Chapter 1

Emerald City Prison.

"Don't look back when you get out. Live a good life."

Nora Adams turned around and bowed, shivering in the cold wind.

Five years.

She was only twenty-one when she went to prison.

"Get in the car."

A black Maybach was parked by the roadside, and the man speaking had an icy voice.

He was Nora's brother Aiden Adams—the brother she had called "brother" for twenty-one years, only to discover they shared no blood relation suddenly.

"Aiden..." Nora's voice was hoarse, her head lowered, looking somewhat uneasy.

"Don't call me that so familiarly. It makes me sick." Aiden's face darkened as he glanced at his watch. "You stole twenty-one years of my real sister's life and made her suffer all kinds of abuse in that family. What right do you have to call me that?"

Nora's cracked lips moved, but in the end, she said nothing.

In Emerald City, the Adams family's only daughter Nora was actually the nanny's child, while the real Adams family daughter had been secretly switched by the nanny.

"I'm sorry." After a long silence, Nora apologized in a hoarse voice.

Falsely accused of blackmail, during these five years in prison, she had learned to submit, learned to apologize. For survival, she could even kneel and beg for mercy anytime, anywhere.

Once, she had been the high and mighty Adams family heiress, the beloved treasure of her family.

But suddenly one day, the real Adams family daughter burst into her life in ragged clothes.

Overnight, her biological mother became a criminal, and Nora became the despised clown of Emerald City—the one who had stolen the heiress's life.

No one cared that when her biological mother switched them, Nora was just a baby in swaddling clothes. She had no choice in the matter.

"Sorry? You think one 'sorry' and five years in prison can make up for all the harm your family caused my real sister Evelyn Thomas?" Aiden's voice was cold as he looked at Nora with disgust. "Get in the car."

He found Nora dirty and didn't want to touch her at all.

The Aiden who used to love holding her and saying Nora was the prettiest now wished she were dead.

"I'm dirty." Nora smiled bitterly and stepped back, not daring to get in the car.

Aiden frowned and looked Nora up and down.

Once, Nora had lived as a wealthy heiress in their family for twenty-one years, so precious she was like a fragile treasure, shining brilliantly in everyone's eyes.

Now, she was covered in dust, pale and thin, looking humble to her very bones.

Clearly, Nora had had a very hard time inside.

"Don't make me say it twice. Get in!" Aiden looked at Nora with venomous eyes. "Something happened to Evelyn. Are you happy? Come with me to the hospital. What you owe her, give it back to her!"

Nora's evasive, hollow eyes froze for a moment, and she suddenly felt afraid.

The moment she left prison, she thought she was hallucinating. How could Aiden possibly come to pick her up? Everyone in the Adams family hated her to death.

But Aiden had come.

And naturally, he wasn't here to pick her up.

"What do you mean?" Nora trembled slightly.

"Evelyn was in a car accident and needs a kidney transplant. You owe her this." Aiden frowned and spoke in a deep voice.

Nora took a deep breath and stepped back again. Her survival instinct made her turn and run.

"Nora, you really are as vicious as ever."

After just a few steps, someone grabbed Nora's wrist hard and threw her to the ground.

Lying on the ground in a mess, Nora's forehead hit the pavement, and blood gushed out.

This voice was cold, yet familiar.

Looking back, Nora curled up her legs in fear.

James Smith—her former fiancé, and one of the people who had fabricated evidence of blackmail and personally sent her to prison.

"This is what you owe Evelyn." James said each word deliberately, dragging Nora, who had just walked out of prison, back into the abyss of hell.

Nora had thought that once released, she would be free.

In court, she hadn't explained, and had no strength to explain.

Nora had thought that by pleading guilty, five years in prison would atone for all her sins. But apparently, it was far from enough.

"Hurry up and get her to the hospital. Evelyn is still waiting." Aiden sounded impatient.

"What if she doesn't agree?" the driver asked.

"Doesn't agree? Her life should belong to Evelyn. What right does she have to disagree?" James sneered and grabbed Nora's chin. "That vicious biological mother of yours is still in prison. If you want her to live, behave yourself and trade one of your kidneys."

Nora's trembling body slowly stiffened. Sure enough, after leaving prison, what awaited her was still hell.

To survive in the hands of these demons, she had to fight her way up.

In all of Emerald City, the only man who could protect her was Michael Smith, CEO of the Smith Group—James's older brother.