I had spent those three years abroad expanding the Bennett Group.
To say I was neglectful or unfilial—that was the cruelest slander imaginable.
Seeing that I didn’t react, Sophie grew irritated. Just as she was about to say something to provoke me further, her gaze suddenly flicked to the vase on the vanity.
She abruptly stood, grabbed the vase, and smashed it against her own forehead.
Bang!
With her scream, blood immediately began to stream down from the wound.
The incident happened so suddenly that I had no time to react. Instinctively, I reached out to support her.
Unexpectedly, she clutched my hand and flung herself to the ground, dragging me down with her.
Then, using every ounce of strength, she screamed:
“Help! Sister, why are you doing this? What did I do wrong? You were trying to hit me with the vase!”
“I was wrong, sister, don’t hit me! I’ll leave, I’ll leave right now!”
Hearing her shrieks, my parents rushed in immediately.
What they saw was this: the vase shattered on the floor, Sophie lying there with blood streaming from her forehead, and me on top of her—my hands positioned as if I were trying to strangle her.
Meanwhile, Sophie clutched my hands, feigning desperate resistance.
“Sophie!” My mother’s horrified scream tore through the room.
She shoved me violently aside and threw herself down beside Sophie.
“My daughter, my precious girl, are you alright? Don’t scare your mom!”
My father shook with rage, his eyes bloodshot as though he wanted to devour me alive.
“You’re insane! How dare you lay hands on her?”
He roared, ripping off his belt without hesitation.
Without giving me a chance to explain, he swung it down hard.
Snap!
The belt lashed across my arm, the searing pain splitting my skin into a red welt.
“I’ll beat you to death, you wretched child!”
Snap!
Another strike across my back.
The pain drove me stumbling forward, nearly collapsing to my knees.
I clenched my teeth, enduring in silence.
I knew—explaining now was useless. They wouldn’t believe me. They didn’t want to believe me.
All they trusted was Sophie.
My silence seemed only to enrage him further.
“How could the Bennett family produce such a vicious creature—someone who would even harm her own sister?”
He brought the belt down again and again, each strike raising bloody welts across my body.
My mother clutched Sophie protectively, shouting through the chaos:
“Harder, darling! Teach her a real lesson! If you don’t beat some sense into her, who knows what she’ll do next!”
“Look at Sophie—she’s bleeding so much! If she dies, I won’t live either!”
Fueled by her cries, my father’s strikes grew even heavier.
My body was battered, my lips bleeding from how tightly I’d bitten them, but still I refused to fall.
Nestled in my mother’s arms, Sophie weakly murmured:
“Please, stop… I know my sister didn’t mean it.”
Her pitiful plea only stoked my father’s fury further.
He hurled the belt aside and pointed his finger at me, cursing:
“Look at Sophie—hurt like this, yet she’s still pleading for you. And you? You heartless beast, do you even have a shred of conscience left?”
Panting heavily, his chest heaved with rage.
“She can’t stay in this house any longer. She’ll be the death of Sophie.”
As if making a grave decision, he pulled out his phone and dialed.
“Hello? Mr. Dawson?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“About the marriage we discussed—my daughter’s marriage. I agree.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll have her married off.”
My phone and laptop were confiscated, and I was locked in the cold, pitch-black basement—just as icy as my heart.
They weren’t entirely devoid of humanity; they summoned the family doctor to treat my wounds.
He had watched me grow up.
“Miss… you—”
He wanted to say something but didn’t dare. After hastily tending to my injuries, he left.
As soon as he was gone, my parents entered with Sophie trailing behind them.
There wasn’t a trace of pity on their faces.
“Until you learn obedience, everything you own will be managed by Sophie,” my father ordered coldly.
My mother tossed a box in front of me.
“Your passport, ID, bank cards—everything. Hand them over.”
Sophie stood behind them. They couldn’t see it, but I could—the triumphant smile tugging at her lips.
I didn’t resist.
I knew resistance would only invite harsher cruelty.
One by one, I placed every document and card into the box.
Sophie gleefully snatched it up, opened my wallet, and pulled out all the cash, stuffing it into her own pocket right before my eyes.
“Thanks, sister.” Her voice dripped with mock sweetness.
“Good.” My mother nodded with satisfaction, then suddenly seemed to recall something. She pulled out a folder from her bag and tossed it at me.
“Oh, right. One more thing.”
I glanced down. It was a marriage contract.
The groom’s name was Robert Dawson.
