The day my fiancé got engaged to the true heiress, I wanted to drive my car straight into the ceremony, to die with them.
But just as that insane thought consumed me, my phone started ringing relentlessly.
I answered. It was the hospital.
Ms. Sera, you’re pregnant…
The car engine died, and I froze in place.
Half an hour later, cheerful music drifted from the chapel.
I started my car, turned around, and headed to the airport.
From then on, the fake heiress of the Sterling family, as everyone wished, disappeared from New York.
I went a thousand miles away to a small, quiet town, clinging to life, and gave birth to my blood-related daughter.
I never contacted any of them again.
Until four years later, when one by one, they reappeared before me.
Four years later, I saw Liam again at the kindergarten entrance.
I was picking up Lily when a mom next to me suddenly leaned in:
“Lily’s mom, look at that guy across the street. He looks just like that singer… what’s his name again…?”
I followed her gaze and saw him.
“Liam!”
The mom snapped her fingers,
“Right, Liam!”
I pulled my gaze away.
“Don’t know him.”
She looked a bit surprised.
“You don’t listen to music? Liam! He’s the hottest singer-songwriter these past few years! Won so many awards!
“Oh, and honestly, his face, it’s a bit like yours, you’re both so good-looking…”
I smiled and shook my head, continuing to walk forward, holding Lily’s hand.
“Sera Sterling.”
Suddenly, his voice came from behind me.
I ignored him, just kept walking.
“Sera Sterling!”
Lily looked up.
“Mommy, is that uncle calling you? Why does he call you Sera Sterling?”
I shook my head, smiling.
“He’s mistaken.”
But as we reached the parking lot, just as I was about to open the car door, someone suddenly grabbed my arm.
I turned around, and it was a breathless Liam.
“Sera, you… you’re actually alive?!”
His words were as sharp and venomous as ever.
Perhaps he’d run too fast, his eyes were faintly red around the edges.
I dropped Lily off at the neighbor’s house.
Walking back downstairs, Liam stood with his hands in his pockets.
“Why are you living in this dump? Where’s your place? I’m coming up to see.”
I shook my head.
“There’s no need for that.”
Four years ago, he himself had said that his only sister was Celeste.
He’d also said that calling someone like me a sibling only disgusted him.
When I was expelled from the Sterling family, abandoned by Julian Blackwood, and had nowhere to go, I even thought of finding him, my biological brother.
One snowy night, I stood outside his company building all night, nearly frozen solid.
But in the end, all I got was him saying his biggest wish was that I had never been his sister.
“If you hadn’t been born, Celeste wouldn’t have been swapped, and wouldn’t have suffered so much.
“Sister? That’s laughable. The Sterlings don’t want you, and now you’re trying to cash in on our blood ties?
“I’d never acknowledge someone like you as my sister.”
Only then did I realize that no matter how kind I was to him, he hated me because of Celeste.
Now, he still eyed me with a scrutinizing gaze, frowning.
“That child of yours, is she Julian’s? Did you run away just to have his baby?”
I was silent for a moment.
“She’s my child alone.”
He scoffed, a corner of his mouth twisting.
“Sera, that kid is a spitting image of him. Do you take me for blind?
“You wouldn’t actually think that if you secretly had his child, you could win him back? Are you sick or something…
“How pathetic, what an idiot…”
“I said, she’s my child alone.”
I cut him off.
“I never thought of going back to New York, nor did I ever think of using my child to compete with your sister for Julian. You can rest assured, and you don’t need to be so nasty.
“Just like you said back then, apart from blood relation, we’re strangers. I’m not interested in your life now, and I ask you not to meddle in mine.”
He froze.
“If you have nothing else, please leave.” I turned.
“Wait.”
To my surprise, he suddenly grabbed me.
He opened his mouth, then closed it.
“You, you…”
I frowned.
“What?”
“Why… why did you leave back then…?”
I looked at him quietly.
“You were a pampered heiress who couldn’t do anything. Were a few harsh words really enough to make you play the ‘run away with a baby’ card?
“If I hadn’t run into you, how much longer would you have lived this kind of miserable life? And these four years…”
He paused.
“How… how did you survive?”
I watched his eyes, which were once again turning red at the corners.
It was probably out of anger.
He likely couldn’t believe I was alive, and my existence was a threat to Celeste’s happiness.
How did I survive?
Someone else gave their life so I could live.
But I had no need to tell him.
The old Sera Sterling couldn’t do anything, like a delicate hothouse flower.
The current Sera Blackwood had long since stopped crying for help or relying on others.
Seeing my silence, he grew anxious.
“No, why has your personality become so wishy-washy? Could it be that the massive earthquake in that remote town years ago rattled your brain?
“Running off to such a secluded place, it serves you right to face an earthquake.”
At that moment, a neighbor walked past and greeted me,
“Hey, Sera, not dinner time yet?”
I smiled.
“Almost.”
Liam froze.
“You should leave.”
I said.
But he gripped my arm tightly.
“Why did you change your name? Blackwood?! Did you get married? No, whose name is that?”
“Whose name it is, is none of your business.”
I brushed his hand away, enunciating each word.
“What my name is, how I’m living, Liam, has nothing to do with you.”
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