On the day of our family gathering, the naive, innocent-looking female protagonist arrived at the Sterling estate, clutching a DNA paternity test. She declared she was the true heiress and demanded I be thrown out. But what she didn't know was that a powerful, old-money family never casually abandons the heir they've spent years grooming for an outsider who just showed up out of nowhere. 1. When Serena showed up at the door with the DNA report, the Sterlings were having their monthly family gathering. Tearfully, she accused me of being a cuckoo in the nest, claiming she was the real daughter of the Sterling family and I was just an imposter who had stolen her place. Everyone was silent. The atmosphere was nothing like the warm, tearful reunion she had clearly imagined. "This is the proof. I really am the Sterling family's daughter," Serena said, a hint of panic creeping into her voice. She placed the DNA report on the coffee table, but no one reached for it. Grandpa, the highly respected patriarch of the family, didn't say a word. Naturally, none of the other Sterlings spoke up either. Finally, just as she was about to crack under the oppressive silence, Grandpa deigned to glance at the document on the table and nodded slightly. Only then did the others begin to speak. "Serena, is it? It's good you're back." Serena's feigned expression of being moved froze on her face. This development was completely different from what she had anticipated. No one asked about the hardships she had suffered while living outside the family. There was no comfort, not even any extra pleasantries. And certainly no mention of disposing of me, the imposter heiress. 2. "Grandpa, she's the one who stole my identity and caused me to live out there, suffering all those hardships!" Serena stood up abruptly, pointing at me with a hateful glare. That was the confidence being a biological Sterling gave her. Grandpa didn't respond; he didn't even bother to lift his eyes. The rest of the Sterling family certainly wasn't going to chime in and agree. Serena hadn't seemed to realize how isolated she was. Even her biological parents just looked at her with detached indifference, showing neither joy nor sorrow. "Take Miss Serena away," my older brother suddenly spoke up beside me. He clearly had no interest in watching this boring farce play out. Soon, someone stepped forward to escort her out. "Why! She's the one who should be leaving this place!" Hearing no response, Serena was incredulous. It was only then she realized that not a single person was speaking up for her. Her gaze swept around the room. Everyone was calm and composed, exuding an aristocratic grace completely different from hers, even me—the fake heiress. She wanted to say more, but a light, chilling glance from me silenced her. A girl raised in wealth and privilege is fundamentally different from her. Moreover, for this scene today, she had deliberately made herself look particularly disheveled. Her intention was to make her blood relatives pity her, but standing here now, she just looked incredibly out of place. I watched the rapidly changing expressions on her face, guessing her inner thoughts. Suddenly, I felt a nudge on my arm. It was Lucas, the one who had just ordered Serena to be taken away. 3. I turned to look at him. "She's an idiot. Don't let it bother you." His expression was cold, as if he weren't talking about his own biological sister. "Of course not." I had enough confidence to say those words. The Sterling family wouldn't abandon me—the heir they had spent years grooming—for a biological daughter who appeared halfway through. "Maya, come with me." Grandpa stood up from the sofa, pushing away the person trying to help him, and turned to look at me. "Yes, Grandpa," I nodded, stepping forward to assist him. That night, the lights in the study stayed on for a long time. Everyone knew that the family's hierarchy wouldn't be undergoing any major changes. Serena's appearance didn't cause much of a ripple. Although the Sterlings acknowledged her identity, it had no impact on me whatsoever. I remained the most highly regarded heir of the Sterling family, the golden child. However, she did have some tricks up her sleeve. The Sterlings are generally very emotionally detached, valuing profit and usefulness above all else. Emotions are just a leisure activity to them. Yet, since her return, she frequently managed to bring a smile to Mrs. Sterling's face. Acting sweet and spoiled in front of family members—she was certainly much better at making people like her than I was. It seemed that after the initial conflict on her first day back, she behaved very properly. Because of her docility, the Sterling family treated her much more kindly. Until one early morning, a commotion in the stairwell woke everyone up. The girl in the white dress lay on the broken pieces of a vase at the bottom of the stairs, looking in pain, blood seeping from beneath her. I stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at her expressionlessly... 