Chapter 1

Other people fall for love, or chase their careers. Not my mom.

My mom lived for her best friend.

Her best friend caused trouble, and my mom took the fall.

Her best friend got hit, and my mom stepped in front of it.

Her best friend got smeared with rumors, and my mom did everything she could to clear her name.

And that best friend never saw her as anything but a shield.

She even went so far, just to be with her white boyfriend, as to openly set my mom up to marry my dad in her place.

Only after the wedding did everyone learn my dad was a wealthy heir who'd only been pretending to be broke.

Later my mom had me, and life ran smooth and easy.

But her best friend started to regret it.

She came back into the country and tried to crawl into my dad's bed. That didn't work.

So on the very day my mom gave birth, she used her own sister's baby to swap me out, and openly accused me of being my mom's child with her ex.

The DNA didn't match.

And just like that, my mom went from the woman who'd earned her place in a wealthy family to a shameless slut.

With no way to defend herself, she was thrown out with nothing, left to raise someone else's child alone through years of hardship. And that child grew up to be an ingrate.

While newborn me was forgotten in the basement and left to starve to death.

Then I opened my eyes again, and I was back in the confinement month.

My mom's best friend had come to carry me off for a bath.

It made me so frantic I just came right out and spoke:

"Mommy, don't let her take me away, or you'll be framed for cheating on Daddy!"

……

My inner voice startled my mom into stillness.

She looked left and right, trying to find where it had come from.

"Mommy, I'm your baby. I'm in the crib!"

Propped against the headboard, her whole body went rigid.

Her eyes shot straight to me in the crib.

Valerie Fox's hand was already reaching for me.

There was a smile on her face, and delicate manicured fingertips.

To me, she looked like a big bad wolf out to eat a child.

"Such a good little girl. Auntie's going to take you for your bath."

Just as her hand was about to touch me,

my mom suddenly shouted,

"Don't touch her!"

Valerie's hand froze.

She turned her head and looked at my mom strangely.

"Zara Henson, what's wrong?"

"I'm just taking her over there so the professional staff can give her a bath. Is something wrong with that?"

My mom opened her mouth, not knowing how to answer.

"Mommy, her sister just gave birth today too. She's taking me over there to swap me with her sister's baby."

"Then she'll steer Daddy into doubting where I came from, and once the DNA test comes back, you won't be able to explain your way out of it!"

Hearing this, my mom threw herself off the bed barefoot and pulled me into her arms.

"No one is taking my child!"

Valerie straightened up, eyes narrowing on my mom's face.

"Zara, what's gotten into you? You don't even trust me now? I'm your best friend!"

Right then, the door to the room opened.

It was my dad, Morgan Farley.

My dad, in a custom hand-tailored suit, broad shoulders and a narrow waist, standing tall and impossibly refined.

Valerie's gaze warmed at once.

She crossed to him in two steps.

"Morgan, do you think Zara has postpartum depression? She looks at everyone like they're out to get her."

"I was just going to take the baby for a bath, and she reacted like she was under attack."

My dad's eyes settled on my mom.

He frowned, then took me from her arms.

"The doctor said you had a C-section, you shouldn't be holding the baby. Give her to Valerie!"

"She's just taking her for a bath. Nothing's going to happen!"

And with that, he handed me over to Valerie.

Valerie took me, turned away, and a smug little smile curved at the corner of her mouth.

It scared me so badly I cried out at once:

"Mommy, no!"

"She really is going to swap me out."

"And then you'll be raising someone else's child!"