The day my billionaire parents finally found me, I was busy gutting fish at the local farmer's market. After they brought me home, the fake heiress spent all day trying to gaslight and manipulate me with her two-faced "mean girl" act. Unfortunately for her, I had barely spent a day in school, so I didn't understand a single word of her passive-aggressive nonsense. My biological brother couldn't stand watching it anymore, so he gifted me a Mean Girl Survival Guide. I ended up being a natural. I just smiled goofily at the fake heiress and said, "Haha, if you're trying to provoke me, you're basically punching a marshmallow~" I made her so mad she literally ended up in the hospital. 1 When my biological parents found me, I was passionately gutting a fish. It was the dead of summer. I was wearing a heavy, waterproof apron, and my meat cleaver was rattling aggressively against the chopping block. I was completely covered in a foul mixture of fish scales and blood. I stared blankly at the impeccably dressed couple standing in front of my stall. Their faces were completely unfamiliar to me. I asked them absentmindedly, "Can I get you a fresh bass?" The man ignored the stench and pulled me into a tight hug. "Mia, you're our daughter. Mommy and Daddy are taking you home now, okay?" Seeing how sincere he looked, I nodded and agreed, but I made one strict demand: I had to bring my little stray dog with me. I couldn't read the complicated emotions swirling in their eyes. My dad patted my head. "Mia, how about we go home and buy you a brand-new puppy? A Poodle, or a Maltese? Anything you want." I shook my head stubbornly, scooped up my little mutt, and climbed into their luxury SUV. My mom kept staring at me, repeatedly telling me not to get the car interior dirty. I nodded and hugged my dog, Buddy, even tighter. "I'm a very good girl, Mom. And Buddy is too." Only then did she turn her head away and stop looking at me. 2 We pulled up to the mansion, and a girl looking to be exactly my age was waiting at the front door. She was wearing a pristine white sundress with a delicate little flower pinned in her hair. She looked beautiful. My mom rushed over and hugged her, rubbing her back. "Sophia, Mommy's home." I clutched Buddy to my chest and hid behind my dad. I was so dirty; I didn't want to stain that perfect white dress. Dad pulled me out from behind him. I awkwardly watched the mother and daughter holding each other. The girl turned, wanting to hug Dad, but she hesitated and didn't step forward. I tactfully stepped aside to give them space, but Dad pulled me right back. "This is your sister. She was adopted, but we've raised her like our own flesh and blood all these years, so she is your real sister." I nodded, vigorously wiped my free hand on my dirty apron, and reached out. "Hi, sister!" She looked at me with absolute terror and quickly glanced at Mom. "Does sister think I'm dirty?" I asked Dad. Tears welled up in Dad's eyes. He reached out and grabbed my hovering, outstretched hand. "Mia is not dirty." Mom finally snapped out of it. Looking at me with a face full of guilt, she asked the housekeeper, Maria, to take me upstairs to get cleaned up. Honestly, I really wasn't dirty! I took a shower every single day after selling fish! It was my first time ever soaking in a real bathtub. Everything was so fascinating. Meanwhile, Maria was washing Buddy in the sink. Turns out, Buddy wasn't a yellow dog—he was actually a white dog. I sweatdropped a little at that. 3 While I was comfortably soaking in the tub, Mom walked in carrying a dress. "This is a dress Sophia used to wear... When I have time, I'll take you out to buy brand-new ones..." Before she could even finish her sentence, I stood up in the tub, my eyes sparkling, and gave her a goofy, massive smile. "A dress! This is my first time wearing a dress! It's so pretty!" Mom stared at me and suddenly burst into tears. Did I scare her? She hugged me, her heart breaking. "Mia, why do you have so many scars on your body?" I looked down at my hands, my legs, my shoulders. Some were old and fading, while others had just recently scabbed over. "Some are from gutting fish. I wasn't very good at it when I first started, so I kept chopping my own hands. The others are from my old dad. He used to hit me whenever he got drunk," I said, completely unbothered. "But later on, I got really, really good at gutting fish, and I never accidentally cut myself