"Party's starting," Jessica said. "Mom and Dad want you in this. And remember, you're just my backdrop tonight. Wipe that pathetic look off your face and don't humiliate us."
Evelyn stared down at the flimsy dress crumpled at her feet. The fabric was so poorly made that threads were already pulling loose, and her fingers shook a little as she looked at it.
Twenty years earlier, the family's nanny had secretly switched Evelyn and Jessica at birth. Because of that, Jessica had grown up in the Benson household, while Evelyn-the Bensons' real biological daughter-had been raised in the countryside.
When the family finally brought her home ten years ago, Evelyn thought her suffering had ended. She was wrong. She had only traded one hell for another.
In this house, she was the unwanted one, while Jessica was the daughter everyone loved and spoiled.
"Still undressed? Do I have to dress you?" Jessica wrinkled her nose. "This room reeks. Just being here is suffocating."
She slammed the door shut behind her.
Evelyn got up slowly and changed into the ridiculous, shapeless dress.
An hour later, Evelyn appeared at the top of the staircase. For a heartbeat, the ballroom fell silent. Even in the glaringly cheap dress, her striking and aloof beauty still caught everyone's attention.
Jealousy crossed Jessica's face for a second before she quickly put on a sweet smile. She hurried over and linked her arm through Evelyn's. "Evelyn, you finally decided to come down."
Onstage, Stephen Benson, Evelyn's biological father, smiled at the guests as he announced, "Today we're celebrating my daughter Jessica's birthday-and Evelyn's as well. Thank you all for being here."
His eyes passed over Evelyn with no warmth at all, only a clear warning in them.
Evelyn stood quietly beside the rest of the family, still and composed, like a decoration someone had placed there.
Then she heard a faint metallic snap from overhead. She looked up right away and saw the huge crystal chandelier starting to sway loose from its fixture.
"Watch out!" She reached for Jessica on instinct, but someone else moved quicker.
"Jessica!"
It was Simon Elliott, Evelyn's fiancé. He rushed toward them in a panic as the chandelier began to fall. But he didn't reach for Evelyn. In his desperate rush to shield Jessica, he shoved Evelyn aside with brutal force.
"Move! Don't block me!"
Evelyn stumbled, lost her footing, and crashed down directly beneath the falling chandelier. The impact exploded across the ballroom-crystal shattering, glass flying everywhere.
Agony tore through her.
Evelyn lay in a spreading pool of her own blood, her vision swimming red. Through the haze, she could make out her parents and her fiancé huddled around Jessica, who hadn't a single scratch on her.
"Jessica, are you all right?"
"Thank goodness..."
Not one of them looked back at Evelyn-even as she lay there, bleeding out in the cheap dress they'd forced on her.
So that was how much she meant to them. Even when her life was on the line, she wasn't worth saving-not even as an afterthought.
In that moment, something deep inside her broke beyond repair.
......
When Evelyn opened her eyes again, she was lying in a sterile hospital room.
No one from her family was there. The only voices she heard were two nurses murmuring outside.
"That poor thing. They brought her in covered in blood, and not a single family member has come to see her."
"I heard she's a Benson. They didn't even send a caregiver. The police had to hound them before they paid."
Evelyn stared at the ceiling while a tear slid down the side of her face. She wiped it away quickly.
Ten years of trying to please the Bensons, ten years of shrinking herself down in hopes they would finally accept her-it all felt like a cruel joke now, especially after Simon had shoved her under that chandelier.
She picked up her phone and called Jessica.
Jessica answered in a soft, pampered tone, still soaking up everyone's concern after the accident. "Hello? Who is this?"
"It's me," Evelyn said, her voice hoarse but completely cold. "I don't want Simon anymore. You can have him."
Jessica went quiet for a second. "What are you talking about?"
"In exchange," Evelyn continued slowly and clearly, "I'll take your place and marry into the Miller family."
The Millers were the most powerful family in the city. Their heir, Kellan Miller, was supposedly too sick to see the year out-and violently unhinged to boot.
Within three days, the two marriage arrangements had been swapped. The Bensons couldn't wait to get rid of Evelyn, calling her a curse on the family. The Millers didn't object. They even moved the wedding up by six months.
On the wedding day, Evelyn arrived with no special attention, and there was no real exchange of vows.
Kellan was supposedly in critical condition getting emergency treatment, so Evelyn went through the ceremony by herself while the guests openly mocked her. The whole wedding felt as humiliating as it was ridiculous.
And of course, she spent her wedding night alone.
At the same time, in an exclusive private club, a man sat on a leather sofa with his long legs crossed. His assistant stood in front of him, holding out a file. "Mr. Miller, this is the full background report on your bride, Evelyn Benson."
Kellan took the file and opened it. His striking eyes showed an easy, almost careless charm, but something reckless and dangerous lurked underneath.
He scanned the line calling Evelyn timid, mediocre, a doormat-and chuckled.
"Timid? Mediocre?"
He remembered the wedding footage-Evelyn standing alone, a room full of vultures circling, her face carved from stone. Not a flicker of defeat.
"Maybe she really is a good match for a dying man like me."
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