My Rich Parents Pretended to Be Poor for 20 Years—Just to Make Me Lose to Their GoddaughterChapter 1

My college roommate, Ellie Warren, had a fairy godmother.

While my family was scraping by and I was working day and night just to keep myself fed, her aunt was taking her around the world.

While I was so overworked that I suffered a stomach bleed and nearly died because my parents couldn't afford the hospital bills, her aunt was taking her to concerts.

While I was enduring a professor's harassment and pressure just to graduate, Ellie's aunt donated an entire building to the university to make certain Ellie never had to experience even the slightest inconvenience.

Everyone in our dorm — including me — envied Ellie for having an aunt like that.

They weren't related by blood, and yet the woman adored her.

Until Ellie posted a video from her birthday party.

She stood in the center of the room in a pink gown, surrounded by guests.

And behind her, the woman Ellie called her fairy godmother was watching her with a look so full of love there was no mistaking it.

My roommates saw the video and immediately started gushing:

"God, she spoils Ellie rotten."

"Look at the way Ellie's aunt looks at her — like a queen looking at her little princess. I'm so jealous."

But I had gone rigid.

I stared in disbelief at the woman Ellie called her aunt. Her fairy godmother.

It was my mother. Rebecca Barrett.

...

It wasn't until hotel security stopped me at the entrance that I realized I'd made my way to the hotel where Ellie was holding her party.

I looked up at that gleaming palace of a building, then went around to the back, hoping to find another way in.

I had to see for myself whether Ellie's aunt really was my mother.

And while I was looking for an entrance near the rear door, I heard a familiar voice.

"How long are you planning to keep this from Bella?"

My father's voice.

I looked up at a balcony a short distance away.

In every memory I had of him, my father wore the same grease-stained old clothes, sat silently on our battered sofa, and smoked.

And now he was in an immaculately tailored dark suit.

My mother stood beside him in a deep green gown with a sable wrap around her shoulders.

I stood there, unable to believe it.

I gripped my phone, about to run up there and demand to know why they'd lied to me.

Then my mother's next words sent a chill through me, rooting me to the spot.

"If we tell Bella the truth, what happens to Ellie?

Her father died in that earthquake saving my life. I'm all she has.

She's been fragile since she was a child. She's never known a single hard day.

How is she supposed to cope with someone appearing out of nowhere to take away our love?"

"And that fortune teller said Bella was born under a bad sign. If things go well for her, it brings misfortune down on Ellie."

"So all these years we've pretended to be poor and kept Bella down. We even drugged her before the SAT."

"But Bella is our daughter too. What we're doing to her isn't fair."

"Enough."

My mother cut him off.

"I know exactly what I'm doing. Keeping things as they are is better for everyone."

I stood below that balcony listening, shaking all over and unable to stop.

In high school, I'd been one of the students most likely to earn a perfect score on the SAT.

A university trustee had made me an offer.

If I got a perfect score, I'd receive a seventy-thousand-dollar scholarship, plus full tuition and living expenses for all four years of college.

I studied myself half to death for that scholarship.

Up at five every morning, asleep at two.

My eyes were permanently bloodshot from exhaustion.

And on the day of the SAT, I overslept.

I missed the exam.

The perfect score was gone.

The scholarship was gone.

The deal was off.

I nearly fell apart in the weeks after.

I thought I wasn't good enough.

I blamed my own body for failing me.

I thought I'd let the school down.

Worse, I thought I'd let my mother down.

So I worked myself raw trying to earn enough for tuition and living costs.

I fainted on the job three times and didn't care.

And now I'd learned that the mother I loved more than anyone had orchestrated all of it.

All of it for Ellie.