Chapter 1
In Javilia, I, Ava Jones, the most pathetic heiress, and my stepsister, Karina Jones, the most domineering heiress, happened to be from the same family.
When Karina Jones forced my head into the toilet bowl, Jeffery Shepard, the Shepard Family's young master, who was on the run, blew two holes through both her hands.
"She's the future lady of this city! Let me see who dares lay a finger on her!"
Burning with resentment, Karina tormented me even more viciously while sabotaging Jeffery's rise to power.
After ten grueling years, Jeffery finally became head of the Shepard Family. That very night, he booked a hotel suite to propose.
But when I opened the door, I found him and Karina tangled naked beneath the wedding quilt.
The room erupted in shock. Everyone knew Karina was our mutual archenemy.
Karina scoffed, flaunting the red marks covering her body.
"Jeffery, don't tell me you'll claim you mistook me for Ava again? You're sober tonight. You threw that East District project to me on purpose, didn't you? How long will you keep lying to yourself? You've always liked a worthy rival—someone like me. You never had any use for a weakling like Ava."
Jeffery maintained his faint smile but offered no rebuttal.
As the crowd gasped, he casually took the ring and slid it onto my finger.
I held firm.
"You promised," I said, "that once you took power, I could do whatever I wanted in Javilia. Does that promise still stand?"
He hesitated, thinking I'd yield as I had for ten years, then nodded with a smile.
"Of course."
I smiled back.
Then I seized Karina by her hair and dragged her from bed to the bathroom.
The plunger came down with a vengeance. Sewage and blood were sprayed in all directions.
Guests screamed and scrambled away. The pity in their eyes turned to disgust.
Even Karina, who'd spent years trampling me, clutched her face, shrieking in disbelief.
"Ava, you lunatic! Your mother was trash, and so are you! You think this is my doing? Dad's ashamed of you! He ordered me to discipline you!"
My vision burned red as I struck harder. A decade of rage exploded in me.
Jeffery's calm facade shattered.
With a bang, the plunger clattered to the floor.
All I could hear was a ringing in my ears.
It wasn't until a trickle of blood dripped down my cheek that I understood—he had just shot me.
The scene before me overlapped with that moment ten years ago when he risked his life to threaten Karina into protecting me.
Only this time, I was the one being threatened.
My heart ached, and tears welled up in my eyes. "Jeffery..."
"Ava! How could you try to kill your own sister? You've become a complete monster!"
I stared at his moving lips, unable to comprehend a single word.
How could Karina Jones be considered family?
Her mother, Serena Jones, was the homewrecker who clawed her way to the top over my mother's broken body. After Karina was born, Maeve Jones, my mother, accidentally fell and broke her leg, leaving her paralyzed.
From that day on, my mother and I never knew a single day of peace. After my mother perished in a fire, I, a proper young lady, was reduced to scavenging for moldy food in trash bins.
Jeffery Shepard, risking exposure, climbed over walls time and again to bring me bags of food.
Tears fell warm from the bags onto my hands.
Those countless compressed biscuits over the years were hard, but sweet.
Jeffery had walked with me through those dark years, yet he could still call Karina my family.
I couldn't hear the rest of his words.
All I remembered was him saying, "Only you can be Mrs. Shepard."
