Chapter 3 I Can Marry Into The Bradley Family

The truth only came out when the Spencer family was preparing for Lorelai's engagement to Travis Bradley, the grandson of the Bradley family's patriarch. A routine genetic screening revealed a glaring discrepancy: Lorelai's blood type didn't match Preston or his wife's.

A quiet investigation soon brought the ugly truth to light.

Twenty years ago, Dolores had given birth to a baby girl in the city's top private hospital. Shortly after delivery, the infant was sent to the neonatal ward for jaundice.

Around the same time, a woman from a rural village had also given birth to a daughter in the same hospital.

It was that woman who had secretly switched the babies.

Recently, Lorelai had been terrified that the exposure of her true identity would ruin her marriage prospects.

But just a few days later, Travis was involved in a horrific car accident, leaving him in a permanent vegetative state.

The Spencer family refused to let Lorelai be trapped in a hollow marriage to a vegetable, but they also couldn't bear to lose their chance to climb the social ladder by allying with a top-tier family.

That gave them the perfect solution: marry off Kendra, their biological daughter, in her place.

"Over the past twenty years, we've poured our hearts into raising Lorelai. Even if she isn't my biological daughter, she's no different from one to me." Dolores couldn't help but speak up. Her tone rang with an eager defensiveness, as if she were terrified that Lorelai might feel slighted.

Preston nodded in agreement. "Lorelai has been exceptional since she was a child, and she has received the finest upbringing a young lady could have. You, on the other hand, are different. For someone like you, the Bradley family is more than a good match..."

He glanced at Kendra, letting the sentence trail off, though his meaning was painfully clear.

How could Kendra possibly misunderstand?

They were telling her that Lorelai was the prized daughter they had meticulously cultivated for two decades—far too precious to be thrown away on a vegetable. Meanwhile, as an unsophisticated girl from a small town, she should be getting down on her knees in gratitude for the chance to marry into a life of luxury.

Kendra didn't get angry; instead, a smile touched her lips. "So, you had me brought here just to inform me that I had to take the place of the woman who stole twenty years of my life and marry a vegetable?"

Dolores caught the sharp mockery in her tone. Her brow furrowed as she snapped, "What kind of attitude is that? How is Lorelai to blame for what her mother did? Are you really going to hold that against an innocent girl?"

Kendra's brother, Colin Spencer, finally looked up. He shot her a cold, warning glare, his voice laced with ice. "Mom is right. Lorelai is family, and that will never change. As the biological daughter, you were the one meant to marry into the Bradley family anyway. If you know what's good for you, you'll do as you're told and marry him."

Kendra looked as if she had just heard the funniest joke in the world, unable to suppress the genuine amusement dancing in her eyes.

She swept her gaze over the four of them—who looked every bit like a picture-perfect, complete family—and said casually, "I can marry into the Bradley family..."

Preston and the others instantly looked relieved, but Kendra wasn't finished.

"However, I have one request..." Her smile turned chilling. "The precious daughter you raised must disappear from this house."

The room instantly fell so silent one could hear a pin drop.