The day my brother, Dominic, arrived at the orphanage to claim me, my boyfriend, Ethan, coldly spat a warning: "If you acknowledge them, we're over!" I knew his pride ran deep, his inability to accept class disparities profound. For him, I bravely abandoned the family reunion just within reach. For decades thereafter, I toiled relentlessly, saving every penny to propel him to success. Before I reached fifty, I lay dying in a hospital bed, ravaged by years of overwork. On the television, Ethan, freshly crowned with the highest research award, tearfully thanked another woman: "For years, I felt unworthy, as if I could never measure up to Ms. Felicity Sterling. Today, with this award, I can finally begin to articulate a love decades overdue."

The Ms. Felicity Sterling he spoke of was the fake heiress, swapped with me at birth. The camera zoomed out, showing a perfectly preserved Felicity Sterling blushingly accepting the trophy. "Though I've waited decades for you, matters of marriage still need my brother's blessing, of course~" Dominic, now the head of the Sterling family, watched her, his eyes brimming with a doting affection mixed with a hidden current of emotion. "Handing me over to our uncle's family was always to protect Felicity. My life's mission is to ensure the Sterling family's sole princess remains happy."

It was then, on my deathbed, that a horrifying truth slammed into me: my seemingly selfless choice, the one I thought I’d never regret, had been a calculated trap, orchestrated by two men to protect Felicity. Consumed by rage and despair, I died, my eyes wide open. When I next awoke, I was back. Back to the day Dominic came to claim me. I swept past the two men frowning at me, their gazes a mixture of disdain and impatience, and resolutely slid into the car. "Take me home." In this life, I swore, I would force every single person who stood in the wrong place to crawl back to the rotten mire where they belonged!

…

1

"Elara, I'm telling you! If you let your vanity get the best of you and go back to being a rich girl, we're done!"

"Save me from everyone saying I'm after your money, Miss Heiress! I, Ethan, may be poor, but I have my dignity!"

Just like in my previous life, Ethan, whose arm I had desperately clung to for advice, violently shook me off. The dull thud as my elbow hit the wall sent a jolt of pain, making me realize—I was reborn! Reborn on the day Dominic came to claim me!

Dominic, with his aristocratic bearing, frowned at his watch, his face a mask of indifference and impatience. "If you're not accepting, don't waste my time. It's been so many years, anyway. My parents aren't really that bothered…" He was clearly rushing through this formality, eager to return to Felicity.

In my past life, he had deliberately used that haughty, dismissive tone, leaving me, a twenty-two-year-old orphan, feeling not an ounce of familial warmth, only apprehension. Coupled with Ethan’s threat to break up, I had rejected my birth family without even meeting my true parents.

Now, listening to Ethan's impatient complaints beside me: "Elara, can you make up your own mind for once?! Don't ask me about everything!" I spoke, my voice firm and clear: "I accept!"

Two words, short and powerful, left both men stunned. Dominic frowned, as if he couldn't believe his ears. "You… what did you say?" This twenty-two-year-old body now housed a fifty-year-old soul, hardened by life's trials. In my eyes, they were merely callow youths. I met Dominic’s gaze. "Didn't the family send you to pick me up? Let's go. Don't keep my parents waiting."

It was only on my deathbed in my previous life that I learned Dominic wasn't my biological brother. He was merely an adopted son, brought in by my parents from a distant relative's family to accompany and protect their "only daughter," Felicity. Yet, he, an adopted son, had put on such airs in front of me, their true daughter.

As I moved to get into the car, Dominic, still far from the cunning old fox he would become, instinctively glanced at Ethan, his eyes filled with silent reproach for Ethan’s "failure"—they had indeed known each other all along. These two seemingly unrelated men had conspired to ruin my entire life for the sake of a fake heiress!

The next second, Ethan violently grabbed my arm. "Elara, are you crazy?! Stepping your muddy shoes into a million-dollar luxury car? If you scratch it, can you afford to pay?! Don't let your emotions get the best of you and cause trouble. I won't be cleaning up your mess!"

I was adopted by my Nana from Maplewood and named Elara. My family and Ethan's were both struggling in our small town, but he always acted superior—just because my affection had granted him that privilege. I loved Ethan, following him like a shadow since childhood. He excelled academically, came from poverty but refused to be humbled, and never once called me "the stray." After Nana passed, he became my sole anchor in the world. Despite both of us getting into high school, I dropped out to work and fund his tuition. When he said city kids found famous tutors, I risked my life climbing thirty miles of treacherous mountain roads to gather rare medicinal herbs from cliff edges, borrowing money to pay for his classes.

