Marrying my own brother was something I simply could not bring myself to do.

But to my absolute surprise, every single member of the C family began relentlessly pressuring me.

Her father claimed that since Christian and I had grown up together, we knew each other's backgrounds inside out and understood one another perfectly.

He argued that if we married, it would even save the family the hassle of arranging a corporate marriage alliance.

Her mother appealed to my emotions, trying to talk sense into me:

"It seems you and I were destined to have a mother-daughter bond in this lifetime after all. Besides, I would be genuinely uneasy if you married into another family."

Chloe said to me icily:

"Our family has raised you for so many years, and now that you've graduated from university, you just want to pat your butt and walk away? Is there any ungrateful wolf quite like you?"

In the end.

I ultimately failed to withstand the crushing pressure from the C family and had no choice but to choose to marry Christian.

Our married life was anything but beautiful.

Christian was incredibly busy and rarely ever came home.

Later on, I gradually began to realize the truth.

He wasn't busy; he was intentionally giving me the cold shoulder.

In reality, I actually let out a sigh of relief because of it.

For two people who had interacted strictly as siblings from childhood all the way into maturity, having their relationship abruptly shift into that of a married couple was jarring.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't know how to face him either.

If this marriage could simply be maintained in such a dull, placid manner forever, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Just as I was harboring this exact mindset, our peaceful existence was violently shattered by a sudden event.

Chloe's engagement was broken off.

Her fiancé was the son of a close friend of her father's.

Somehow, the man discovered that Chloe had once undergone major surgery, was missing a kidney, and had even given birth to a child in the countryside. Consequently, he adamantly demanded to break off the engagement with the C family.

In truth, Chloe's past had always been kept strictly under wraps.

Ever since she was brought back to the C family at the age of eighteen, under her parents' orchestration and utilizing their extensive connections, she had been pulled into a junior college.

Following her graduation from the junior college, she immediately entered the corporate ranks of the C Group to work.

Because she possessed a chairman for a father and a general manager for a brother, her position within the C Group was merely a low-effort desk job.

Her daily life actually consisted of nothing more than tagging along with her wealthy socialite friends to shop until they dropped at luxury malls.

Later, through her parents' introduction, she went on a blind date with the son of another prominent family.

That young man was exceptionally handsome and a returnee from overseas.

He possessed premium looks and stellar academic credentials.

Chloe liked him immensely.

The two of them hadn't been dating long before they became officially engaged.

Yet, just as the two families were actively discussing marriage arrangements, the male party abruptly demanded to break off the engagement.

Chloe was absolutely devastated, returning home to throw massive tantrums and violently smash things around the house.

She blamed her parents, screaming that if they hadn't lost her back then, she wouldn't be subjected to the humiliation of a broken engagement today, which had caused her to completely lose face.

She also pointed a finger at Christian, screeching that they were biological siblings, and she should have been just like her brother, enjoying their parents' absolute spoiling from childhood to adulthood, attending elite aristocratic academies, and pursuing higher education overseas.

Instead, she was left with nothing but a pathetic junior college diploma, unable to utter a single syllable of a foreign language, and looked down upon everywhere she went.

Then, she turned her venomous wrath directly onto me, shrieking at the top of her lungs.

She screamed that I was a shameless leach, a usurper who had stolen her rightful place, and an absolute monster to my very core.

She cursed me for hijacking her entire life.

She demanded to know why my skin was so incredibly thick—she had already been back with the C family for so long, so why the hell hadn't I gotten lost yet? Why did I insist on freeloading in their home?

Why did I have to marry her brother, continuing to monopolize her parents' affection?

She even declared that someone like me belonged in an orphanage, eating spoiled slops, drinking rancid water, and being molested by old men as I grew up.

She screamed that even after reaching adulthood, I was only fit to date street thugs and engage in physical brawls with delinquent girls.

She yelled at the top of her lungs, declaring that the person who should have had a kidney harvested was me.

She screamed that I didn't deserve to step foot inside their household at all, and that I was only fit to exist as the filthiest maggot at the absolute bottom of society.

Chloe's features were twisted into a hideous, demonic grimace, stamping her feet in a wild frenzy as she weaponized every single malicious, foul word imaginable to curse me, all while systematically smashing the luxury items throughout the living room.

Yet, she seemed to have completely forgotten.

Not long after she was officially welcomed back into the C family, I had moved out.

It was Christian who had stubbornly insisted on bringing me back against everyone's wishes.

And he was the one who maintained an unyielding stance, forcing me to remain within the C family household.

Furthermore, it wasn't a case of me shamelessly begging to marry her brother—it was her entire family taking turns to relentlessly lecture and persuade me to enter into that marriage with Christian.

The dynamic between her life and mine wasn't some dramatic tale of a nanny swapping infants or a classic true-versus-false heiress.

It was a full year after her initial disappearance that her parents actively marched into the orphanage, explicitly requesting to adopt a child.

In other words.

Even if that child hadn't been me, they would have adopted some other random girl regardless.

Following Chloe's explosive, hysterical tantrum inside the mansion that day.

Christian's attitude toward me shifted into something that could only be described as bone-chillingly icy.

The same held true for her parents.

Her mother fired every single domestic maid and nanny in the household overnight.

She subsequently delivered a blistering, severe warning to me, declaring that moving forward, the absolute cleanliness of the entire multi-story villa, as well as the three daily meals for their entire family, would be entirely my responsibility.

Her father stood directly beside her, remaining absolutely tight-lipped, which was an unmistakable, silent endorsement of his wife's declarations.

At that exact instant.

I felt the profound, suffocating waves of raw hatred emanating from their entire family toward me.

Evidently.

They had completely calculated the tragic trajectory of Chloe's ruined existence and laid the blame entirely squarely on my head.

They were enacting their cold revenge upon me.

For a period stretching across nearly two entire years.

I was transformed into the C family's full-time, uncompensated maid, remaining on call twenty-four hours a day.

Every single day, I resembled a spinning top, locked in a ceaseless, exhausting cycle of tackling every imaginable household chore.

Washing clothes, preparing meals, grocery shopping, scrubbing the floors...

Most crucially of all, whenever I was physically present in the room, their entire family treated me as though I were absolute thin air.

Every single one of them utilized freezing gazes and cold, dismissive body language to systematically subject my spirit to a slow execution.

With the sole exception of Chloe.

She was the only individual who refused to completely ignore my presence.

On the contrary, she would actively curse me, hurled venomous verbal abuse at me, mock my existence, and even deliberately shove me down the grand staircase.

Finally, a day arrived when I simply could not endure it any longer.

I refused to allow my youth to be completely consumed and ground down within such a suffocating, bleak, and depressing existence.

If I remained any longer, I would genuinely lose my mind.

Consequently, I approached Christian to firmly demand a divorce, explicitly informing him that I would immediately secure employment and systematically repay every single cent of the financial expenses the C family had invested in me over the twelve years.

Yet my demand was met with Christian's absolute, unyielding refusal.

To this very day, I remained entirely incapable of erasing the image of his icy, unfeeling eyes from my mind.

"Clara, what earthly right do you think you possess to demand a divorce from me?"

"Chloe endured so many agonizing years of pure suffering; you must utilize the entire remainder of your existence to atone for your sins."