Chapter 1

Professor Davis's voice turned grave. "Nina, this project will be grueling and unforgiving. Once you sign the nondisclosure agreement, you'll disappear completely. Are you sure you're ready for that?"

Downstairs, I could faintly hear my father and brothers laughing as they fussed over Alice.

Six months ago, all that attention had been mine alone. Now it belonged to someone else.

"I'm sure, Professor."

After I hung up, I looked at the family photo on my desk and gave a bitter smile.

Six months ago, during an assassination attempt on the Moreland family, Marco had been blown to pieces saving my father and brothers.

When his only daughter, Alice, was brought to the Moreland estate, she clutched his torn, bloodstained shirt and looked lonely and pitiful.

My father and brothers told her, "Alice, this is your home now. We're your family."

Alice timidly threw herself into their arms. Then, where they couldn't see, she shot me a taunting smile.

I didn't understand what that smile meant until Alice said she couldn't sleep and I was forced to give up my room.

I cried and demanded to know why, but my father just looked at me coldly, disappointment in his eyes. "Nina, Alice lost the only family she had because of us! And you can't even give up one room!

"You're being completely unreasonable!"

That night, I hid in a corner of the garden and cried until I couldn't breathe.

Luca was the one who found me. He wrapped an arm around me and tried to comfort me. "Nina, Dad just wants to make it up to Alice. Don't blame him. When it comes down to it, our family owes her."

Back then, I thought that even if my father played favorites, at least my brothers were still on my side.

But later, at the Moreland family's annual charity gala, Luca led Alice inside by the hand and gave her my seat.

I was sent to a table tucked away in a corner.

I protested, but Luca snapped at me. "Nina, Alice is part of this family now. It's just a seat. Show some grace instead of acting selfish and heartless."

All evening, I sat there watching Alice smile on Luca's arm in the custom gown that had been made for me.

After the party, I went looking for Enzo, exhausted and desperate to tell him how hurt I was.

Enzo had always adored me. He was the one person in this family who would take my side no matter what.

But when I found him by his car, Alice was already standing next to him. "Enzo, this car is so cool!

"I'm so jealous of Nina, getting her name on it. She's so lucky to have a family who loves her like this. My dad was all I had, and now he's gone..."

Enzo's eyes filled with concern and sympathy. "Don't be sad, Alice. You have us now. We're your family!"

To cheer her up, he gave her the passenger seat and promised to take my name off the car and put hers in its place.

I stood there, barely able to breathe. The words burst out of me. "Enzo, you said the only name on your car would ever be mine!"

Enzo turned and frowned at me. "Nina, it's just a name. It's not like it's going to kill you! Look how upset Alice is. What's wrong with giving her what she wants? When did you get so selfish and dramatic?"

After that, Alice's tricks just kept coming.

Every new outfit I gave her somehow ended up torn to shreds, and she would cry that I'd given it to her to humiliate her.

The soup I'd made as a peace offering somehow became "poison" that supposedly gave her diarrhea and landed her in the hospital.

The way my father and brothers looked at me changed completely. They believed I was scheming against Alice just to remain their favorite, and they grew more and more disgusted with me.

At the Moreland estate, I became a pathetic nobody in my own home.