At the wedding venue, Theo held the twin children of his late first love in his arms and begged me for understanding.

"Mira gave her life for these children. I can’t let them grow without parents. Zara, aren’t you the kindest person?"

In the livestream, I nodded with a pale face.

A year later, gently touching my pregnant belly, I watched Theo Arden’s face shift.

"Abort it. I promised Mira we wouldn’t have kids for three years."

"You’re still young. We’ll have our own later."

But in the years that followed, eight of them, I never got pregnant again.

I raised those twins like they were my own.

Until one day, I came home early to prepare for their birthday, only to see Mira, the woman I thought was dead, leaning sweetly into Theo’s arms.

"Thanks to Theo switching her medicine, Zara ended up being our nanny for nine years."

Their laughter echoed through the house as Theo gently stroked Mira’s belly.

"This is her karma for stealing your engagement."

"Nine years of a honeymoon should make up for the injustice of faking your death. With her here, we’ve had time to travel and now we're having our third baby."

By the tall windows, their shadows twined together under the moonlight.

I was locked out of the villa all night, shivering as I made a call.

"Help me get a divorce and I’ll agree to your terms."

——

When I walked into the house, the noisy chatter stopped instantly. The looks on their faces made me feel like an outsider.

Theo’s expression froze for a second. "You’re back? Great! Go tidy up the guest room."

"Look, Mira’s back too. She had an accident years ago and now the sisters are reunited. Let her stay here."

The others quickly joined in.

"Sis-in-law, you took the engagement back then. You’re not going to fight her for a place to stay now, are you?"

"Yeah, everyone always saw Mira as the real sister-in-law. If you hadn’t stepped in, how would you have become Mrs. Arden?"

Then their eyes landed on the ruined birthday cake in my hands.

"Look at that. She dares to show up with a smashed cake. No wonder, not her real kid anyway."

"Country girl. No manners."

I held my breath, ready to say something. But Mira suddenly knelt in front of me.

"Sis, I wronged you before. You have every right to hate me."

"But now, I only want to be with the kids. Please, just let me live."

She cried like a fragile flower and Theo’s eyes filled with pain. “Zara, hurry up and get the guest room ready. The past is the past!”

The past? As I climbed the stairs, I repeated those three words in my head.

In high school, she bullied me until I was skin and bones.

In college, she stole my thesis and accused me of cheating. She even framed my adoptive mother and left her with a heavy debt. Could all of that really be brushed off as “the past”?

When I opened the door, my heart nearly stopped. The twins were tearing up the photo of my adoptive mother.

“Zayn! Zane! Let go of that!”

I rushed over, but one of them tripped me. I fell to the floor.

The photo had already crumbled to pieces and they were still stomping on it.

“Bleh! Not giving it back!”

“You’re the old mommy! Time for the new mommy!”

They laughed while stomping, the peace charm I got from a month-long pilgrimage in Beaufort bouncing at my neck, mocking my foolishness.

Zane suddenly sprayed something rose-scented at me.

My breath caught. My face turned hot and red.

Within a minute, my throat was swelling. I couldn’t breathe.

Curled on the floor, I saw Zayn holding my allergy medicine. I begged, “Zayn, give Mommy the medicine… please…”

Zayn smirked, dangled it in front of me, then turned and tossed it into the bathroom trash can.

“Come get it yourself.”

I stumbled forward in desperation.

Suddenly, they clutched their faces and burst into loud sobs.

“Daddy, Mommy just hit us!”

When I turned my head, I saw clear handprints on their cheeks.

Mira rushed over and slapped me hard. “Sister, how could you hit the children?”

“To avoid responsibility, you’re faking an allergic reaction just to get Theo’s sympathy? How could you treat him like this?”

I gritted my teeth through the pain and looked at Theo.

“I… didn’t… I really am allergic…”

My face was so swollen I could barely speak. A small smirk tugged at the corner of Mira’s lips.

She was the only one who knew I was allergic to roses.

“Enough.”

He told his assistant to give me some medicine. For a second, I felt a flicker of warmth.

“You believe me? I really didn’t—”

His cold voice cut me off.

“Giving you the medicine is just so you don’t die and cause me trouble.”

“Stop pretending, Zara. Do you really think the kids would lie about this?”

He locked me up, saying it was for reflection.

After a full day and night without food, his assistant arrived with a dress.

“Madam, Sir is hosting a banquet to welcome Miss Bellamy back. You are required to attend.”

Clutching my aching stomach, I weakly shook my head.

“I’m not going.”

The assistant tossed the dress down carelessly.

“Sir said if you don’t go, you’d better worry about your adoptive father…”

He didn’t need to finish his sentence. I already understood.

Using my critically ill adoptive father to threaten me had always been their method.

When I arrived at the banquet in that dress, I realized it was an old white gown, yellowed with age and stained with faint traces of blood.

