The sterile hospital room smelled of disinfectant and my mother' s fading life, her hand a fragile anchor in mine.
Then, a bombshell dropped: Mr. Sterling, the tech mogul plastered on magazine covers, was my biological father.
My mother's dying breaths were a desperate plea to him: "Promise me you'll take care of her." He promised, just as the machine flatlined, leaving me an orphan.
Thrown into his opulent world, I faced his glacial children, Olivia and Liam, who saw me as an unwelcome stain on their perfect lives, a "charity case," a "problem."
Their disdain was a constant torment, especially when Tiffany and her clique at the elite boarding school used my illegitimate status to bully me relentlessly.
No one helped. I was utterly alone, humiliated, my mother's death still raw, the world an unbearable weight.