Chapter 1

When I was in the middle of the street, loudly cursing my idiot boss, a woman in sky-high heels suddenly rushed out from the side.

She threw her arms around me and burst into tears so hard she even blew a snot bubble.

“My baby… you’ve suffered so much…”

I stared at her in confusion. Before I could react, two men and another woman rushed over as well.

Amid the noise, loud enough to rival a flock of squawking ducks, I picked out the key information:

Apparently, I was their long-lost daughter and sister.

I raised a hand in a “pause” gesture. Everyone instantly fell silent, staring at me expectantly.

“You want to take me back with you?”

“Yes, sweetheart. Come home with your mother.”

The woman who claimed to be my mother tugged at my sleeve.

I looked at her with a hint of scrutiny.

These days, scams and human trafficking were everywhere. A girl on her own had to be more cautious.

“The fortune-teller was right. The moment Celeste Tower was completed, we found you.

“Once we transfer the building into your name, nothing will ever happen to you again.”

Celeste Tower was the newly built skyscraper in the city center, worth at least two hundred million dollars.

Looking closer, weren’t these four people the wealthiest family in the city?!

“What did you just say?”

“The fortune-teller said…”

“The line before that.”

“Come home with your mother.”

“Let’s go!”

I grabbed her hand tightly.

I couldn’t help it. They were offering far too much.

…

On my first night back at the Shaw family home, my right hand cramped up.

I got it from signing the asset transfer agreement.

On the second morning after returning to the Shaw family, my whole body was cramping.

Because I had nightmares all night.

In the dream, the world I’d lived in for over twenty years was actually a novel.

The sister I had just been reunited with yesterday was the sweet, untouchable “first love” type of girl.

She was dragged into a dramatic love triangle, her hands ruined despite being a pianist, her reputation destroyed before she was forced onto a plane and dumped in some remote, impoverished foreign town.

My brother was the unlucky second male lead, who married the female lead while she was already pregnant with the male lead’s child, only to be resented by the male lead and crippled in a staged car accident.

My mother was the harsh, overbearing mother-in-law.

Because she refused to let the female lead divorce and forced her to take care of my brother, she was hated by the female lead’s son and pushed down the stairs, becoming a vegetable.

My father took back control of the company after my brother fell seriously ill, only to be humiliated when the company was acquired by the male lead, sending him into the ICU from sheer rage.

And me, I wasn’t even important enough to be cannon fodder, just background decoration, with an utterly bleak ending:

As a useless nobody who had just returned to a wealthy family and knew nothing, after the Shaw family went bankrupt, I went out to work, ran into my idiot boss again, and after pulling an all-nighter, dropped dead on the way to take his kid to school.

I woke up out of pure anger.

Fine, the world being a novel was one thing, but why did my entire family have to make way for the male and female leads, becoming stepping stones for their rise?

Staring at the diamond-studded vanity in front of me, I made up my mind:

For the money, and for my life, I was going to protect the Shaw family and deal with the male and female leads.