Chapter 1

When I was seven, I drank a bowl of soup poisoned by my mother, and from then on, I became the “simple-minded” second daughter of the Collins family.

My fiancé, Jason Miller, despised me for being slow-witted while secretly getting involved with my elder sister, Emily Collins.

To secure an alliance with the terminally ill heir of the Bennett family, the Collins family pushed Emily toward the marriage.

“Adrian Bennett won’t live more than six months anyway. It’s best to let Anna marry him.”

Blinking my innocent eyes, I said, “If my sister doesn’t want him, I don’t want him either.”

My father coaxed me, “The Bennett family kitchen has a Michelin three-star chef who makes strawberry mille-feuille every day.”

I clapped my hands instantly. “I’ll marry him!”

At the wedding, everyone laughed at the Collins family for sending a fool as a “lucky bride” to prolong the groom’s life.

Until the night before the Collins Group was on the verge of bankruptcy, I sat by Adrian Bennett’s hospital bed, handling documents.

The door burst open, and Emily Collins and Jason Miller knelt, crying for help.

I lifted my clear, sharp eyes. “You’re disturbing my husband’s rest. Get out.”

……

Emily Collins, her fingernails painted a vivid crimson, delicately picked up a translucent shrimp dumpling, reached across several dishes in the middle of the table, and set it down neatly on the bone plate in front of me.

“Anna, here—your favorite shrimp dumpling.”

Her gaze, like a barbed ice needle, swept over my face.

“Eat more. You’re looking thin.”

My stomach churned. That scent was like countless cold, clammy hands suddenly tightening around my throat, dragging me back into the abyss of that cold afternoon when I was seven.

The bowl of soup reeking of bitter medicine.

My mother’s face, pale as paper.

Me, lunging forward without thinking, snatching it away, and forcing down a burning mouthful of liquid…

Then came the endless darkness, where even sound warped and blurred.

I lowered my head, staring at the pale pink dumpling on the plate as if it were a sugar-coated piece of poison.

Lifting my head again, I broke into the wide-eyed, defenseless smile that belonged to “Anna,” the fool.

“Thank you, sis!”

My voice rose sharp and bright, laced with deliberate, childlike excitement.

Clumsily, I reached with my chopsticks to pick up the dumpling, my hand trembling like a leaf in the wind.

The dumpling rolled around the plate, slipping away again and again.

I began to grow anxious, a sheen of sweat forming on the tip of my nose, a small, pitiful whimper escaping my throat.

From beside me came a faint, derisive snort—undisguised contempt.

I didn’t have to look to know who it was.

Jason Miller, my so-called fiancé.

He sat next to Emily, leaning slightly toward her in an intimate posture.

He probably thought I couldn’t see, but beneath the tablecloth, his fingers were sliding suggestively along Emily’s stockinged leg.

Emily kept her face composed, but a suspicious flush tinged her ears.

“Dad, look at Anna…”

“She can’t even pick up a dumpling properly. What’s she going to do in the future? She can’t go on like this forever.”

My father, Richard Collins, sat at the head of the table, slowly dabbing the corner of his mouth with a snow-white napkin.

At last, his gaze settled on me, calm as if evaluating a commodity for sale, with the faintest trace of impatience hidden beneath.

“Mm.”

He made a vague sound in response to Emily,

but his eyes clung to me like a sticky spider’s web.

“Anna, how have you been feeling lately? Does your head still hurt?”

My vacant eyes drifted toward him, never quite focusing, and I let out a confused, “Huh?”

Emily seemed to be running out of patience—or perhaps she thought she’d set the stage well enough.

She leaned forward slightly, lowering her voice just enough for everyone at the table to hear clearly:

“Dad, the Bennetts… they don’t have much time left.”

She paused, her gaze flicking over me in a swift glance.

“That Adrian Bennett—the doctors say he’s only got a few months to live. Old Mr. Bennett is desperate to find someone to marry him for ‘good luck.’ They’ve got all sorts of restrictions on the birth chart compatibility, and after comparing everything, only our family qualifies…”

Her lips, painted a bright, glossy red, moved deliberately:

“The Bennetts want a daughter from the Collins family. Dad, do you really want me thrown into that pit, to live as a widow in waiting?”

“Since Adrian is already one foot in the grave, better…”

Her voice dripped with naked disdain.

“…to send Anna. She’s perfect for it. What does she understand, anyway?”

The dining room fell into a deathly silence.

Every gaze carried pity, mockery, or cold detachment.

I kept my head bowed.

So that’s how it is.

Perfect for the job, indeed.

Do you want me to continue with Chapter 2 right after this, keeping the same style and replacements?