Chapter 1Switched at Birth: I Was Replaced, But I Refuse to Play the Victim

I am the true heiress who was intentionally switched at birth.

When my biological parents finally found me...

I had already joined the neighborhood senior citizens' Zumba squad.

They looked at my bright, floral-embroidered velour tracksuit.

And their faces twisted in absolute disgust.

* * *

"You're Chloe? These clothes..."

Seeing the bedazzled floral tracksuit I was wearing, the elegantly dressed woman faltered.

Ignoring the fleeting look of disgust in her eyes, I dropped the twenty-pound bag of rice and the gallon jug of cooking oil from my shoulder, then pulled a giant Stanley tumbler out of my tote bag.

After taking a slow sip of my iced tea, I looked at the group standing in front of me and asked, "So, you're my biological parents?"

Richard frowned but nodded. "Yes. We are your biological parents."

"And her?" I pointed at the frail, delicate-looking girl standing behind them.

The girl's eyes instantly welled up with tears.

The two young men standing beside her—one older, one younger—instinctively stepped forward to shield her.

"Don't you dare bully Serena!" The younger one couldn't hold back and yelled what was on his mind.

I stared at the girl's face, which shared a fifty-to-sixty percent resemblance to mine.

Then I looked at the Sterling family's protective attitude toward her. Instantly, I found this whole family incredibly amusing.

I leaned back against my dilapidated sofa, watching them with the detached amusement of someone watching a soap opera.

Perhaps realizing his brother's outburst was inappropriate, the older guy stepped up to explain:

"We know you've suffered a lot all these years, but that was all that woman's fault. Serena is completely innocent..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the door to my cramped apartment was pushed wide open.

A massive group of aunties and grannies—all wearing the exact same floral velour tracksuit as me—swarmed inside. They instantly surrounded my biological parents, talking over each other to defend me:

"So you're our little Chloe's real parents!"

"What took you so long? Do you have any idea what Chloe has been through all these years?"

"Let me tell you, that adopted mother of hers is a monster! You know those heavy wooden baseball bats? That woman would pick one up and beat her without a second thought!"

"Exactly! Starving her was an everyday thing, but in the dead of winter, she purposely shredded Chloe's winter coat so the poor girl had to walk to school in a ripped T-shirt. And during the state scholarship exams, she locked Chloe in her room so she couldn't go!"

"I always said there was no way a real mother could be that evil. Turns out, she really wasn't!"

"You need to have the cops arrest that woman! And you better investigate that fake daughter of yours, too. She probably knew her mom switched the babies on purpose..."

"Wait, who's crying?"

Auntie Martha, who was leading the pack, suddenly paused.

The group of aunties looked around to find the source of the sobbing, their eyes finally landing on the girl in the pristine white dress.

"Sister, I'm... I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to steal your life, I..."

The girl lowered her head, crying so hard her shoulders shook.

"Is this her?" Auntie Martha's eyes widened, putting a finger to her lips in a hushed motion.

I nodded. "Yep. That's Brenda Miller's biological daughter, Serena Sterling."