On my eighteenth birthday, a young girl showed up at our door. She tearfully recounted to my brothers how our adoptive mother had switched her with me at the hospital when we were born. She claimed *she* was the Sterling family’s true heiress. I’d intended to step aside graciously, but my obsessive brothers locked me up instead. “You’re not going anywhere without our say-so. You’ll die within these walls before you ever escape us!” A sudden, fierce fire erupted. I couldn’t escape in time and was burned alive. When I opened my eyes again, I was back—one week before the ‘true heiress’ appeared. This time, Chloe still stormed into Sterling Manor, interrupting the birthday song my four brothers were singing. “I’m your real sister!” Huge, glistening tears rolled down her cheeks as she spoke. “My adoptive mother deliberately swapped me with her biological daughter at the hospital, just so her daughter could live a life of luxury. If a routine medical check-up hadn’t flagged a discrepancy in blood types, forcing me to finally confess, I would’ve been kept in the dark my entire life.” She sobbed, a pitiful sight, recounting years of neglect and hardship with her adoptive family—starved and freezing. She exposed her slender arms, covered in red, swollen bruises, complaining that her adoptive father would beat her with a belt whenever he drank too much. My brothers remained silent, their gazes fixed on Julian, waiting for him to speak. “First, a DNA test. We’ll discuss everything else after that.” The Sterling empire was vast, and Julian, the eldest, had transformed Sterling Corp into the undisputed titan of the entire Metropolis City in just a few short years. He was, naturally, a ruthless, decisive leader. Mr. Henderson, the butler, nodded, preparing to escort Chloe away. There was no emotional reunion, no warm embrace, just a stunned silence from Chloe. Then, she suddenly pointed at me. “Don’t be fooled, brothers! This woman definitely wants to team up with her biological mother, empty the Sterling accounts, and vanish!” Julian raised an eyebrow, turning to look at me, his voice soft and low. “Blair, your brothers can give you as much money as you want. But if you two really were swapped, do you want to leave, Blair?” He had asked me the same question in my previous life. Back then, I was perhaps blinded by the word ‘freedom’. I hastily agreed that if Chloe was the true heiress, I would leave the Sterling family and make way for her. My ‘generosity’ successfully enraged my brothers. They locked me away. “You’re not going anywhere without our say-so. You’ll die within these walls before you ever escape us!” The confinement room was pitch black, not a single sliver of light. No one was allowed near me except them, and no one was permitted to speak to me. On the day the fire broke out, I cried and screamed for help inside that room. I screamed until my throat was raw and bleeding, clawed at the door until my fingernails ripped off, but no one heard me, and no one saved me. The flames devoured me completely. I really did die in the Sterling house, consumed by the cruel shackles of their twisted affection. Snapping out of my memories, my eyes welled with tears, my face a mask of grievance. “Julian, do you remember the dream I had a week ago? I can’t believe what happened in it is actually coming true. Even though I can’t bear to leave you all, I’ll follow whatever you decide. If you want to send me away…” I broke down, unable to finish the sentence. They remembered that day from a week ago, and my brothers’ expressions softened. They promised me, “Blair, no matter what the results are, your brothers will never send you away.” I nodded, satisfied, wiping away my tears. This time, I would meticulously execute the plan I hadn’t had a chance to start in my previous life.
I was reborn one week before Chloe showed up at Sterling Manor. That morning, I clutched at Julian like a scared little bird, sobbing into his embrace. “I had a terrible nightmare. Someone said I wasn’t your sister, and they wanted to kick me out of the Sterling house. Waaah… I don’t want that! I love my brothers more than anything, I want to be with you forever!” Julian stroked my hair, comforting me, while my other brothers stood behind him, smiling with satisfaction. I knew they reveled in my complete, unquestioning dependence. The kind of helpless dependence they craved. This time, when Chloe again accused me of trying to run away, I subtly brought up that morning’s ‘dream,’ playing the part of the long-suffering, obedient sister to perfection. It worked. I successfully avoided being imprisoned. Sebastian, my second brother, was a doctor, reportedly the youngest Chief Physician Metropolis General Hospital had ever seen. He pulled some strings, and the DNA test results were ready in less than a day. The next evening, he brought Chloe into Sterling Villa and instructed Mr. Henderson, the butler. “From now on, the Second Miss will live here with us. Please prepare her room.” The test results were obvious. Sebastian was busy. He left instructions for Mr. Henderson to take good care of her and returned to the hospital. With my brothers gone, Chloe dropped her innocent facade. She approached me, her face alight with triumph. She whispered a threat, “Blair Sterling, there’s only room for one young lady in this house. Soon, I’ll make sure you’re out.” Mr. Henderson showed her several rooms, all spacious and well-lit. Chloe picked and chose, clearly dissatisfied. “What, are you serious? Am I a charity case? Who wants to live in these cramped, corner rooms?” She pointed to the room in the very middle of the third floor. “That one. That’s mine.” Mr. Henderson looked troubled. “But… that’s Miss Blair’s room…” “It’s alright, Mr. Henderson,” I said, nodding at him. “If she likes it, let her have it. As long as my brothers are here, anywhere feels like home.” Nothing was a secret in this house. I knew this scene would reach my brothers’ ears very quickly, so of course, I had to play the part of the long-suffering, obedient sister to perfection. Besides, that room… it was perfect for my plans. While I was packing my belongings, Chloe came by to assert her dominance again. “Take all your stuff. I don’t want to move in and find the place still full of your trash. Oh, and you don’t even need to unpack. You’ll be packing your bags and disappearing for good soon enough anyway.” I put down the clothes in my hand, sighing softly. She really knew how to get under my skin. I grabbed her wrist, pushing up her sleeve. Chloe cried out in pain, tears streaming down her face, unable to wrench her hand free from my grip. “Does that hurt? What does it feel like to be hit with an iron pipe?” Her face was filled with terror. “How… how do you know?” Chloe used to be a delinquent, smoking, drinking, fighting—she did it all. The day after I was reborn, I rescued Stella, our class monitor, from an alley near school where Chloe was bullying her. The injuries on Chloe’s arm weren’t from her drunken adoptive father at all. They were from the iron pipe I’d picked up and used on her. “You’re the one who was wearing a mask and sticking your nose where it didn’t belong?” I didn’t answer, my finger tracing over her wound. “You know what? My brothers hate liars the most. If they found out…” I smiled faintly. “You’d be in a lot of trouble, wouldn’t you?”
