Elliana’s fingers danced across the keyboard.

“Who’s been tormenting Bexley?”

Levi’s response blazed onto her screen.

“Amilia and Karlee — Edgar and Elsie’s daughter and granddaughter. They’re consumed with jealousy over Bexley’s beauty and intelligence, and over the affection Edgar and Elsie shower on her. So they’ve made it their mission to humiliate her at every turn.”

Levi’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he typed another message.

“Amilia is Edgar and Elsie’s only daughter, spoiled beyond reason from the moment she could walk. She’s arrogant, domineering, and has a reputation for outrageous stunts that would make your head spin. Karlee inherited every drop of Amilia’s poison — just as arrogant, just as domineering, but somehow even more ridiculous in her cruelty.”

Edgar and Elsie’s only daughter. That single phrase detonated Elliana’s suspicions into certainty. Years ago, when Maxine had stolen Rita away, she’d replaced Rita with another baby girl — Amilia — to fool the Thompson family. All this time, Amilia had been luxuriating in a life that belonged to Rita by birthright.

The absurdity of it crashed over Elliana like a wave. Her mother’s life had become one of those melodramatic switched-at-birth stories she’d always rolled her eyes at; except this wasn’t fiction — this was her mother’s stolen existence. Her mother was the true Thompson heir, yet fate had twisted so cruelly that she’d spent a decade enslaved as a servant in her own parents’ home, tormented daily by the impostor and her spawn. The injustice of it burned.

Elliana’s fingers struck the keys again.

“Who’s causing that chaos downstairs?”

“Amilia and Karlee — here for their routine bullying of Bexley,” Levi replied.

“My advice? Stay clear of it. Amilia is reckless in ways that defy logic. If you defend Bexley, you’ll paint a target on your back.”

Elliana smirked.

“As if that has ever instilled fear in me.”

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“I know you’ve never been afraid of such things, and you could handle them with your eyes closed,” Levi wrote.

“But I’m warning you — it’s not worth making enemies of the Thompson family over someone who’s supposedly nothing to you. Picking that fight will leave scars.”

Pausing, Levi added, “Speaking of Amilia, her life reads like a cautionary tale. She has been married six times. Each marriage combusted spectacularly, ending in bitter divorce for one disaster or another. Eventually, no man would touch her with a ten-foot pole.”

“Karlee was born out of wedlock—Amilia can’t even identify the father. She has cycled through lovers like changing clothes, most of them forgettable one-night encounters. At one point she contracted an STD and underwent extensive treatment. But recovery taught her nothing—if anything, she emerged more promiscuous than before.”

Levi shifted the topic.

“Well, I’ll spare you the full catalog of Amilia’s debauchery. We’d be here until next week. Let me tell you about Karlee instead. Without a father to speak of, Karlee grew up in the Thompson mansion, pampered and indulged from infancy. She’s your exact age, actually. To save Karlee from repeating Amilia’s mistakes, Edgar and Elsie raised her themselves, praying she’d amount to something worthwhile.”

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