again! Mom, aren't I amazing?" I looked at her, fully expecting praise. Instead, Mom pulled me into a crushing hug and sobbed uncontrollably. She eventually slipped the dress over my head, but it was much too big for me. Then, for reasons I couldn't understand, she started crying even louder. Her wailing brought Dad running. He asked her what was wrong. Mom choked out that I was far too skinny. I didn't look like a sixteen-year-old at all. Oh, so that was it. I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought she was crying because I looked so ugly in my sister's dress! It was my first time wearing a dress, and I spun around in circles, amazed by how the fabric flared out. I kept asking Dad if I looked pretty. And then, I walked straight into a pillar. Since when was there a pillar in the middle of the hallway? Oh, it was my older brother, Ethan. He looked down at me with pure disgust. "Where did this skinny little monkey come from?" Dad immediately smacked him upside the head. I walked over and blew on Ethan's arm, telling him that if I blew on it, the pain would go away. He just stared at me, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. 4 Now, Sophia was the only one in the house too afraid to come near me. But I had already washed off all the dirt! When she looked at me, she started crying too. I concluded that I must have some magical superpower that made everyone who looked at me burst into tears. Sophia clung to Mom and refused to let go. "Mommy, I don't want to go gut fish." Why didn't she want to gut fish? It was a great gig. My adoptive dad paid me one dollar for every fish I prepped. I had saved almost a thousand dollars! A whole thousand bucks! Mom looked at Dad pleadingly. Dad looked at me. "Why does sister have to go gut fish?" I asked, genuinely confused. "Because your sister is the biological child of your adoptive parents. After you went missing, we found her. We thought it was fate, so we adopted her," Dad explained. No wonder I thought she looked familiar! She looked just like my adoptive mom. What a coincidence. I was my parents' real daughter, got lost, and was adopted by her parents. She was my adoptive parents' real daughter, got lost, and was adopted by my parents. Dad looked at me hesitantly. "Mia, what if we don't send your sister back?" "As long as we have three thousand dollars a month, that's fine!" I answered with a bright smile. "Why three thousand?" "Because I only need five hundred dollars a month to live. Three kids would be fifteen hundred. Plus you, Mom, and Maria, that's six people. So, we just need three thousand bucks!" I calculated proudly on my fingers. Dad's eyes instantly went red again. Sigh, how long was my crying-curse going to last? I stopped crying when I was five, yet these full-grown adults were crying all the time. "Mia, you can spend five thousand a month if you want. Mommy and Daddy have a lot of money. Look at this giant house we live in." "Five thousand dollars?!" I was utterly shell-shocked. So my parents were actually rich! Well, of course we could afford to keep my sister then. We could afford to keep dozens and dozens of sisters! 5 Sophia looked at me timidly. "Sister, you really aren't going to kick me out? I don't want to leave Mommy and Daddy." "Of course not!" Mom let out a massive sigh of relief and instantly pulled Sophia into a tight embrace. Watching the two of them hug, tears suddenly pricked my eyes. How weird. What was going on today? I had just been making fun of them for crying, and now I was crying too. Dad looked at Mom, then coughed awkwardly. I sniffled and asked Dad if he was feeling sick. He leaned down and wrapped his arms around me. Ah, now it's fair, I thought. One hug for each of us. Wait, no, it's not fair! I wriggled out of Dad's embrace. While he watched in confusion, I ran over and hugged Ethan. Then I tossed Buddy into Dad's arms. Yep... now it's perfectly fair. Seeing us all tangled up together, Maria laughed and called us into the dining room for dinner. I had never seen such an extravagant feast in my entire life. Ethan called me a country bumpkin, but I ignored him. Sophia picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks to put on my plate. I held my bowl up to catch it. Mom smiled warmly, watching this picture-perfect scene of sisterly harmony. "Oh! Sister... do you still hate me?" I don't know how it happened, but the food Sophia tried to give me completely missed my