My Birth Parents and Husband Chose the Adopted Daughter, So I Vanished Chapter 01

My Birth Parents and Husband Chose the Adopted Daughter, So I Vanished Chapter 01

After I got pregnant with a criminal’s child, I broke down and jumped off a rooftop.

The moment I stepped onto the rooftop of the high-rise, a trending post from an anonymous forum popped up on my phone.

[My wife hurt the sister I care about more than anyone. I only meant to teach my wife a lesson, but she ended up in intensive care ten times. Now it’s over, how do I make things right with her?]

The comments were already tearing the poster apart.

But his replies were so calm, as if none of it mattered.

[You don’t get it. Even her own parents went along with it. That ought to tell you she had it coming.]

[Ever since the Carters found her in foster care and brought her home, she’s lorded it over Serena because she’s their biological daughter. She even took the gem engraved with the family crest that her father meant to leave to the heir. Serena cried all night over it.]

[So I staged a kidnapping and made her think the kidnapper had sexually assaulted her. Then, when she fell pregnant, I had ten paternity tests falsified so she’d believe the baby was his. That stopped her using her status as the Carters’ biological daughter to lord it over Serena.]

[I only wanted her to understand that growing up in foster homes and low-income housing doesn’t mean she gets to come back and walk all over Serena just because she’s a Carter by blood.]

I recognised the profile picture instantly, and the warmth slowly drained from my fingers.

Then another account liked his post.

[I’m her birth mother. My son-in-law only did it to stop her using blood ties to grab a place that was never hers. Serena grew up with us. She knows our family’s etiquette, our social circles and how a Carter daughter is expected to behave. Evelyn came back thinking blood alone entitled her to everything. If you want to blame someone, blame her. Leave my precious daughter and son-in-law out of this.]

Both accounts used photos of Serena’s favourite Doberman as their profile pictures.

That was when I finally understood.

None of the suffering I’d endured over the years had ever been an accident.

If Serena was the only one they wanted, then fine.

Then I’d remove myself from the equation.

I closed my eyes and took one step towards the edge of the roof.

“System, I’m really going home this time.”

…

My phone kept refreshing.

My mother, Margaret, continued replying.

[Serena had to start seeing a therapist the moment Evelyn came back to the Carter family. We thought one kidnapping, followed by a pregnancy with all those vile rumours hanging over her, would finally stop Evelyn fighting for a place in the family. Instead, she helped draw up the security plan for the Moretti Foundation’s annual charity gala so she could worm her way into the Family’s inner circle.]

[She ought to remember where she came from. Serena grew up going to family galas with us. Evelyn didn’t even own a proper evening gown until she was an adult. What makes her think she has any right to compete with Serena?]

Adrian Moretti replied immediately after.

[I’m her Don, so technically I’m her boss as well. I took her off several operations, put Serena’s name on the results and made Serena a capo first. Over something that trivial, Evelyn landed herself in intensive care again and made it look as though Serena had driven her to it.]

I bit down hard on my lip.

The faint metallic taste of blood spread through my mouth.

I had fought desperately for the chance to oversee security for that charity gala.

At the reception, I’d stayed until the early hours entertaining a group of senior members of the Family, refusing to leave even when my stomach condition flared up.

It had been the first opportunity I’d earned entirely on my own after slowly clawing my way free of humiliating labels like “the filthy woman her kidnapper had touched” and “the low-class trash carrying a bastard child”.

But Serena had cried and said that if I entered the Moretti Family’s inner circle, people would mock her as nothing more than a pretty little figurehead propped up by her adoptive parents.

So Adrian stripped away the one chance I’d earned without a second thought.

Someone asked in the comments:

[If you hate your wife this much, why did you marry her? If you think her sister is so much better suited to you, why not just get a divorce?]

A minute later, Adrian replied.

[Divorce? Don’t be daft. Evelyn couldn’t cope without me. Even if she finds out the truth, so what? I’ll say a few nice things and she’ll get over it.]

[Serena’s different. We grew up together. She knows the Family, the rules, who to mix with and what to say. Evelyn just happens to be a Carter by blood, yet she’s always thought that means she deserves Serena’s place. Of course I treat Serena better. Why wouldn’t I?]