It wasn't until I lay in that hospital bed in my previous life, watching Ethan, then nearing sixty, blush as he reminisced about meeting Felicity at a tutoring class: "I was insecure and poor then, but she never looked down on me. I’d never seen such a wonderful girl. In that moment, I decided I would spend my entire life trying to catch up to her."

The back I broke, desperately struggling on the cliff's edge, had become their stepping stone, a bridge to their affair. He could trample my love, but he had no right to use it to destroy my life! Seeing Ethan's young face again, all that remained in my heart was disgust.

"The car is here specifically for me. If I don't get in, who else will snatch my place?"

2

Ethan hadn't anticipated my sharp retort. His eyes widened, his throat bobbed. His face flushed as he strained to conjure a few sarcastic remarks.

"Elara, are you really that greedy for money?! They abandoned you for all these years and didn't care!"

"Now, they just casually remember to ask, and you're already fawning over them!"

"So spineless! So shameless?!"

In my past life, he habitually used such accusations, such crushing words. If Ethan had questioned me like that before, I would have been consumed by shame, convinced I had indeed done something wrong. But I had already endured a lifetime of hardship. On dreary, rainy days, every aching, twisted joint screamed at me, Why did you give up a golden opportunity within reach, just to suffer pointlessly for a man who didn't deserve it?

I coldly shook off his hand. "Ethan, whether I’m fawning or not, the Sterling family is my home."

"And my family matters are none of your business, outsider."

With that, I didn't spare him another glance and got straight into the car. From Dominic's disapproving gaze, Ethan, unwilling to accept defeat, shouted from outside the car:

"Elara! I'm giving you one last chance! Get out right now!"

"Otherwise, we're over!"

"And look at yourself! No class! No education! How can you be a Sterling heiress?!"

"When you get kicked out, don't come crawling back to me for another chance!"

I simply closed the window, blocking out his curses, and calmly instructed the driver without any hint of subservience. "Please take me home. To my parents."

Despite knowing the Sterlings were wealthy, seeing the sprawling villa and luxury cars before me still left me stunned. Dominic sneered, dismissing my "uncouth" reaction.

"This villa was a gift from the family to Felicity when she turned eighteen."

Felicity's eighteenth birthday gift was an entire villa, while on my eighteenth birthday, my hands were raw from washing dishes in murky restaurant sinks, earning money to support Dominic through his crucial final year of high school.

"Felicity always said she was a little princess, so the entire design mimics a European castle."

Dominic's lips curved into a smile as he recalled the memory, but the moment he caught sight of me, his face returned to cold indifference. "Ms. Vance, since you've chosen to come back, as the future heir of Sterling Enterprises, I still have a few words for you."

Felicity had shown no aptitude for academics or business since childhood. Dominic, however, had entered the company early. Though no one had ever officially promised him the position, he clearly already considered himself the "Crown Prince."

"While you do share a bloodline with our family, perhaps, as your boyfriend said, Mom and Dad only remembered you on a whim."

"But Felicity is different. She grew up in this house since she was a baby. She has always been our family's little princess. Felicity was also swapped at birth. She wouldn't know anything about it. She is innocent. She owes you nothing!"

Each arrogant word pierced my ears. I looked up at him. "Thank you."

Dominic’s eyebrow twitched, clearly confused. But I was already striding forward. Thank you for telling me all this. Now I know everything that should have been mine! In my past life, after rejecting my birth family, I had actually wanted to secretly visit the Sterlings, not for wealth or glory, but just to know where I came from. But Dominic had stopped me at the gate.

"Ms. Vance, you decided to reject your family for a man. Your parents are utterly disappointed in you."

"Coming back to bother us now is simply pathetic and undignified!"

"You've missed your chance. Please leave immediately!"

"After all, our entire family doesn't wish for Felicity to be disturbed. She's about to have her birthday, and she doesn't know you exist. Ms. Vance, I ask you to be a kind person and not hurt my sister."

That day, Dominic’s bodyguards had shoved me aside like a stray dog. Through the crack in the gate, I saw Felicity, delicate as a flower, surrounded by my parents in the garden. At the time, I didn't know Dominic was adopted, and I believed he spoke for the entire Sterling family. But during my near-death experience, I learned that in my previous life, my parents had indeed wanted to meet me, but Dominic had ruthlessly blocked them. He painted me as an unhinged, irresponsible girl, claiming:

"She said she wouldn't contact the Sterling family unless they all died off, so she could inherit everything."

"Otherwise, she wouldn't even deign to look at any of us Sterlings."

Humans are, after all, creatures of emotion. My parents, who had no pre-existing affection for me, listened to his words, then looked at the innocent and charming Felicity. In the end, they were left with nothing but a sigh.