To celebrate Chloe’s return to the Sterling family, the kitchen prepared an exquisite French meal. Despite Sebastian’s request for me to teach her dining etiquette before dinner, she still picked up the main course knife and fork when eating the appetizer. The utensils scraped loudly against the plate, producing a jarring, unpleasant sound. Sebastian frowned, pausing his own movements. He valued etiquette above all else; elegance was his motto. When I was little, I was too weak to hold my utensils steady and occasionally dropped them. He would make me stand in the corner for an hour, holding my knife and fork above my head, no matter how much I cried or begged. Chloe sensed the shift in atmosphere and cautiously put down the utensils, her eyes welling up. “I’m sorry. Life was so hard in that other house. I’ve never eaten such good, refined food before. And Blair taught me too fast; I couldn’t keep up. It’s my fault for being so slow…” My own movements faltered. I quickly apologized. “It’s my mistake. I should have been more patient and thorough in teaching Chloe. I accept my punishment.” I voluntarily stood up and moved to the corner of the dining room, raising my hands above my head, ready for my punishment. I had expected Chloe to be reprimanded too, but to my surprise, Sebastian said, “Considering this is your first offense, I’ll forgive you this time. But it must not happen again.” He picked up his knife and fork again, demonstrating the correct dining etiquette to Chloe, inviting her to learn from him. I lowered my gaze, watching the scene unfold. It made sense; their long-lost sister, found after eighteen years, deserved some leniency for the hardships she’d endured. But it was the first time I realized that a first offense could actually be forgiven. During dinner, Chloe couldn’t help but glance at me several times out of the corner of her eye, eating even more carefully. I knew she couldn’t understand. Everyone called me the Sterling brothers’ favorite, their treasured little sister, admired by countless people. But in reality, I was nothing more than a human puppet they held in their hands, playing with me as they pleased. After dinner, Julian instructed Mr. Henderson, “Starting tomorrow, Chloe’s entire curriculum will follow Blair’s schedule.” Chloe nodded eagerly, sweetly thanking Julian. She had no idea the crisis that awaited her. She was simply thrilled to be treated as my equal, receiving the same elite education. The next morning, Chloe was pulled from bed by a maid before five AM to join me for English morning reading. At six o’clock, during morning exercises, the yoga instructor was forcing her into deep stretches, her screams echoing through the hall the entire time. After breakfast, she endured three consecutive academic classes plus a calligraphy lesson, constantly nodding off and slumping in her seat. There was no nap time at noon; she had to study piano, chess, design, and various other skills. The afternoon consisted of two hours of intense physical training, followed immediately by etiquette lessons. At dinner, I saw her about to beg Julian for mercy, but she swallowed her words under his cold glare. After two more academic classes in the evening, plus time to complete homework, it was already past midnight before she could finally go to bed. When classes finally ended, I heard Chloe mutter a curse under her breath, grumbling, “Turns out being a rich girl isn’t so great after all.” I didn’t know what other rich girls were like. But my past eighteen years had been spent almost exactly like this every day, with never more than five hours of sleep. Every time my brothers randomly checked my homework, it was a nightmare. I could never meet their expectations; endless punishments always awaited me. My brothers always said these high standards were for my own good, to make me an even better person. Whether I became ‘better’ or not, I didn’t know. After all, this was just the person *they* wanted me to be.
Sunday afternoon, I was practicing flower arrangement in the garden. A middle-aged couple poked their heads tentatively out from the villa entrance. Their eyes lit up when they saw me. “Blair! Blair! Daddy and Mommy are here to take you home!” I coldly replied, “I’m sorry, I don’t know you.” Chloe heard the commotion and walked out of the living room, sneering, “People shouldn’t forget their roots, you know. No matter what, you shouldn’t abandon your own parents!” She opened the door, letting my former adoptive parents in. Julian and Ryder happened to come downstairs at that moment. Ryder, my youngest brother, ran the family’s underground dealings and always had a short temper. He glared at the couple. “I haven’t even come to settle scores with you about the swap, and you dare show up on our doorstep?” Brenda, my adoptive mother, quickly started wailing dramatically. “It’s a misunderstanding! We’re victims too! The nurse must have swapped the babies by mistake. We absolutely didn’t do it on purpose!” She looked at me and continued, “Blair is our biological daughter. Since Chloe has returned to the Sterlings, we want to take Blair home.” There was no genuine emotion, no maternal love in her eyes—only a calculating scheme hidden deep within. I wondered how many benefits Chloe had promised her to make her bold enough to come to the Sterling house and demand me. If I could see through such a flimsy trick, how could Julian, a seasoned old fox in the business world, not? He once again tossed the question to me. “Blair, I respect your choice. Do you want to go with them?”
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