4. "Mom, it hurts so much." She didn't immediately try to frame me. Instead, she looked at the people rushing out at the noise, teary-eyed and pitiful. Only then did everyone snap back to reality and hurriedly call for a doctor. "A setup?" Lucas stood beside me, yawning, and asked with a raised eyebrow. The scene just now would seem suspicious to anyone. I pressed my lips together, watching Serena lying there covered in injuries, and shook my head. At least she hadn't directly framed me or condemned me. She just "accidentally" fell down the stairs as I walked past. There are security cameras here; she wouldn't be stupid enough to say I pushed her. "What's going on? How is it this serious?" Mrs. Sterling, Eleanor, rushed to her side, frowning. She didn't know where to start—there were broken vase pieces everywhere, some embedded in Serena's skin, and blood was staining the carpet. Serena's face was growing paler by the second. Eleanor didn't know where she was hurt or how serious it was, so she didn't dare move her before the doctor arrived. But Serena didn't care. Now was the best time to elicit sympathy. She struggled to lift her hand to grasp Eleanor's hem. Eleanor frowned slightly, almost imperceptibly. "Mom..." "Don't speak. The doctor will be here in a minute," Eleanor stopped her, forcing Serena to swallow her unspoken words. "Should we go take a look?" Lucas, who had been watching, suggested. I nodded. "Don't come over!" "Don't come over." Two simultaneous voices rang out. One from Serena, the other from Eleanor. Serena's tone was agitated, clearly showing her extreme wariness of me. My footsteps halted. Lucas, however, walked over fearlessly. "Tsk, I'm over here now. What's the problem?" He bent down slightly, his mocking gaze meeting Serena's eyes. Finally, just as Serena was about to break, the ambulance arrived. 5. "Be careful of the glass shards. Wait for the housekeeper to clean it up before you come down." Before Eleanor left, she suddenly turned and added this. It felt like an explanation for why she had stopped me earlier. I was a little stunned, unsure of how to react. Despite being mother and daughter for so many years, there hadn't really been much warmth between us. I was raised by Grandpa, personally trained as his heir. The Sterlings were always emotionally distant; we only gathered for routine family dinners or major decisions. I rarely spent time with them, and there was no deep emotional bond. Our interactions were mostly just polite formalities. "What's wrong? Are you dumbfounded?" Lucas bumped my shoulder, leaning over. "You're very loud," I said, looking up at him, my tone extremely serious. The smile froze on Lucas's face, and he coughed awkwardly. He composed himself, then suddenly patted my shoulder, acting very mature: "Maya, this family is going to have to rely on you from now on." I shot him a slightly disgusted look but didn't contradict him. 6. After Serena got hurt, Eleanor stayed at the hospital to take care of her. It was only then that the rest of the Sterling family began to feel the reality of the situation. The Sterling family had an extra biological daughter, and she clearly wasn't here with good intentions. The accidental injury, although inconclusive, raised a question: regardless of whether I hurt Serena out of jealousy, or she framed me out of resentment, it was clear we couldn't get along. How would the Sterling family balance the relationship between the adopted daughter and the biological daughter? Although my position seemed unchanged for now, when it came to bloodlines versus capability, who could truly guess the intentions of those in power? For a time, there was a lot of hidden tension. Some were waiting for an opportunity, anticipating a major conflict. 7. "What are you doing here?" Serena sat up in her hospital bed, scoffing dismissively as she saw me walk in alone. I pulled up a chair and sat down, completely unfazed by her cold reception. "You must be feeling pretty proud of yourself, stealing everything that was mine, and still having the nerve to show your face here," she said, her eyes filled with malice. "I didn't steal anything from anyone. At least what I have now, I've earned," I said, meeting her gaze. She was incredibly dismissive. "Earned? The identity of a Sterling daughter? The position of the heir? Maya, have you no shame?! Those things belong to me! You have no Sterling blood in you, how can you claim you earned them?!" She grabbed an apple from the bedside table and threw it at me. I dodged it, stood up, and looked at her for a long time. "You will always owe me! I will never let you have it easy, Maya!" Her face was contorted with intense bitterness. 8. The atmosphere was tense. Suddenly, there was a noise at the door; someone had arrived. Serena's demeanor changed instantly. Her aggrieved, cautious voice filled the room: "Sister, I just wanted an apple. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to help me." Eleanor pushed the door open just then. She glanced at Serena, who was biting her lip with tears in her eyes, then at the apple on the floor, and finally turned her gaze to me. "Your grandfather is looking for you. You should go back," Eleanor said calmly, acting as if she hadn't heard Serena. "Okay," I nodded, turning to leave. Serena tightened her grip on the blanket, struggling to maintain her composure. "What else would you like to eat?" Before I left, I heard Eleanor's soft, gentle inquiry. 