My bestie and I were notorious at the orphanage, our resident bad girls, a notorious duo.
I was a master of the venomous tongue, could reduce grown men to tears with my words.
Skylar had brute strength that bordered on superhuman, always ready to ‘reason’ with her fists.
No one in the entire orphanage dared to cross us.
Even the guard dog knew better than to cross us, slinking along the walls with its tail between its legs whenever we passed.
That year, when we were eight, we were busy messing with an ant hill by the wall when Director Evans walked over with a couple.
They said Skylar was the Sterling family’s long-lost real daughter and had come to take her home. But Skylar insisted on bringing me.
She sat on the floor, kicking her legs, and bawled, “If it wasn’t for Chloe all these years, I would’ve been bullied to death! If you don’t adopt her, I’m not going back either!”
I quickly dropped my stick, put on my sweetest smile, and stepped forward to introduce myself:
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, I’m the best-behaved, most obedient kid in our whole orphanage. Adopting me would be a total win-win!”
Director Evans’s face twitched. He looked like he’d just swallowed a whole lemon, or worse.
Bullied? Most obedient?
Did they even hear what they were saying?!
As if terrified of leaving our little devils behind, Director Evans closed his eyes, steeled his heart, and made a desperate, unheard-of decision that probably made his ancestors spin in their graves.
“That’s right! Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, Skylar and Chloe are the best-behaved children in our orphanage. They’re very close and don’t want to be separated, so why don’t you take them both?”
The wealthy couple seemed to waver.
“It wouldn’t be difficult to raise another child, but we already have an adopted daughter at home…”
My bestie and I immediately exchanged an alert glance.
A fake daughter?
Then there was no way I was letting Skylar go back alone.
What if that was a manipulative green-tea wannabe?
My sweet, innocent Skylar wouldn’t stand a chance against her!
“Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, Skylar gets depressed easily and might do something drastic if she’s alone in a new environment. If you take me too, I promise to stay with her and take good care of her!”
The Sterling couple flinched at my words, and Skylar immediately started to cry on cue.
“Exactly! If you don’t agree, I’ll hang myself at your front door tonight, boohoohoo…”
They immediately caved.
Mrs. Sterling looked at me and said,
“We can take you back, but there’s another sister,Brittany, at home…”
“I’ll get along well with her, Mom, don’t worry!”
Director Evans was so moved he had tears in his eyes, practically waving us off with cheers.
“That’s wonderful! Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, on gaining two lovely daughters!”
After they went to complete the paperwork, I was incredibly touched and grabbed my bestie’s hand:
“Skylar, you’re so loyal! You didn’t forget our pact to get rich together!”
She rolled her eyes. “I was afraid you’d get yourself beaten to death for offending people with that mouth of yours after I left.”
I cackled low. “Love you! That fake daughter didn’t come today; she probably doesn’t want you back. If she’s really a green tea, I’ll deal with her for you!”
All these years, we’d been unstoppable in the orphanage because our combined power was unmatched.
I’d provoke them until they were spitting mad with my sharp tongue, and she’d just knock them flat.
When it came to dealing with manipulators, she had zero experience.
My bestie squeezed my hand gratefully. “Chloe, our fortune for the rest of our lives depends on you!”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this!”
When the Sterling couple emerged after finishing the paperwork, they smiled, seeing our hands clasped together.
“You two sisters are so close. That puts our minds at ease.”
Once in the car, Mrs. Sterling gave us a rundown of the family situation.
That’s when we learned that, besides the fake daughter Brittany Sterling, Skylar also had a biological brother who was two years older.
Skylar went missing when she was three, and it was because of him.
The culprit himself hadn’t even come to pick her up, showing he clearly wasn’t thrilled about Skylar coming home.
Sure enough, as soon as we got out of the car, we saw a gloomy-looking teenager standing with his arms crossed by the villa’s main entrance.
When he saw Skylar and me holding hands and calling him “Brother,” Derek’s face looked like it might crack.
“You adopted another one?”
He only relaxed when he heard that I, as an adopted daughter, had no claim to the inheritance.
“I’m warning you two, don’t you dare bully my sister from now on, or you’ll regret it!”
I immediately hid behind Skylar and said timidly,
“Skylar, why is he so biased? If he had protected you like that back then, you wouldn’t have suffered so much in the orphanage all these years…”
My unspoken meaning was: You idiot, you have no remorse for your biological sister, whom you lost, and now you’re making threats to protect the fake daughter? What is wrong with you?*
Sure enough, the Sterling couple’s faces darkened.
Derek was furious and wanted to retort, but I quickly pinched Skylar’s waist.
She immediately caught on, covering her face and crying,
“Since Derek doesn’t like me, I’d better go back to the orphanage. Chloe, let’s go!”
Richard Sterling panicked and slapped Derek across the face.
“You scoundrel! Is this how you welcome your sister?! Get out of my sight!”
Derek clutched his face, glaring at us resentfully, but dared not speak again.
Skylar and I exchanged a look. Yes! First round goes to us!