My parents immediately agreed.

[When Adrian was ambushed and left in a coma, the old Don needed a marriage alliance to secure the succession. We could have married Serena to him, but we couldn’t bear to put her through that, so we sent Evelyn instead. We’d only just found her.]

[Without that marriage, a girl raised in foster care would never have got anywhere near a family like the Morettis. We handed her the opportunity of a lifetime, and she still acts as though it isn’t enough.]

Every single reply was about protecting Serena.

They hadn’t even bothered hiding the names.

It didn’t take long before people started putting the pieces together.

[The Moretti Family, Adrian, Serena, the Carters’ adopted daughter… Hang on. Surely this isn’t that Moretti Family?]

[Hang on. Adrian’s married? I thought everyone said he was single.]

The moment I saw that comment, my breath caught.

Because he didn’t love me, he was too ashamed even to acknowledge me as his wife.

The post was deleted soon afterwards.

In its place came an official statement from the Moretti Family.

[Any attempt to associate the anonymous post with the Moretti Family, the Carter family, or Miss Serena Carter will be treated as malicious defamation.]

The statement protected Serena and Serena alone.

Not a single word mentioned me.

Ten minutes later, the street below was packed with police officers and firefighters.

The rooftop door burst open.

Adrian shoved past his bodyguards and strode towards me.

“Evelyn, don’t do anything stupid. This is all my fault. I can’t live without you.”

His voice was actually trembling.

It was nothing like the cold indifference he’d shown in the post only moments earlier.

When I first came to this world, the System had given me one mission.

Make Adrian fall in love with me.

Back then, he had only been an overlooked heir within the Moretti Family.

After an ambush, he spent months in a coma.

I was the one who stayed beside his hospital bed and cared for him.

And because I knew the plot ahead of time, I helped him avoid an internal purge, win over several key capos, and claw his way from an ostracised heir to the position he held today.

Eventually, Adrian became the Don of the Moretti Family.

During the years when we were closest, he would often hold me in his arms and say,

“Evelyn, I’d never have become Don without you. Nothing will ever tear us apart. Nothing but death.”

I believed him.

So after that fake kidnapping, I locked myself in the bathroom and scrubbed my skin until it was nearly raw.

After ten forged paternity tests convinced me that the baby inside me wasn’t Adrian’s, I broke down so completely that I wanted to hurt myself.

When he stripped me of the credit for my operations, he told me,

“You don’t belong in the Family’s inner circle. Those capos already look down on you because of where you came from. Stay at home, and at least no one will dare humiliate you to your face.”

I actually thought he was protecting me.

So many nights, I sat alone at home waiting for him to come back.

At my lowest point, the System asked me for the first time:

[Host, your mental state has reached its limit. I can terminate the mission and return you to your original world.]

The System had even offered to make one exception and grant me a wish.

Parents who truly loved me.

A partner who would never betray me.

And somehow, back then, I had answered,

“But don’t I already have that?”

Looking back, it was a bloody joke.

The wind on the rooftop left me shivering.

The System spoke again.

[Host, Adrian is here. Every time he talked you round before, you stayed. The wind is strong. If you’re not going to jump, please move back from the edge.]

Of the ten times I’d ended up in intensive care, I’d begged the System to save me nine times.

I had called for no one but Adrian and my parents.

Back then, I’d thought I couldn’t survive without them.

But to them, I was only someone who had never deserved to stand in their world in the first place.

“No.”

I looked at Adrian and spoke softly.

“System, this time, I really am going home.”

For one brief second, irritation flashed across Adrian’s face.

After all, I’d gone into intensive care ten times before.

When had I ever actually died?

But a second later, his eyes reddened right on cue.

“Evelyn, if you jump, I’m coming after you. I told you, if we die, we die together.”

I didn’t answer.

I closed my eyes and spread my arms.

As screams erupted from the crowd below, I leapt from the roof.

Adrian, I don’t want you anymore.

And I don’t want the Carter family either.

Hadn’t you always believed Serena was the only one worthy of being the Carters’ daughter, Adrian’s wife, and part of your world?

Then she could have every last place that was supposed to be mine.