9. In the Sterling estate's garden, Serena was happily swinging on the swing set. Ever since she was discharged from the hospital, she had undergone a massive shift, at least in front of others, hiding her hostility toward me. I watched her through the window, an aura of freedom about her, and felt a pang of inexplicable envy. "Maya, it's your turn." With the click of a piece on the board, Grandpa's deep voice sounded from across the table. I looked at the chessboard before me; my hand holding the white piece hovered, unable to make a move. There was nowhere to place it. It was a dead end. "Grandpa, I've lost," I said, my voice hoarse. Under his gaze, all my emotions were laid bare. "Maya, you are different from the others. You should have known that from the day I took you in." My mind wasn't in the game, and he lost interest in starting another round. "..." I remained silent, offering no response. "The heir I choose will only ever be you. You carry the honor of the entire Sterling family." He delivered this statement casually, settling the uncertain future. "But I don't have Sterling blood, as you well know." I looked up, confusion and bewilderment in my expression. Although I always answered confidently when facing others' doubts, that deep-seated insecurity had always been suppressed at the very bottom of my heart. "I used to think bloodlines were the most important thing too. But Maya, I found out I was wrong." He was looking right at me, yet his gaze felt distant, as if he were recalling something through me. The conversation ended there. Grandpa had long since left, but I sat there for a long time. At the time, I didn't understand why he said that. 10. Actually, I had known for a long time that I wasn't a Sterling. Or rather, Grandpa knew before I did. He told me himself when I was still too young to understand. He even took me to meet my biological parents and the little girl who was swapped with me—Serena. Unlike a typical baby swap scenario, my biological parents were also from a wealthy, established family, and they doted on Serena. To me, the biological daughter who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, they seemed a bit awkward. Aside from the biological connection, we were practically strangers. Love is built through time spent together. They favored the girl they had watched grow up, the one they saw every day. I didn't know what kind of deal Grandpa made with them. My identity and Serena's weren't swapped back. But this secret was only known to Grandpa and me. No one else in the Sterling family knew. Back then, Grandpa frequently took me to visit the other family in secret. When I was young, Serena and I knew each other. Whenever I was with her, Grandpa would always watch us with a complex, hard-to-read expression. Until one time, I overheard him murmuring "Unfit for great things" while looking at Serena in the distance. I think I knew why Grandpa chose me. It was because I was smarter and more valuable, capable of becoming the qualified assistant he was grooming. I stayed smart because my biological parents didn't choose me, and I couldn't afford to lose Grandpa too. Later, Grandpa fell seriously ill. We didn't go to that other family's house for a long time. The next time I heard about them was from the rest of the Sterling family. 11. "The other company collapsed. Fate is truly unpredictable." At a family gathering, they were discussing the fate of that other family. The parents had died in a sudden accident, and the opportunistic predators swarmed in. The empire crumbled overnight. I stood up abruptly from my seat, startling them. However, meeting Grandpa's authoritative gaze, I swallowed the words I was about to say. I went to their funeral. They were my biological parents, yet I attended as a guest to pay my respects. "Grandpa, I don't have a mom and dad anymore," I said, staring blankly at the black-and-white photos, using a title I hadn't been permitted to use. "You still have Grandpa." He patted my head, his expression more affectionate than usual. I looked at him numbly, feeling an emptiness inside. Serena disappeared after the funeral. Grandpa changed his mind and didn't bring her back to the Sterling family. He never brought up this biological granddaughter who was wandering the world again. Until many years later, a strange girl showed up at our door with a DNA report. This time, she seemed to have a completely different personality. 12. "Sister, look at the swing I just built!" I had just walked downstairs when Serena ran over, her face brimming with joy. Before she could take my arm, Lucas suddenly appeared. He blocked her path and sneered, "Do you have a split personality?" The sarcasm was ruthless. "No, I don't. I just want to play with my sister." Serena paled slightly. She was a little afraid of Lucas. "Our family doesn't buy that act, understand? "If you have a problem with Maya, be upfront about it. Put it out in the open, and I can respect that. Stop playing these little games in the dark, pretending to be loving sisters. You're not that close." Lucas didn't necessarily hate Serena; it was just his personality. He had always despised people who were devious and manipulative. The Sterling family had already acknowledged Serena's bloodline. If she had maintained her firm stance from when she first returned and openly opposed me, he wouldn't have taken sides later on. But she was always so fickle—one minute full of suspicion and deep resentment, the next, incredibly docile and sisterly. "I didn't..." Her eyes suddenly turned red, and tears fell like pearls off a broken string. "You!" Seeing her cry on command, Lucas was about to say more but I tugged his arm to stop him. "What's going on with you two?" It was Eleanor's voice. 