Chapter 1

1

The day my mom died, I put on a white dress, a tradition to show respect.

Suddenly, seven-year-old Billy charged at me. He slashed my dress with a pair of scissors and dumped a whole bucket of cheap red paint all over me.

"Today's my mom's birthday, what do you think you're doing, wearing that color? She hated white more than anything!"

He was definitely his father's son. They had always prioritized the same woman.

My skin broke out in hives almost immediately. The blood and paint mixed together. The cut on my leg throbbed and itched like crazy.

Billy sneered, "Don't think that because you married my dad, you're the lady of the house. That place belongs to my mom, forever!"

"You're nothing but a home-wrecker. Don't expect me to ever accept you!"

Looking at this kid who carried my blood but came from another woman's womb, I just felt exhausted.

Turns out, blood doesn't mean jack, and seven years of raising him hadn't warmed his heart one bit.

"You don't have to accept me, because I'm leaving."

...

The acrid smell of the paint burned my nose and covered my face, the itching made me frown.

Billy scoffed.

"Serves you right. I hope that face rots off your skull."

"You're such a gold digger, thinking you can get plastic surgery to look like my mom. Get people to say that we look alike, and then take her place? Dream on!"

His eyes were red with anger, like he'd suffered some huge insult.

I'd seen this scene play out way too many times.

Whenever someone mentioned that Billy's face didn't look much like his late mother, and actually looked more like me, Billy would flip out.

I used to try to calm him down, tell him he was still his father's dead wife's son. That he resembled me just because we'd been around each other so long.

But today, I didn't have the strength. I was just too tired.

I frowned slightly.

"Who said I got plastic surgery? You sleep with your mom's picture under your pillow every night. You know whether we look alike, Billy. You know."

"If you don't believe me, call a doctor and check it out. Are you sure you want to hear what he has to say?"

Billy froze for a second. He realized what I meant and his face turned beet red. He glared at me and ran off.

I sighed and went back to my room. The maid, Maria, had already drawn a bath for me.

As soon as I got in, the cut on my leg from the scissors screamed with pain, and the rest of my skin burned.

I jumped out of the tub, lost my footing, and fell flat on the floor. My knee instantly turned purple.

Billy skipped in, grinning like a devil. "Did you like that bath? All that salt water and hot sauce? I did it just for you, isn't that sweet?"

"You've been living my mom's life. You're gonna pay!"

He gave me a look of pure disgust and told Maria to leave, not letting her help me up.

I lay there on the floor, covered in blood and water, speechless.

I'd lost that much blood before, when they took my eggs.

Later, that egg and the sperm of the CEO of the group, combined to become a test tube baby, in the belly of the wife who was born with no eggs.

Later, that baby who possessed half of my blood, was born, a boy, named Billy.

The family's Billy, the wife's Billy...Billy who hated me to the core.