However, the moment we stepped into the house, we saw the fake daughter, Brittany, crying dramatically, standing on a stool, about to hang herself.
Oh no, a pity play!
Before anyone could react, I stepped forward and roared,
“Hold it! No swinging from the chandelier indoors!”
Skylar executed a perfect sliding tackle, kicking Brittany and the stool out from under her.
Brittany hadn’t even managed to get the rope around her neck before she sprawled on the ground, limbs flailing.
“Ah!”
She cried out in pain, and the whole family rushed to help her up.
Seeing the knot she’d tied and the stool beneath her feet, the entire family surrounded her, tense with worry.
“Brittany, what are you doing?!”
Brittany looked at me, standing there, tears streaming down her face, looking like a tragic heroine:
“Skylar, it’s all my fault for usurping your identity for so many years, for making you suffer so much. I’ll make amends with my life now!”
“Please, don’t blame others. Will you promise to take good care of them in my place?”
Evelyn hugged her tightly, heartbroken. “Don’t be silly, child. In our hearts, you’re our own daughter, raised by us!”
Derek glared at us from the side. “Don’t be stupid, this has nothing to do with you. Let’s see who dares to blame you!”
Brittany cried rivers of tears, shrinking into Evelyn Sterling’s arms, her eyes challenging me.
Definitely a manipulative green-tea wannabe! Trying to sow discord? No way!*
I immediately activated my sharp tongue.
“So, this is the adopted sister, Brittany? My bad, my bad, I thought some ill-mannered person was swinging from the chandelier indoors!”
“Speaking of which,Brittany,were you actually trying to hang yourself? But who hangs themselves from a crystal chandelier? And with a loose knot that would just slip open? What if you didn’t succeed, and the chandelier fell down, hurting someone?”
Skylar picked herself up from the floor and chimed in, “Yeah, how dangerous! Luckily, I stepped in… I mean, kicked in.”
Everyone looked up at the ceiling and saw that it was indeed as I had said.
Richard’s face darkened.
“Nonsense! What if it had fallen on others?”
Seeing that both her pity play and her attempt to sow discord had failed, Brittany could only continue to cry at me:
“I’m sorry, Chloe, I only wanted to atone…”
“Brittany, you’ve got the wrong person. I’m your adopted sister. She’s the sister you should be apologizing to.”
I pushed Skylar forward. “Now, apologize again.”
Derek, puffed up with anger, stood in front of Brittany and said,
“Dad! Brittany only did this because she wanted to atone. It was clearly Skylar and Chloe who intentionally made her fall! They have no manners!”
My anger flared instantly.
Damn it, you can insult me, but I won’t stand for you insulting my bestie!
“Derek, I know you want to be Mr. Protector, but you can’t just open your mouth and spew garbage, can you?”
“Why does Skylar have no manners? Isn’t it because you lost her all those years ago? You, the culprit, dare to complain about her lack of manners?”
“Skylar’s rightful place as a Sterling heiress was usurped by this thief, so how could she have ‘manners’?”
“From your logic, is your brain directly connected to your mouth, or what? Honestly, your thoughts are so repulsive, even a dung beetle wouldn’t touch them!”
“If you can’t say anything smart, then just keep your mouth shut and stick to barking!”
After I unleashed a torrent of words, the whole room fell silent.
Only Skylar was holding my hand, tears in her eyes, full of gratitude.
“My girl, I love you!”
Derek’s face turned ashen after he processed my words, his voice changed.
“You dare to insult me?!”
“So what if I insult you? I’m going to insult her too!”
I put my hands on my hips and pointed at Brittany.
“What are you, some vintage wine trying to act all precious? You’re faker than a three-dollar bill! Even a trash can isn’t as full of BS as you are!”
“Didn’t you claim to be too sick to show your face? Your little hanging performance just now certainly didn’t look like it!”
“Isn’t your ‘discomfort’ just because Skylar’s back, and you can no longer comfortably be the only little princess?”
Brittany, her secret exposed, wanted to argue, but I mercilessly cut her off.
“Faking illness, faking suicide, trying to sow discord? Did my bestie ever ask you to atone? We’re all princesses here, why are you the only one with something wrong in your head?”
Brittany’s face turned pale from my scolding, and she could only stammer, “You, you, you!”
I scoffed, cutting her off, “You what? If you stutter, go to a doctor. If your brain’s acting up, maybe try reading a book or two!”
Seeing she couldn’t out-argue me, Brittany started to act the part of the fragile, manipulative green-tea girl again.
“Skylar, I’m sorry, I’m just so stupid. I was afraid you’d hate me, that’s why I did that.”
“Chloe, you can scold me all you want, just don’t take it out on Brother and Mom and Dad.”
Here we go again, this manipulative phony never had any new tricks.
I couldn’t be bothered to deal with her anymore. I turned to the gobsmacked Sterling couple and asked:
“I heard we’ll be in the same class as Brittany from now on?”
They nodded quickly.
“That’s great, then we can help Brittany more. Oh, by the way, where are our rooms?”
Evelyn Sterling quickly led us upstairs to see the rooms.
