Chapter 3

Declan continued, "If you aren't rich, how could you possibly recognize so many luxury brands and tell the real ones from the knockoffs?"

Noticing how dead certain he was, I suddenly recalled how Declan and I first met.

Back then, at the school flea market, he was about to get scammed by a senior. I was the one who stepped in and pointed out that the senior's sneakers were fakes.

Ever since, Declan had used that day as an excuse to court me, claiming he was trying to repay my kindness.

Did he really peg me for a rich heiress way back then?

The only reason I could spot fakes was that I worked in scrap recycling.

To pick authentic items out of garbage and resell them second-hand for extra cash, I had forced myself to develop a sharp eye for detail.

When he saw me fall silent, Declan put on a smug smirk. "Sienna, you keep insisting your family is poor. Are you just trying to stop Rosie from reuniting with her parents? Do you actually think she's that snobbish?"

He deliberately raised his voice so that Mom and Dad, who were busy talking to Rosie nearby, heard every word.

They immediately shot me a glare.

Mom and Dad cared about appearances above all else. Even this celebration dinner was nothing more than putting on airs they couldn't afford.

As they were short on money, they had deliberately booked a banquet hall right after someone else's wedding had ended.

They made me salvage the leftover decorations that weren't taken down, repurposed them, and ordered the absolute cheapest food available on the menu.

That was the only way they could fake such a glamorous celebration dinner, all so they could pocket as much gift money as possible from the guests.

Now, hearing me tell everyone we were poor, they instantly felt humiliated.

Having heard Declan's claims that I was playing poor, Rosie naturally didn't buy my story either. She immediately took Mom's hand and put on a sincere act.

"Mom, regardless of whether Sienna is telling the truth or how poor this family really is, I don't care! All I want are my real parents! As long as I can be with you, a little hardship is nothing!"

Her sweet words deeply touched Mom.

For years, I had worked from dawn to dusk, talking about nothing except work, studying, and money. Mom and Dad had never heard such sweet, affectionate words from me.

The way Mom looked at Rosie grew instantly fonder.

Noticing that Mom and Dad were softening, Rosie struck while the iron was hot. "Mom, now that I'm back, shouldn't Sienna go back to her real parents? They've been separated for so many years, too. She must miss them terribly."

As she spoke, she shot me a provocative smirk behind their backs.

I knew exactly what she was trying to do. She wanted me to experience the hardships she had gone through.

What she didn't realize was that an ordinary family like hers was a pipe dream for me.

However, when they heard her suggestion, Mom and Dad hesitated.

For the longest time, I had been the one running the scrap recycling business single-handedly.

Having lived comfortably for so long off my hard labor, they couldn't bear the thought of going back to doing the filthy work at the scrapyard themselves.

"But… we did raise Sienna for so many years…"

Both Rosie's and Declan's expressions twisted for a split second. They never expected that, even at this point, Mom and Dad would still be reluctant to kick me out.

Right then, my aunt, Audrey Lawrence, suddenly piped up from the side. "Faye, what is there to hesitate about? Our family doesn't have a habit of raising other people's kids! Are you going to keep an outsider's wild stray around and taint our bloodline?"

Her eyes gleamed with pure malice.

Aunt Audrey had always hated my guts.

She had tried to arrange a marriage between me and the village cripple, even going as far as taking the deposit money from his family, only for me to reject her.

Since the match fell through, she was forced to return the money.

She firmly believed I was the reason she lost out on that cash, and ever since, she couldn't stand seeing me succeed.

Hearing Rosie's complaints, Aunt Audrey assumed my birth parents were even worse off, and she couldn't wait to send me back to suffer.