bowl and fell onto the floor. I had been holding my bowl perfectly still! I didn't even process what Sophia was whining about. My eyes were entirely focused on the dropped food. I quickly picked the piece of eggplant off the floor and popped it into my mouth. Mom stared at me like I was a space alien. I panicked and frantically tried to explain, "If it falls on the floor and you pick it up within five seconds, you can still eat it! That's how I've always eaten..." Besides, the marble floors in this house were polished to a mirror shine. They weren't dirty at all. I caught a flash of shock in Sophia's eyes before she instantly masked it with her timid expression. "Sister, it's all my fault. I didn't hold it tight enough..." "It's fine, sister! I'll just serve myself." "Sister really does hate me..." Sophia whimpered, looking like she was about to burst into tears again. "Ah... no! Jeez, I just wanted to try every single dish on the table, and I didn't want to tire your arms out!" I blurted out, thoroughly embarrassed. I wanted to crawl under the table and hide. And then, I actually did. Ethan started laughing hysterically. He laughed so hard I was too embarrassed to come out. Eventually, Mom had to pull me out from under the table and personally put a piece of every single dish onto my plate. I had never eaten food this delicious! I was perfectly happy again. 6 "Sister, are you really okay with just leaving your old home? Don't you miss your adoptive parents? I can't even imagine what I'd do without Mommy and Daddy," Sophia asked me curiously. "Hmm... I guess I miss it a little. Gutting fish is really tiring, but I got one dollar for every fish! Over the past two years, I saved up a whole thousand dollars! Plus, even though my adoptive dad hit me, he always avoided my face so I wouldn't miss work at the fish market." "Oh, and the kids in the neighborhood always complained about how exhausting school was. My adoptive parents never made me go to school, so I got to skip all that!" I replied cheerfully. Sophia looked absolutely flabbergasted. I figured she must be super jealous of my cool lifestyle. "If you want to try it out, I can take you with me! I'm super experienced! I can show you the ropes, and together, we can dominate the fish market!" "Mommy... Sister is... she's threatening me again! Waaaah!" She burst into tears and threw her arms around Mom. "Huh? Sister, no I'm not! I just thought my adoptive parents would be really happy to see you. Just like my Mommy and Daddy were really happy to see me." "Sister, please don't cry. I'm really bad with words and I don't know how to comfort people. Here, I'll give you all my money!" I unfastened the little cloth pouch from my neck—the one I never took off, not even in the shower. Inside was the thousand dollars I had saved up over the last two years, neatly folded. With an aching heart, I held the money out to my sister. She didn't take it. The cash tumbled out and scattered all over the floor. "Does sister... still think I'm dirty?" Feeling completely dejected, I crouched down alone and started picking up the scattered bills. Dad crouched down and helped me pick them up. Once we gathered it all, he pocketed the cash and handed me a sleek bank card instead. "Daddy will keep this cash safe for you. Take this card. There is a lot of money on here. Mia, buy whatever you want." Dad. My actual, biological Dad. I took the card and rubbed it carefully. It looked different from the bank cards I had seen before. It was pitch black. But I finally had my own bank card! My friends at the fish market told me you had to take a massive pile of money to the bank before they'd give you a card. Sophia stared at Dad in disbelief. "Daddy... wasn't that supposed to be my birthday present?" "Huh? What's a birthday present?" I asked out of nowhere. In my memory, I vaguely recalled celebrating a birthday when I was really, really little. But I couldn't really remember it. I didn't have birthdays. My adoptive dad told me that every time the calendar year changed, I just got one year older. That was how I always calculated my age. The guilt in Dad's eyes was impossible to hide now. He looked at Sophia sternly. "Mia just got home. Let your sister have this. Daddy will get you another one later." Then, Dad told me my birthday was May 17th. I was so happy. I finally had a real birthday, just like everyone else.
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