Chapter 1

At the engagement banquet, my boyfriend suddenly stood before the crowd and announced:

"I'm terribly sorry, everyone, but tonight's engagement is off!"

"I've fallen hopelessly in love with another woman, and I hope you can all understand."

In an instant, every pair of eyes in the room landed on us.

I was still holding the diamond ring, my mind completely blank.

He looked at me, guilt written across his face.

"Ophelia, I'm sorry. I've wronged you."

"From the very first moment I laid eyes on your sister, I knew she was the one I'd spend the rest of my life with."

I stared at him in disbelief.

He spoke again, his voice almost pleading:

"Ophelia, just let me be with your sister!"

My lips moved at last, but no words came out.

After all, my sister was only two years old.

What the hell was he talking about?

…

"Ophelia, I know you're hopelessly in love with me."

"But I don't love you anymore. My heart belongs to your sister—she's the only one I want to be with."

"Besides, you're nothing but a fake heiress. You were never good enough for me."

Dennis looked down at me from his self-appointed pedestal, his mouth shaping an apology while his eyes brimmed with contempt.

The guests around us had already begun to murmur.

"A public broken engagement—oh my God, this is going to be good."

"Falling out of love is one thing, but falling for Ophelia's own sister? This is better than a soap opera."

"Honestly, I get it. Didn't you hear? Ophelia's just a fake heiress!"

"Exactly! He's a graduate of a prestigious university. Why should he marry a fraud? He deserves better!"

Those words seemed to bolster Dennis. He straightened his back, his voice now carrying a coaxing lilt:

"Ophelia, don't be too upset."

"It can't be helped. You're just a fake heiress, and I have a brilliant future ahead of me. You simply aren't in my league."

"Look around—this is supposed to be our engagement banquet, and not a single person from your family bothered to show up. That should tell you how little they care about you."

I listened to his increasingly absurd declarations, unable to process any of it for the longest time.

Dennis and I had been together since college.

After graduation, I'd decided to get engaged to him.

But my parents had always looked down on him and never wanted me to marry him.

That was why they hadn't come tonight.

It had never occurred to me that Dennis would twist their absence into ammunition against me.

A fake heiress?

I was my parents' biological daughter. How could I possibly be a fake heiress?

And my sister was only two years old!

How could he possibly be with her—

"When did you even meet my sister?"

"How could you possibly be with my sister? She's only—"

"How is it not possible!"

Dennis cut me off with a cold snort, his posture growing even more arrogant.

"From the first moment I laid eyes on your sister, I fell in love with her."

"She's graceful, generous, and the true heir of the Roth family. Only a woman like that is worthy of me!"

"I'll be straight with you—we've been together for three years!"

My jaw nearly hit the floor.

Three years?

Three years ago, my sister was still in my mother's womb!

I drew a deep breath and swept my gaze over Dennis from head to toe, studying him carefully.

It seemed Dennis really had been cheating.

But his mistress could not possibly be my two-year-old sister.

My nails dug deep into my palms. There was pain—the raw sting of betrayal—but even more than that, there was the absurdity of it all.

I looked at the man before me as though I were looking at a clown.

"Dennis, you've been conned."

"Stop pretending!"

Dennis shot back instinctively, eyes blazing with fury.

Then, without warning, he pulled a photograph from his pocket and flung it in my face.

"You don't believe me?!"

"Then take a good look—tell me this isn't your sister!"