“Get out of the Goodwin family.” Angela threw my luggage outside, then tossed my bank card at my feet.

“Your biological parents live in Topaz Village, too poor to afford a proper meal. Take this hundred thousand and don’t come crying back to us later.”

The bank card grazed my shoe and fell into the rainwater.

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

Angela sneered. “What are you pretending to be—a saint? Without the Goodwins, what kind of young lady do you think you are?”

Two months ago, Patrick Goodwin had suffered massive blood loss in a car accident, and I had rushed to the hospital to give him a transfusion.

The nurse came out with the test results, her face deathly pale. “The blood types don’t match.”

From that day on, everyone in the Goodwin family started looking at me differently.

Patrick stopped answering when I called him Dad, and Angela stopped coming into my room.

They began digging through old records and investigating my birth. They even rushed to bring that girl home.

Cecilia Goodwin—their biological daughter, missing for eighteen years.

As for me, the “daughter” who had lived with the Goodwins for eighteen years, it took them only two months to erase me completely.

For eighteen years, I had cared for Patrick when he was ill and stayed up all night watching over Angela whenever her migraines struck.

I thought eighteen years of living under the same roof would at least make them reluctant to let me go.

But once blood ties entered the picture, every other feeling became worthless.

“Sis, don’t blame Mom.”

Cecilia leaned against Angela, her eyes red in just the right way.

“She’s only worried that you’ll suffer after you go back. Topaz Village is so remote—you definitely won’t be able to adjust.”

I had looked up Topaz Village last night. It was remote and impoverished, with barely any public information available. Yet the deeper I dug, the more it seemed as if someone had deliberately wiped away its traces.

Why would a village too poor to afford a proper meal need to have its traces erased?

I didn’t ask. The Goodwins wouldn’t care about the answer. They only wanted to believe that my biological parents were poor, insignificant, and embarrassing.

Angela tenderly wiped Cecilia’s tears, then turned and glared fiercely at me.

“Look at Cecilia, then look at yourself! We raised you for eighteen years for nothing, and this is how you repay us—with ingratitude!”

For nothing. My fingertips dug into my palms until they went numb with pain.

So in their hearts, I had never been their daughter. I had only been an empty place that could be filled by someone else at any time.

Patrick turned his face away. “Be a good daughter to your biological parents once you get there. Don’t think about coming back.”

I looked at him. This was the man I had called Dad for eighteen years, and he couldn’t even bring himself to ask me to stay.

It felt as if someone had torn out a piece of my heart, but all I did was nod.

After a long silence, I said softly, “Dad. This is the last time I’ll call you that.”

Patrick’s face stiffened.

Angela immediately snapped, “Stop acting pitiful! Nobody owes you anything!”

She was right. Nobody owed me anything.

It was just that every birthday cake, every light left on for me when I came home late, and every hour spent at my sickbed had been taken back the day our blood types failed to match.

I shouldered my old bag. “Don’t worry. I won’t come back.”

I had just reached the door when Cecilia suddenly caught up with me and smiled faintly. “Sophia, when Justin Stuckey and I get engaged, will you come to the ceremony?”

“After all, he used to be your fiancé.”

The marriage arrangement between the Goodwin and Stuckey families had originally been mine.

Now that the real heiress was back, even my fiancé had to be returned to his rightful owner.

I didn’t love Justin, but being passed around like some discarded object still disgusted me.

I looked back at her. “Don’t worry. I have no interest in recycling trash.”

Cecilia’s smile froze. “Sophia, how could you say that about me?”

As her tears fell, her fingers brushed against my bag. The next second, a diamond bracelet dropped to the ground.

Cecilia covered her mouth. “Sis, how did that get into your bag?”

Angela immediately rushed over.

“You still have the nerve to steal? So you refused the bank card because a hundred thousand wasn’t enough?”

Patrick frowned. “Explain.”

I looked at him and suddenly found it ridiculous.

Cecilia only had to shed a few tears. As for me, even if I cut open my heart and showed it to them, they would only complain that I had stained the carpet with blood.

I lowered my gaze to the diamond bracelet. The stones were cloudy and dull, the setting crude and cheap, and the edges dug into my skin. Its six-figure price tag was completely undeserved.

But they didn’t need the truth.

They only needed a reason to prove that I was greedy, despicable, and unworthy of being kept.

Cecilia picked up the bracelet and held it out to me.

“Sis, take it. This time, it doesn’t count as stealing. Consider it a gift from me. Life will definitely be hard after you go back, so at least you can sell it for some money.”

I took the bracelet.

Then, in front of everyone, I threw it out the window.

“Crash—”

The sound of shattering glass was swallowed by the rain.

“Are you insane?!” Angela screamed.

“It’s mine now. I can do whatever I want with it.”

I shouldered my old bag and looked at the house where I had lived for eighteen years.

“I don’t want a single thing from the Goodwin family. From this day on, we’re even.”

