthy work than apologize to your sister? Serves you right for ending up like this.

"Those pearl earrings were Sophie's coming-of-age gift. If you can't get them out, then forget about keeping this job."

What she didn't know was that I was already sleeping with a ventilator, and before long, I wouldn't even be able to keep this cleaning job.

Sophie tugged on Linda's sleeve and whispered, "Emily knows these pearl earrings were the coming-of-age gift you and Dad gave me. If she doesn't want to pick them up, I'll do it myself."

She stepped forward like she was really going to use those pampered hands of hers to fish the earrings out.

Linda stopped her. "How can you do something like that? Let her do it."

Her eyes landed on the calluses on my hands as she snapped coldly, "You messed up Sophie's leg, and she still never held it against you. Now you're being asked to fish out an earring, and suddenly you're too good for it?

"If you don't get it out today, you can forget about this job too."

I said nothing. Using both hands, I tried over and over again with great effort, and finally managed to fish the earring out.

When I held it out to Sophie, she covered her nose in disgust and backed away a few steps.

She took forever to accept it, and my hand shook. The earring slipped and fell to the floor.

A scratch was left on the once smooth, glossy pearl.

Sophie's eyes instantly reddened. "Emily did that on purpose. She must still resent me for taking your place.

"If coming back means that much to you, then I'll leave."

She limped out of the restroom like she was about to leave, only for Linda to stop her.

I hurried after them, only to get slapped by Linda.

She said coldly, "Emily, you never change, do you?

"First you pushed your sister down the stairs because you didn't want her staying in the house, and now you ruined her earring on purpose. You really are beyond help."

My dad, David Dawson, glared at me darkly and barked, "Apologize to your sister. Now."

My head buzzed from the slap, and it took me a long while to come back to my senses.

Apologize?

It wasn't like I dropped the earring on purpose.

When she saw I wasn't speaking, Linda threatened me outright. "If you don't apologize, I'll report you to the manager. Then you can kiss this job goodbye."

They were dead set on teaching me a lesson.

But this was the only job I could still do.

I swallowed all my humiliation and whispered, "I'm sorry."

It had been a long time since I'd cried.

The last time was when my parents refused to hear me out and rushed to throw me out.

After that, I didn't cry when I went hungry with nothing to eat.

I didn't cry when I had nowhere to stay and had to sleep under a bridge.

I didn't even cry when I found out I had ALS.

But now, my eyes turned red, and tears kept pooling in them.

My parents seemed satisfied with my attitude, and then turned to comfort Sophie. "That earring's dirty now. We'll buy you an even better one."

After Sophie finally stopped crying and smiled again, they called over the hotel manager to complain about me.

Terrified, I reached out and grabbed at their clothes.

I begged, "Dad,Mom, please don't report me..."

They shook my hand off in disgust. "Why are you so filthy now?"

Filthy?

I wasn't afraid of dirt, and I wasn't afraid of hard work. I just wanted to make enough money to buy medicine and slow my illness down.

David shot me a glare. "This time, we're definitely teaching you a lesson."

The manager rushed over, and after hearing what happened, he actually tried to speak up for me.

He said, "On her behalf, I'd like to apologize to all of you again. I hope you'll be generous and not make things too hard for her.

"Besides, her situation is special. It wasn't easy for her to get that earring out in the first place..."

The manager knew my condition was getting worse by the day.

When my hands had weakened too much for delicate work, he hadn't looked down on me. He'd let me stay and do cleaning instead.

David cut him off, his eyes full of disgust for me. "She did it on purpose. She's been rotten to the core since she was little."

The words I wanted to say got stuck in my throat.

Years ago, at Sophie's and my coming-of-age party,

she resented me for taking away my parents' love, so she set me up and framed me for pushing her down the stairs.

Back then, like now, my parents didn't listen to a single word of my explanation and decided right away that it was all my fault.

They shouted, "You're already this rotten at such a young age. The Dawson family doesn't have a child like you.

"Butler, take her away. Right now."

From that day on, I was kicked out of the house.