In my past life, I only knew how to accept my fate. I didn’t understand that if you weren’t born with a silver spoon, you had to fight for what you wanted—be it money or love. So, when I knelt before my parents, crying uncontrollably, confessing my "longing," they embraced me, tears in their eyes.

"Our precious girl has suffered!"

"Mom and Dad will make it up to you a hundredfold!"

Leaning on my parents’ shoulders, through tear-filled eyes, I saw young Felicity.

3

Even though she didn't speak immediately, I quickly caught the flash of resentment in her eyes. Felicity looked like an innocent little rabbit, her eyes red, her lips trembling, holding back tears.

"Mom, Dad, who is this sister?"

"Why is she calling you Mom and Dad too?"

Just as my parents realized they had neglected Felicity and were about to comfort her, I quickly grasped Felicity's hand.

"This must be the sister who honored our parents in my stead."

"Just as my brother said, she's a million times better than me!"

"Even though sister's birth mother swapped us and then abandoned me in Maplewood to fend for myself, I know my sister knew nothing of her eighteen years of privilege in the Sterling family. My sister is innocent!"

"And my brother has already warned me that my sister is the little princess cherished by the whole family, unlike me, who never even met my birth parents…"

I took a pendant from my neck. "I don't have anything presentable for our first meeting. This is the only memento my Nana, who raised me, left me. I hope it protects my sister and keeps her safe always." Without waiting for Felicity to refuse, I pressed the pendant into her hand. The sharp corner of the pendant pricked Felicity's delicate palm. With a high-pitched shriek from her, I preemptively recoiled two steps, falling backward onto the floor. The pendant dropped and shattered into fragments.

Under my parents' astonished gaze, I immediately knelt, cupping the shards in my hands. My hands were soon covered in blood, and tears streamed down my face as I apologized incessantly. "I'm so sorry! I didn't think this through!"

"Even if this is my most precious possession, it doesn't compare to my sister, a Sterling heiress…"

My parents, their hearts aching, pulled me up. Their voices choked with emotion. "Elara, what are you doing? You're Mom and Dad's biological daughter!"

When our eyes met again, Felicity's eyes held an unconcealed resentment. Felicity truly wasn't a clean flower protected by the mud. This was perfect. It saved me from any useless guilt! From the moment I was reborn, I had decided that whether Felicity was innocent or not, I would take back everything that was mine. Even if she truly knew nothing, I would still claim it. Because these things were rightfully mine.

Felicity and I were swapped. Felicity’s birth mother, pregnant out of wedlock, coincidentally gave birth on the same day as my mother. Seeing my mother's expensive attire and lavish lifestyle, the woman, unwilling to let her child suffer, stealthily swapped us when no one was looking. She didn't even intend to raise me; she simply abandoned me in Maplewood. If Nana hadn't found me, I would probably have been nothing but bones. Compared to Felicity's privileged, mistaken life, I was the truly innocent one. As for the jade pendant, of course, it wasn't an heirloom. It was just a cheap trinket Ethan won from a street raffle years ago, the only gift he ever gave me. A piece of worthless glass that I had treasured for years. Now, it was perfectly suited to pave my way.

My father frantically took the glass shards, calling for someone to mend them, while my mother, heartbroken, had the family doctor tend to my bleeding hands.

"Felicity! How could you drop your sister's gift and push your sister?!"

"Is that what we've taught you all these years?!"

Unlike my daily humiliation and gaslighting by Ethan, this was probably the first time Felicity had ever been reprimanded in her life. Her face flushed with indignation, her neck stiff, but she had no idea how to defend herself. Dominic, who had been protecting her from the start, finally spoke.

"Mom, Dad, you're misunderstanding Felicity."

"I was standing right there. I clearly saw Elara intentionally fall and shatter the pendant herself."

"While I don't know why Elara would try to frame Felicity right after coming home, I believe the house's surveillance cameras would have captured it."

"After all, Elara is the kind of person who, to return to the Sterling family, would heartlessly dump a boyfriend she'd been with for years, her childhood sweetheart."

With that, Dominic pulled out his phone. On the screen, the footage clearly showed my conversation with Ethan—the bits where I’d said "snatch my place" and "none of your business, outsider," edited cleverly to look damning. Sure enough, my parents' brows furrowed. Dominic seized the opportunity to lean close to me and whisper, "You don't know about high-tech surveillance, do you?" In this era, surveillance was indeed still a novelty; most ordinary families had no idea what it even was. Dominic’s lips curled into a smug smile. "I warned you that Felicity is innocent. I told you not to touch her!" "But since you insist on using dirty tricks, you only have yourself to blame for your wicked intentions!"