Glittering chandeliers lightened the party as Henry led me inside my biological father’s mansion, the place where nothing felt like home. Neither the scent of expensive sandalwood nor the polished floor I once scrubbed on my knees as a child.

We were here for Casey’s grand homecoming, a lavish party thrown by the family that discarded me like a shameful secret.

“You remember how to behave, don’t you Elena?” Henry whispered against my temple, lips brushing my skin like an owner to a well-trained pet. “Smile. Be gracious. Don’t embarrass me.”

It was at that moment the entire sea of people parted for Casey as she walked towards me with a radiating smile.

The perfect princess of Davos lineage, most loved and adored by her parents and brother.

Her crimson gown shimmered like spilled wine making me look down at my pale beige dress, the one I had stitched myself from leftover fabric for my money was not meant for luxuries but for my mother’s cancer treatment and Henry said I need not try ‘too hard’.

It was only now I realized that he did not wish to take Casey’s spotlight taken away.

“Sister!

“I am so glad that you decided to come back sister. I know that it is all my fault, the way I carried myself must have been too arrogant to make you feel insecure and jealous.

But please know that from the day you ran away from home and got married to Henry haphazardly nothing is the same as before.”

Casey held onto my hand with a fake tear escaping her eyes as she glanced at Henry, her eyes lingering on him for a moment before she focused her attention back at me.

“Dad was unable to sleep well since then and even contracted a heart disease and mom cried every night. Mom always loved you so much, even more than me…but what to do..since she is not your real mother, she could never please you-”

“I think we are referring to two different people here, for as far as I remember Madam Davos was furious even when I called her ‘mother’ once.”

Murmurs erupted throughout the surroundings as people gossiped endlessly looking at me and Casey in interest.

Casey’s teary eyes turned to Henry as if she was bullied and he interrupted in between, his sharp eyes looking at me in warning as he pressed my hand tightly.

“Madam Davos had every right to be angry. Don’t be heartless Elena..how do you expect a woman to react when she finds out that a bad seed is trying to take their own children’s position?”

Henry’s words cut through me like a knife. Slowly the reality of what kind of man I had devoted my life to started unraveling, the Henry who had always pretended to be kind to me had never once loved me once.

“Forgive her Casey. Elena is a slow learner but she has come to realize her mistakes now, let us arrange a day for her to meet her father and mother to have a personal talk. With you beside her I am sure she will learn properly.”

Henry declared loudly, not caring of the people who looked at me like a lowly pest. He knew how I was hated and treated inside this home and yet he insisted that I apologize.

“Elena is so lucky to have such an understanding husband as Henry, right Elena?” Casey whispered sweetly to which Henry turned to look at me with an expectant gaze yet when he gazed into my eyes there was a numb doll that glanced at him heartbroken like he was a stranger.

“Excuse me.” Before Henry could say anything I excused myself, my entire life falling apart in front of my eyes making me walk aimlessly.

The familiar storeroom which Casey’s mother-Madam Davos pushed me inside as a punishment for scoring more than Casey and apparently ‘snatching away’ her opportunity to med school came into view.

This was my room for three long years- a cramped space where I could not even have the luxury of a blanket in winters. My pace quickened as I walked out in the garden searching for some peace.

Instead l I heard the unmistakable sound of heels behind me.

“You still flinch like a maid.” It was Casey with a white wine glass in hand, lips curled in amusement as she looked at me with a mocking laughter.

“I always thought you were a stray but to think you accepted it so readily?

Elena, I didn’t even have to hire a clown, for you made my friends laugh more than any clown could have.

That pendant you are wearing like a trophy along with your charity dress..gosh it almost resembles the free pet accessory Henry got along with the pearl necklace he purchased for my cat….oh my god don’t tell me he gave you a pet collar to wear around your neck.”

My body froze as if a bucket of cold water was poured over my head.

“See this is what happens when you forget your fucking place bitch, how did it feel like to keep my man’s bed warm for all these years?

Frankly speaking I am not even mad, afterall you did your job well and Henry will definitely reward you some dollars for being his exclusive slut for four long years.”

“Shutup! How can you be so shameless! If anything, you are the third woman, a mistress!”I shouted in rage, glaring at her sharply to which her eyes widened with a gleeful smile.

“A mistress? Oh dear, I was always Henry’s first- the woman he spent his wedding night with, abandoning you as soon as he came out of coma and also the woman he secretly took to a fertility specialist the very next day for making me pregnant.

But don’t worry he also got a gift for you-expensive tasteless and odorless contraceptives that you could not recognize so that you can never even dream of becoming a mother.”

I stumbled back in horror as my entire body shook with tears gathered in my eyes.

Casey’s eyes gleamed, and she took a leisurely step closer, voice dropping like a blade.

“A filthy bastard like you dares compete with me? Have you forgotten that your mother is withering in a hospital bed you can’t afford. Let alone working three shifts a day in a sleazy bar, even if you sell your soul…you will never compare with me.

I thought you didn’t know already so I specifically came to invite you sister. The man you love, your husband, is going to marry me next month. I can invite you as a maid of honor if you want.”