13. It turned out a maid had noticed the tension. Fearing she wouldn't be able to explain if the young master and misses got into a fight, she had called Eleanor over. "N-nothing," Serena said, wiping the tears from her cheeks. Her eyes were slightly red, and she offered a faint smile. She looked so carefully fragile it made your heart ache. "Lucas, behave yourself," Eleanor said, rubbing her temples. They were all her children, whether biological or adopted. She didn't demand they get along perfectly. But she also didn't want to see a minor spat every three days and a major blowout every five. "I am behaving. Mom, don't be biased. If she doesn't get in my face, I won't go looking for trouble with her," Lucas said dismissively. "Alright, that's enough. If you don't get along, try to avoid each other. Serena, pack your things this afternoon; we're leaving." Eleanor came up with the best solution. They didn't always live at the main estate; it was only because of the recent succession of events that they had stayed longer than usual. "Mom, do you not want me anymore? I'll be good. I'm sorry, Sister. I won't bother you anymore." Serena misinterpreted her meaning, thinking this was an eviction. A flash of irritation crossed her eyes, but her face looked incredibly pitiful, terrified of being abandoned by her family. 14. "That's not what I meant. We don't usually live at the main estate. If you want to stay here, Maya can come back with us." Eleanor frowned, observing her reaction. In the end, Serena left with Eleanor. Grandpa clearly didn't value this granddaughter, and her staying wouldn't change much. On the other hand, the rest of the Sterling family's stance wasn't as firm. Shortly after Serena went back with Eleanor, the news that the Sterling heir was an imposter, a cuckoo in the nest, began to circulate among the elite circles. Those who believed it hid in the shadows, waiting to see me fail, while those who didn't treated it as a joke. At Grandpa's birthday banquet, guests gathered in droves. The usually haughty heiresses gathered together to gossip about the true and fake heiress drama. "What? Is it true? Maya is just a stray bird?" "She's always so arrogant. Turns out she's a fake. That's hilarious." "You couldn't tell before. She hid it well. Her methods must be ruthless. My parents were always praising her, and now her true colors are about to be exposed." "I heard the real heiress suffered a lot wandering out there, but the Sterlings are refusing to acknowledge her to protect Maya." "No way! Who would choose an outsider over their own blood to hand the family business to? Is old man Sterling losing his mind?" "You have to admit, Maya is capable. Even if you're not biologically related, your parents would probably be willing to leave the business to you." ... That last sentence cut through the malicious speculations. A capable adopted daughter is far more reliable than a useless trust-fund baby. Moreover, this adopted daughter had been raised by his side since childhood. Aside from blood, there was no difference between her and a biological child. 15. The crowd's expressions stiffened upon hearing this. Indeed, even for an only child, if they had no capability, parents wouldn't hand over their hard-earned empire for them to ruin. "Julian, you're engaged to the Sterling family's biological daughter. It doesn't look good for you to be defending Maya like this," someone sneered at him, clearly displeased. "Mind your own business." Julian gently swirled the red wine in his glass, his demeanor lazy, barely sparing them a glance. I leaned against the railing, watching the scene unfold. Whether it was slander, mockery, or defense, none of it stirred any emotion in me. "So here you are," a familiar voice chimed in. Serena was dressed like a princess today, beautiful and innocent. Her dress had been custom-made by Eleanor herself. So, standing before me, she once again possessed the superiority of being the favored one. "That's the heir of the Vance family, right? Do you like him? But I heard... he's supposed to be my fiancé." She glanced in Julian's direction. She spoke with feigned distress. "Serena, you don't need to come here and provoke me. What's yours is yours; I can't take it. What's mine is mine, and the same applies to you." I was long accustomed to her sudden shifts in demeanor. "Tsk, I hope you still have this much confidence when everyone abandons you." She scoffed and turned away. When I looked back, I caught Julian's eye from afar. He gave a slight smirk and raised his glass to me. I calmly looked away.
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