She Took My Place, I’ll Ruin Her Completely

Chapter 3

My heart jolted, hard.

No one had ever said anything like that to me. Not once, my whole life. Even Chase, when I'd once suggested getting a job, looked at me with disgust. "What would it look like, a rich man's wife going out to work? You don't think that's a disgrace to the Sterling name?"

But if I didn't work, I had no money at all. Chase gave me $300 a month, and not one cent of that so-called $200,000 allowance was ever mine to touch. They wouldn't even let me eat at the table. Every day I was so hungry I saw spots, living worse than a stray dog.

Once, so hungry I couldn't stand it, I secretly sold one of the designer pieces he'd given me. When they found out, I got beaten within an inch of my life. They said I'd thrown away my dignity and shamed the Sterlings. They took my phone and locked me in my room for three whole months.

And now, Ethan's plain little "that's just how it should be" almost brought me to tears.

The day the Pierces came to take Ethan for the test, we happened to run into Lily at the hospital.

And that pair of in-laws.

Lily, wearing my face, saw me and froze. "Claire… Lily, what are you doing here?"

I didn't answer. I let my eyes settle on Chase's parents.

They seemed pleased about Lily's pregnancy, even coming along to the checkup in person. Looks like they still don't know what she's carrying.

But it doesn't matter. They'll find out today.

Seeing me ignore her, Lily raised her voice. "Lily, I'm talking to you. Are you deaf?"

I ignored her and kept looking at Chase beside her.

She cut in at once. "Lily! Why are you eyeing my husband, you slut?" Then she looked at Ethan next to me, a sneer curving her lips. "Don't tell me your man's got some terminal thing and he's about to drop dead? Well—living off the trash he scavenges all day, no wonder he's sick."

But the second she finished, the ones who reacted hardest were Richard and Diane Pierce.

Diane grabbed Ethan's hand, her eyes going red on the spot. "Ethan, you… you were living like this?"

Only then did Lily notice the well-dressed middle-aged couple nearby. She looked them up and down and muttered under her breath, "The hell? I've known Ethan for years—since when does he have relatives who look like that?"

But Harold and Barbara Sterling recognized the visitors right away. Harold's expression changed and he hurried forward. "Mr. Pierce! What brings you here? Is this—" He looked at Ethan's worn clothes, then at Richard's face, which bore a real resemblance to Ethan's, and it hit him all at once. "This is… the Pierces' long-lost son?"