A man in his fifties who had clawed his way to wealth through shady dealings—known throughout elite circles for his twisted abuse of women. His two previous wives, one had gone insane, the other had died.
“Sign it.” My mother threw a pen in front of me.
My heart turned to ice.
“Why?”
My voice cracked.
“Why?”
She chuckled as if I had told the funniest joke.
“Mr. Dawson’s projects will pave the way for Sophie’s future company. You marrying him is your final contribution to this family, to your sister. You should feel honored.”
For Sophie, I was to sacrifice my entire life.
So this was my biological mother.
“I won’t sign.”
Each word ground out between my teeth.
Her face instantly darkened.
At that moment, the old butler, Mark Thompson, walked past carrying a tea tray.
Mark!
He had known me since I was a child. Surely, he would help me.
I cast him a desperate look for help.
But my father caught it, sneering.
“Mark, I heard your grandson is applying to one of the top schools owned by our group.”
Mark’s body trembled. The color drained from his face.
“Sir, Madam—I saw nothing.”
His hands shook so badly he almost dropped the tray.
“I’ll be going now.” He turned and fled.
My last hope shattered.
“Sister, why are you so stubborn?” Sophie mocked, walking over gleefully. “Uncle and Aunt are doing this for your own good.”
She picked up a crystal trophy from the table—the one I had received three years ago when I secured my first multimillion-dollar investment. The inscription read Presented to Sophia Bennett.
“This is beautiful,” she mused, turning it in her hands.
“Such a shame—you’ll be married off soon.”
Crash—
The crystal trophy slipped from Sophie’s hand and shattered on the ground.
“Oh no, sorry, sister, my hand slipped.”
She laughed, cruel yet innocent.
“But it doesn’t matter. You won’t be needing it anymore.”
Her actions completely ignited my fury.
I leapt to my feet and tore the contract in half.
“I will not sign it!”
I shouted at my parents.
“Even if you beat me to death today, I will never sign!”
“Courting death!”
My father, enraged beyond reason, ripped off his belt again and swung it at me with no restraint this time.
The belt cracked through the air before slashing into me.
The wounds that had just been treated split open again, leaving raw flesh exposed and bleeding.
I curled up on the floor, my consciousness blurring from the pain.
“Stop!”
My mother suddenly spoke.
For a fleeting moment, I thought she had grown a conscience.
But then—
“Don’t beat her too much. If she’s broken, how will we deliver her to the Dawson family tomorrow?”
My heart turned completely to ash.
“I’ll handle it.”
From the doctor’s medical kit, she pulled out a syringe.
“This is a sedative. Beating you isn’t working—it’ll make you more obedient.”
Terror gripped me as I realized my own mother intended to drug me.
I struggled desperately, but after the savage beating, my body had no strength left.
My father and Sophie pinned me down from either side.
I felt the cold sting of the needle pierce my skin.
Before darkness swallowed me whole, I caught one last sight: Sophie clutching my hand, pressing it onto the contract, leaving my fingerprint as a seal.
…
When I woke again, it was already midnight.
I had been moved to a bedroom. My entire body ached as though it had been torn apart.
From outside came the sound of laughter—my parents and Sophie. Along with it, the acrid smell of burning paper.
Dragging myself to the door, I peered through the crack.
They were huddled around a brazier, feeding the flames with every last one of my business plans and the legal documents from my overseas company—burning them sheet by sheet.
Three years of blood and sweat, my carefully prepared safety net—destroyed before my eyes.
They were determined to erase me completely.
I couldn’t even muster the strength to scream stop.
Sensing movement, my mother strode toward the door.
It swung open roughly. She looked down on me as if I were nothing but trash waiting to be disposed of.
“The wedding dress will arrive tomorrow morning.”
“This is your final contribution to this family.”
“After the wedding, the Bennett family will have only one daughter.”
“She will be the Bennett family’s only daughter—Sophie Miller.”
She turned and left, as if even one more glance at me was revolting.
The door locked behind her.
Moments later, Sophie’s voice floated through the wood, sickly sweet.
“Thank you for making this possible, sister. From tomorrow on—your parents, your room, everything that was yours… it’ll all be mine.”
At dawn the next day, the door burst open.
Several burly maids entered, holding a blood-red wedding gown in their arms.
I sneered. Clearly, they had chosen ones strong enough to subdue me.
“Miss, it’s time. Put the dress on and come with us.”
“Don’t waste words. Just force it on her. She’s no young lady anymore.”
“Miss Sophie gave orders—whoever can subdue her the fastest will be rewarded. Let’s go!”