I pushed open the door and walked out.

Behind me came Cecilia’s gentle voice.

“Let’s see Sis off.”

I knew what she wanted to see. She wanted to watch my so-called biological parents arrive in a beat-up car and take me away. She wanted to see me go from the Goodwins’ young lady to a laughingstock from some impoverished mountain village.

I had just stepped down from the porch when a piercing screech of brakes cut through the rain. A car came barreling toward us as if it had lost control, then slammed to a stop in front of the steps.

Its body was crumpled, the windshield shattered into a spiderweb of cracks, and the hood was nearly torn open.

Angela glanced at it and laughed mockingly. “Is that the car your biological parents sent? Looks like they really are dirt-poor.”

The door opened. A man covered in grease stumbled out, one lens of his glasses shattered. The moment he saw me, he lowered his head respectfully.

“Sixth Miss! I’m sorry to keep you waiting! A truck rear-ended us on the way, so I had to bring this car first!”

The entire Goodwin family froze.

I was stunned too. Somehow, that apology sounded more like something a family member would say than the Goodwins’ final farewell.

I looked at the car. Its emblem had been crushed, but its silhouette was unmistakable—a one-of-a-kind custom Rolls-Royce, the only one in the world. Even wrecked like this, it was still worth over a hundred million.

“What did you just call me?”

The man answered respectfully, “Sixth Miss. You’re the sixth child in the family, with five older brothers. I’m your full-time driver. My surname is Avalon. You can call me Uncle Avalon.”

Five older brothers, a full-time driver, and a luxury car worth over a hundred million. The biological family Angela claimed was too poor to afford a meal didn’t seem particularly poor.

Uncle Avalon looked at my old bag.

“Shall I take your luggage?”

“No.”

I raised the bag in my hand.

“This is all I have.”

Uncle Avalon froze, a flicker of pity crossing his eyes.

He then pulled several crushed gift boxes from the car and handed them to Patrick.

“These are gifts from our family, to thank the Goodwins for taking care of Miss for eighteen years.”

The gift-box packaging had been damaged in the crash, but a hint of dark-gold patterning showed through at the corners.

Angela stepped back in disgust. “No need. Just take her away.”

Patrick also struggled to maintain his dignity. “We didn’t do anything for Sophia. We shouldn’t accept these.”

Then he looked at me. “Be sensible once you get there. Take good care of your biological parents. Don’t think about the Goodwin family anymore.”

I nodded.

The front door closed behind me.

Bang.

Eighteen years ended just like that.

I didn’t look back.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t hurt.

It was simply that from the moment they decided to abandon me, my tears were no longer worth showing them.

The unsteady car door jammed. Uncle Avalon was about to reach for it when I glanced at the warped section, braced the edge, found the right point of leverage, and lifted and pressed it lightly.

Click. The door snapped back into place.

The way Uncle Avalon looked at me changed instantly.

I slid into the back seat. “Let’s go.”

Ten minutes after we left the Goodwin residence, I glanced at the rearview mirror.

“This isn’t the road to Topaz Village.”

Uncle Avalon answered at once. “Topaz Village is Sir and Madam’s hometown. Your home is in Imperial City.”

He paused.

“Grandgem Domain is twenty kilometers away.”

Grandgem Domain—the most expensive villa district in Imperial City.

If Angela heard that, she would probably regret not taking a closer look at those gift boxes. Unfortunately, I had no interest in watching her regret it.

“Take me to Capital Health Hospital first.”

Uncle Avalon grew tense. “Sixth Miss, are you feeling unwell?”

“I’m fine. I’m going to see Grandma Goodwin.”

Of everyone in the Goodwin family, Grandma Goodwin was the only one who had truly treated me well. Whenever I was wronged, she would always stroke my head with trembling fingers.

If there was anything in the Goodwin family I couldn’t bear to leave behind, it was her.

Half an hour later, we arrived at Capital Health Hospital.

Grandma Goodwin lay on the hospital bed, thin as a skeleton.

She still hadn’t woken up, and her breathing was so faint it seemed liable to stop at any moment.

I walked over and took her cold hand.

That hand had once secretly slipped candy into mine. It had also shielded me whenever Angela scolded me.

If there was anything in the Goodwin family I couldn’t let go of, it was her.

Footsteps sounded behind me.

“Sophia Goodwin, you came at just the right time.”

I turned around.

Aiden Fletcher walked in with her medical chart. He was a genius doctor from a family of physicians—and the person who had once looked down on me the most.

That was until I corrected his diagnoses three times in a row.

He opened the chart, his tone unusually free of mockery.

“The old lady’s condition is critical. Heart medications are no longer working. She has end-stage heart failure. You should know what that means.”

Of course I knew.

That was why I took a small vial from my bag and threw it straight at him.

Aiden caught it and twisted open the cap.

After one glance, his expression turned grave.

“This is... a Yixin Pill? How did you get something like this?”