“Who’s that? Dressed so cheap.”

“Oh, that’s Zara, the one who crawled into Young Master Arden’s bed and stole her sister’s engagement.”

I understood right away that this was exactly what Theo wanted.

He wanted to show me how far beneath Mira I was.

Just then, Mira came downstairs hand-in-hand with Theo.

The butterflies on her gown sparkled under the lights and Theo smiled warmly.

“Mira deserves all the most beautiful things in the world.”

The twins ran up to her, eyes shining.

“Mommy, you’re so pretty.”

Theo looked at me on purpose.

“Well? Aren’t you going to pour the drinks?”

Everyone turned toward me. The waitress next to me hesitated.

“Sir, we’re the ones who serve—”

Theo sipped his wine and said casually, “She enjoys serving people. Isn’t that right?”

I stiffened. The threat in his voice was clear.

“People from the countryside just love to serve, don’t they?”

“Look at her, so pathetic. She’s not even good enough to carry Mira’s shoes!”

The laughter rang in my ears.

Shame burning through me, I picked up the wine bottle and followed behind Theo, pouring drinks and serving food.

Mira couldn’t hold back her laugh.

“I heard sister used to work in a restaurant. No wonder she’s so skilled at this.”

Theo sneered. “That’s all she’s good for.”

Mira walked up to me.

“Sister, I’d like to make a toast. Thank you for raising the children these past nine years.”

Instinctively, I looked at Theo, who was the one who first found out about my severe alcohol allergy.

But he just looked at me coldly.

“Are you deaf or blind? Drink it.”

My hands trembled as I reached for the glass, but Mira let go on purpose. Red wine spilled all over my head.

My hair clung to my scalp, soaked and sticky, carrying a sour, unpleasant smell.

"You!"

I glared at Mira in fury.

The twins clapped and laughed.

“Drenched rat! So gross!”

Suddenly, they threw a small toy at me, which gave off electric shocks.

“No!”

A jolt of electricity shot through me.

I crashed into a table and fell to the floor, shaking uncontrollably.

“Help me, it hurts!”

I cried out in pain. The carpet burned black where I had fallen. Foam bubbled at my lips as my body twitched.

Theo looked truly shocked and started to step forward to turn off the power.

But Mira suddenly covered her mouth, pretending to be horrified.

“Sister, did you just wet yourself?”

Gasps spread across the room. People stepped back, covering their noses like something reeked.

My mind went blank from the shame.

“You… what are you saying?”

Mira pouted. “Look at the floor yourself! What a mess!”

“You’ve never even given birth and you’re already that loose? Did you cheat on Theo with someone else?”

Just then, the guards rushed in and finally shut off the electricity.

But I had already lost control again. Lying there on the floor, soaked and shaking, all I wanted was to disappear.

Theo’s expression turned pitch black as if he wanted to tear me apart.

“Zara, you’re damn disgusting!”

“You’re a grown woman and can’t even control your bladder!”

Trembling, I tried to get up.

“…I didn’t. It was them…”

I looked toward the twins, but Mira had already taken them and disappeared.

Three days later, the headline [Wealthy Wife Humiliates Herself at Banquet Due to Incontinence] spread like wildfire online.

“This woman is disgusting.”

“She probably slept around so much she can’t hold it in anymore.”

My personal info was leaked and I started getting nonstop harassing messages.

I broke down crying more than once and had no choice but to try reaching out to Theo for help. But his assistant blocked me at the door.

“What did you just say?”

Blood pooled under my tongue as I bit down in shock, eyes wide.

The assistant sneered.

“He said your situation reminded him of someone from the countryside, like you were probably used up. He’s on his way to the hospital to check if you gave him anything.”

My chest tightened sharply.

I couldn’t even speak.

So in his eyes, I was already nothing but trash.

“Miss Bellamy, you’re here!”

The assistant's tone instantly shifted. That’s when I saw Mira strutting in confidently in high heels.

“Zara, you still have the nerve to show up?”

“If I were you, I’d have already bashed my head in from the shame.”

I knew then, this was all her doing.

“Why?” I asked, my voice shaking.

Back then, she was the one who wanted to leave Theo. She had drugged me and set it up to make it look like I tried to steal the engagement and sleep with him.

Mira acted like she’d just heard the funniest thing.

“Blame your own stupidity.”

“This was the only way to make Theo think about me forever.”

She lifted my chin with a smirk.

“You didn’t know, did you? For the past nine years, he has spent every holiday with me. Your anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, even New Year’s, he was in my bed.”

“Do you know how good that felt?”

She looked me up and down.

“He told me that every time he touched you, it felt worse than using a dirty rag.”

My vision blurred with rage.

“Then why did you push my foster mother into debt?”

Mira casually slid on her sunglasses, completely unbothered.