And countless antique vases, coral,
1
Finally, Max personally presented
and
a
set of
He said, “Mr. Fuentes has purchased a priv exclusively for her use.”
All the relatives and friends were stunned.
e jet and a private yacht for Miss Chloe. Both are adorned with Miss Chloe’s photos and are
“The Fuentes Group? Isn’t that the largest publicly traded company in the city?”
“Oh my goodness, the CEO of the Fuentes Group personally sending gifts to Chloe? Chloe is going to be the CEO’s wife one day!”
Immediately, everyone in the room began to fawn over Chloe.
They competed to heap even more compliments on her.
Chloe’s face flushed as she shyly said, “Auntie, don’t talk nonsense. I don’t even know the Fuentes CEO.”
Her aunt chuckled. “You don’t know him, and he’s sending you all these gifts? He definitely likes you.”
Another older woman chimed in, “Yes, Chloe. When you become the CEO’s wife, don’t forget to help your cousins out.”
“Oh, nothing’s set in stone yet…”
Max, the assistant, stood nearby and announced loudly for all to hear, “Miss Chloe, Mr. Fuentes asked me to tell you: if you simply nod your head, tomorrow he will arrive with flowers and the most lavish, fairy–tale wedding to take you home!”
Riley stood alone in the corner, feeling utterly disgusted. She went outside for some fresh air.
She didn’t know how long she stood there, chilled to the point of numbness.
Suddenly, Chloe’s voice came from behind her. “Sister, it must be painful for you to see everyone liking me and revolving around me, isn’t it?”
Everyone else was inside; currently, only the two sisters were in the yard.
Chloe had shed her “good girl” facade, and her smile turned malicious. “But there’s nothing you can do. I’m just more likable than you. Not only Mom and Dad like me…”
She leaned closer to Riley’s ear. “Even your husband is my simp.”
Riley hadn’t intended to argue with her, until she heard that last sentence.
“You know Julian’s true identity?”
“Of course. He’s the CEO of the Fuentes Group! If I can marry him, I’ll be the envied Mrs. Fuentes! But I know that to make a man devoted, you can’t make it too easy for him. So I’ve been rejecting him, but every now and then, I give him a little hope. This push and pull makes him utterly
obsessed with me…”
Chloe held Riley’s hand and continued, “Oh, by the way, Sister, you didn’t know this, did you? When we were little, Mom and Dad thought you stole money and beat you terribly, and from then on, they hated you. That money was actually stolen by me, and I secretly put it in your backpack…
That stealing incident was the root cause of her parents‘ change in attitude.
9:21 AM
<
Her parents found the money in her backpack, and no matter how she tried to explain, they were convinced she stole it. From then on, they started to detest her and instead pampered and adored Chloe.
So, everything, absolutely everything, had been Chloe’s doing!
The long–suppressed anger finally erupted in an instant. Riley raised her hand to slap her.
But before her hand could land, Chloe herself collapsed to the ground.
She clutched her face, crying, “Sister, it’s all my fault! I’ll never do it again, boo hoo hoo…”
Her cries drew everyone from inside.
Her mother clutched Chloe, glaring furiously
at
Her father directly laid hands on her. Sin
Slap! Slap! Slap!
He slapped Riley three times.
“You’re out of your mind! How dare you lay a hand on my daughter?!”
Riley demanded sharply, “Am I not your daughter too?!”
“I don’t have a daughter as rotten to the core as you! You’re inherently wicked! I wish I’d strangled you at birth. I only consider myself to have
given birth to one child, Chloe!”
Slap!
Her father delivered another slap, making Riley’s ears ring.
He pointed furiously towards the door. “Get out! From now on, I have no daughter like you!”
Riley scrambled up from the ground, wiped the blood from the corner of her lip, and sneered. “Even if you weren’t kicking me out, I wouldn’t want to stay here anymore. This place makes me sick!”
Turning to leave, she collided head–on with a sharply dressed Julian, who was just arriving.
She sneered. “So, you’re finally willing to show your true face?”
**Chapter 7**
Julian coldly glanced at her and asked, “Which hand did you use to hit Chloe?”
“I didn’t even touch her! She fell down herself! Ah-!”
Julian grabbed her throat, grinding his teeth, eyes wide with fury. “How dare you touch Chloe! You’re asking to die!”
The men in black behind him quickly moved, several burly figures pinning her down tightly and dragging her into a car.
The vehicle bumped along for a long time until she was taken to a desolate, uninhabited area.
A sharp pain shot through her knee as she was kicked, forcing her to her knees.
A pair of black leather shoes appeared in her line of sight.
Julian looked down at her from above, like a devil from hell. “I was going to leave you one hand, but since you won’t talk, you won’t need either!”
Riley’s hands were pinned to the ground by the men in black, and a thick, long steel nail was immediately driven into her palm.
“Ah!”
C
Then, the other side.
Excruciating pain flooded her senses, and Riley nearly fainted from it.
Julian said, “Riley, you two are twins, but it’s always been you, the older sister, who received all the parents‘ affection. Chloe has always tolerated and yielded to you since childhood, so why do you still bully her?!”
Riley endured the intense pain, twisting her lips. “I bullied her? Is that what she told you?”
“Riley, Chloe is my bottom line.”
“So, what then, Mr. Fuentes? Are you planning to get revenge for her?”
Julian said, “I never explained my identity to you before, so you probably don’t know my temper. Riley, all the suffering Chloe has endured since childhood, you’ll have to repay tenfold, a hundredfold!”
Before leaving, he instructed the men in black: “Don’t touch her face, but I don’t want to see an inch of good skin anywhere else.”
“Yes, sir!”
Not touching her face–was it because her face looked almost identical to Chloe’s?
Julian, oh Julian, when you find out about her schemes, will you still love her so blindly?
A searing, tearing pain simultaneously erupted from every part of her body.
The men in black held glowing red branding irons, pressing them fiercely onto every inch of her skin.
The excruciating agony made her instinctively writhe and roll.
But with her hands nailed to the ground, she had no escape.
Riley didn’t know how long she had been unconscious.
She was woken by a villager who happened to be passing by.
He said, “It’s been raining for two days and two nights now. How did you end up lying here, covered in injuries?”
