Chapter 1

My daughter was accused of stealing at school.

When I rushed to the principal's office, I realized the boy who had framed her was my ex-husband's son.

A cold sneer formed in my heart. This scene was a carbon copy of how my ex-husband had set me up five years ago.

Except, my ex-husband was infinitely more vicious.

The teacher froze, looking between us. "Do you two parents know each other?"

I spoke calmly:

"Yes. I'm his ex-wife."

The ex-wife whom her own husband had personally committed to a psychiatric asylum. The one whose face he had ruined. The one everyone believed was a raving lunatic.

Seven years ago, I was the true, sole heiress of the Vance empire.

Later, a woman who got plastic surgery to look exactly like me stole my identity, my husband, and my son.

She murdered my entire family, and Christian Vance, fully knowing the truth, locked me away in an asylum with his own hands.

He had said, "Chloe needs your face to live her life. You don't."

And so, he destroyed my face.

Now, he stood before me, his eyes swimming with guilt.

"Does your scar... still hurt?"

I pushed him away.

"None of your business, Mr. Vance."

The teacher pointed to a leather wallet on the desk.

"The two children got into a fight over this wallet."

"Leo claims your daughter stole it from him."

I pulled Lily into my arms, making sure she wasn't hurt, before my eyes drifted to the wallet on the desk.

I had bought that wallet for my daughter.

I had personally embroidered a little green frog on it.

Back when I was still trapped in the Vance estate with nothing to do, I used to embroider those little green frogs all over my son's clothes.

My son, who wasn't even three at the time, would always cry in disgust and turn to bury himself in that other woman's embrace.

Yet now, he was framing my daughter for theft just to snatch this little frog.

My heart ached for the collateral damage my daughter had suffered.

I took her hand, ready to leave.

Just as we reached the door, Christian's voice cut through the silence behind me.

"Evelyn, let's have dinner together."

"Leo hit your daughter. By all accounts of decency, I should treat you to a meal to apologize."

I didn't stop. I reached out, opened the office door, my voice completely detached and cold.

"No need, Mr. Vance."

The "accounts of decency" he spoke of had always cost me too much.

First, it cost me my love.

Then, it cost me my face.

Now, what else did he want from me?

I stepped out of the room. From the corner of my eye, I saw the little boy quietly wiping away his tears, softly whimpering, "Mommy..." under his breath.

The door clicked shut behind me, and the freezing, crisp air hit my face.

The school was in the suburbs, and it was nearly impossible to get an Uber at this hour. I looked at my electric scooter, which had been ruined by the downpour, and sighed softly to my daughter.

"Looks like we're walking home today, sweetie."

Lily didn't mind at all. She even took off her little jacket and draped it over my shoulders.

We ran all the way to Times Square.

On the giant LED billboard overhead, a commercial featuring a woman was playing on a loop.

She was a top supermodel. Not only was she highly successful, but she was also married to the city's most prominent billionaire, Christian Vance, and had a sweet, adorable son.

Looking at the screen, Lily gritted her teeth. "What a bad woman."

I smoothed her furrowed brows, finding it a bit amusing.

"She looks exactly like me. If you curse her, aren't you cursing your own mom?"

"It's not the same."

Lily gently reached up, her small fingers tracing the hideous, jagged scar on my left cheek.

"It's different. She stole your face, took everything that belonged to you. She deserves to be cursed."

My eyelashes fluttered.

Ever since I adopted Lily, I had never spoken about my past. No one knew that I was the real heiress of the Vance family.

And no one knew that the pure, elegant supermodel on the screen was actually a high-school dropout, a cheap escort who used to fly across the country for a thousand bucks.

Lily looked into my eyes and asked a question she had been keeping in her heart for a very long time.

"Mom, why don't you expose them?"

"There must be other people in the Vance family. They can't all tolerate a fraud like Chloe."