Chapter 1

To cure my habit of craving attention, my family unanimously decided to send me to a remote place for reform.

Even my fiancé, Shawn Sterling, agreed with this approach.

In less than a year, I went from being a pampered heiress to a timid and fearful girl.

On the day they came to pick me up, I was huddled under an oak tree. Mischievous children threw stones at me, hitting me until my face was covered in blood.

All I could do was smile foolishly.

Seeing this scene, my parents blurted out, "What are you trying to pretend? That you're pitiful?"

After a medical examination, the doctors found that I had become both blind and mute, and my mind had also been severely affected.

They finally realized the extent of the problem, but it was too late. I was now so far gone that I couldn't even recognize these so-called family members.

*****

The doctors had lost all hope that I'd ever recover.

I was sent back to the Monroe residence.

My parents spent their days dodging me, as if just looking at me made them uncomfortable.

All they wanted was to fix my attention-seeking, but they ended up leaving me a shell of my former self.

Now, everyone around us was making fun of them, saying they weren't fit to be parents.

Even Leroy Paterson, my brother, got hit with the backlash. The heiress who was supposed to marry him, after hearing how they turned me into a fool, would rather jump off a building than marry Leroy. She was terrified of ending up like me.

My cousin, who'd always seen me as a thorn in her side, didn't dare badmouth me anymore. Even though she was still my parents' and Leroy's favorite, she wouldn't even mention me unless she had to.

Now, I was like a thorn stuck in their hearts.

No one dared bring me up.

After I turned into an idiot, Shawn came to visit me a few times, looking genuinely sorry for what I'd been through.

He promised me that no matter how messed up I was, I'd always be his future wife.

Suddenly, everyone pretended to care about me.

But what they didn't know was that all I ever thought about was killing them.

That year I spent in that remote town was pure hell. Endless beatings and the torment just never stopped.

My body and my mind took a beating.

Every inch of me was in agony.

Just tossing out a casual sorry didn't mean a damn thing to me.

And I knew, give it enough time, they'd stop feeling guilty, and I'd just be dead weight, ready to be dropped the moment I became inconvenient.

Actually, I was spot on.

Less than two months in, my family was already making plans to ship me off to some care facility for good.

The Sterling family came knocking, demanding that the engagement be called off. If my family refused, they'd just swap me out for my cousin, Maggie Paterson, and have her marry Shawn Sterling instead.

Maggie's mom was a bar girl who latched onto my uncle, thinking getting pregnant would be her ticket out. But when she gave birth to a girl, Maggie. He was so disappointed that he just turned cold.

My uncle was so let down that he tossed them some cash and never looked back.

But my dad felt sorry for them, so he secretly helped out. After Maggie's mom died, he even brought Maggie home to live with us.

At first, my mom was pretty indifferent to Maggie. But then, when our house caught fire, Maggie rushed straight into the flames, screaming and crying, desperate to save her.

My mom was so moved she started to rethink how she'd been treating Maggie, and from then on, she raised Maggie just like her own daughter.

After that, my parents and Leroy all doted on Maggie like she was the apple of their eye. Before I knew it, I'd been replaced.

After that, I got obsessed with fighting for their attention against Maggie, but honestly, I couldn't hold a candle to her.

Her tears were like daggers. Every time she cried, any attempt I made to fight back just crumbled.

It didn't take long before my parents and Leroy started to hate my guts.

I always thought that no matter how much they disliked me, they'd never actually do me harm. But then they sent me off to that remote town.

"Maggie's mother was a prostitute, and the Sterling family is well-known. We can't have Shawn marrying someone whose mother had that kind of reputation.

"But Shawn really likes Maggie, and we've watched her grow up. She's got the looks and the talent, it's just her background that's too low," Natalie Sterling, Shawn's mom, said.

Natalie's voice snapped me out of my memories.

My mom caught on right away and jumped in, "I've always treated Maggie like my own daughter. If her background is an issue, I can just adopt her."

Natalie still wasn't satisfied. She waved it off, saying, "No need to go through all that."

She paused, shot a look at me sitting nearby, then let out a sigh and shook her head. "She's already out of it, doesn't understand anything anymore. Why not just let Maggie step into her shoes and make it official?"

My mom froze for a second, totally blindsided by Natalie's suggestion.

Just then, someone's voice drifted down from the stairs. "Sounds good to me. We're already planning to send Sierra off to a care home anyway. If it comes to it, we'll just look after her for the rest of her life.

"Let Maggie take her spot. It'll give her some real standing, and the marriage deal between our families goes off without a hitch. Everybody wins."