Brittany followed behind, red-eyed, pretending to be generous as she pushed open her bedroom door.
“If you don’t mind, you can stay in my room. It originally belonged to you anyway…”
Derek rushed over, blocking our way, acting up again.
“Brittany, this is the princess room Mom decorated for you! Those ill-mannered bumpkins aren’t fit to live here!”
Seeing that I was about to unleash another round of insults, Evelyn quickly shot him a glare and gently told Skylar:
“Skylar, you can pick any room in the house. Consider it our way of making it up to you.”
Skylar gave Brittany’s overwhelmingly pink room a look of distaste, then turned and pointed innocently at another room, larger and with better lighting.
“Then we’ll take this one! It’s big enough for Chloe and me!”
Derek was nearly insane with rage, his voice rising,
“Are you serious?! That’s Mom and Dad’s room!”
I smiled sweetly at Evelyn Sterling. “Mom, you just said we could pick any room. You’re not going to go back on your word, are you?”
Evelyn’s mouth twitched, but she still nodded.
“Great! We’re exhausted from a full day of traveling. Mom, Dad, you two should get some rest too!”
With that, I pulled Skylar and slammed the door shut, leaving the petrified family members standing there.
For the next week, Skylar and I went on a crazy shopping spree.
After eight years of hardship, we finally got to experience the joy of buying whatever we wanted without looking at the price tag!
We hauled back several carloads of exaggerated shopping bags, dressed like a pair of opulent socialites.
Whenever Brittany would make snide remarks, dripping with envy, about us wasting money, I’d shut her down with my sharp tongue.
Unable to win with words, she resorted to dirty tricks.
On the first day, she deliberately played weak, throwing a vase from upstairs to try and hit us, but Skylar casually caught it with one hand.
On the second day, she intentionally knocked over a soup bowl at the dinner table, trying to scald Skylar, but my bestie flicked it back with a backhand, and Brittany would yelp like a scalded cat.
On the third day, she secretly tucked her diamond necklace under our pillow, then brought the whole family to “catch us red-handed,” only for me to pull out surveillance footage of her sneaking into our room.
Left with no choice, she had to grudgingly give it up, crying and saying she just wanted to give us a “surprise.”
Unable to outwit us with words or dirty tricks, Brittany became much more subdued.
But we knew she was plotting something.
Sure enough, a month later, at the class assembly at our prestigious private school, she stood there with red eyes and introduced Skylar and me to everyone:
“These are the sisters my parents recently brought home from the orphanage. Please take good care of them!”
With that single sentence, she made it clear that we were the adopted ones, making it seem like we were the ones who had usurped a place.
The students looked at her with sympathy. “Oh, is the Sterling family really that whimsical? Just adopting two more out of nowhere.”
“Poor Brittany, how much love will she have to share now…”
I smiled and urged Skylar to pull out the paternity test results, then said sarcastically,
“Brittany, your words are so interesting. You’ve been here for eight years, stealing someone else’s spot, and you’re still playing the victim?
“You’re an adopted daughter just like me, so why the act?”
“Hello everyone, I’m Chloe, the best friend of Skylar Sterling, the real heiress! I’m also an adopted daughter of the Sterling family! They adopted me not because they had too much money, but because they were afraid my bestie would be bullied by certain people, so they hoped I would protect her, just like today.”
The class instantly fell silent. Everyone looked at Brittany with contempt.
“What? So she was just the pot calling the kettle black all along?”
Girls who usually didn’t get along with her started to jeer, “Exactly! She acts like she’s the real heiress all the time, but she’s just someone with no class trying to pass herself off as royalty.”
The laughter was like a slap in Brittany’s face. She was so angry and humiliated, she almost burst into tears on the spot.
From then on, she completely became the school’s resident manipulative fake daughter.
To prove herself, she started frantically learning piano and dance, hoping to outshine us with her elegance.
Meanwhile, I started taking lessons in stand-up comedy and public speaking.
Skylar, on the other hand, signed up for martial arts and Tai Chi, taking her strengths to the extreme.
Over the next few years, Brittany’s attempts to outshine us always fell flat.
Every time there was a school performance, my stand-up comedy and Skylar’s performance of breaking cinder blocks on her chest always overshadowed Brittany’s carefully choreographed acts.
On campus, I gained a huge following with my sharp wit and humor, and Skylar also helped many people with her brute strength.
With us around, the school’s atmosphere improved significantly. Bullying and fights almost disappeared.
The two former little devils finally grew into well-adjusted and universally admired young women by the time we were sixteen.
The Sterling couple grew to love us more and more, planning to hold a press conference to formally announce our presence.
“Skylar should be given some shares in the company for her eighteenth birthday. After all, she is our biological daughter. Our group has been heavily impacted by Everhart Industries these past two years, and we desperately need a strategic marriage alliance to stabilize the situation. Fortunately, Julian Everhart isn’t against meeting. We’ll see what kind of connection the girls have then…”
Brittany, who had overheard their conversation, clenched her fists.
A malicious smile flickered across her face; she seemed to have hardened her resolve.
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