“I was lying in the emergency room with acute gastroenteritis on my birthday, but my mother ordered me to rip out my IV needle. She threatened to freeze all my accounts if I didn't show up to my adopted sister's high-society matchmaking party. When I arrived, dragging my weak body, I caught my fiancé Julio protecting his mistress. Worse, my adopted sister Billie framed me for stealing my own grandmother's heirloom earrings just to play the victim in front of New York's elite. I refused to be their stepping stone and projected the evidence of Julio's affair on the massive ballroom screen. In a rage, my father cursed me, and my mother slapped me across the face so hard my mouth bled. During the ensuing physical struggle, my adopted sister, the mistress, and I all plunged into the freezing outdoor swimming pool. My fiancé desperately swam to save his mistress, while my own brother rushed to pull my adopted sister above the water. I stopped kicking and let my heavy, soaked clothes pull me down to the bottom of the black pool. Why did my own flesh and blood treat me like garbage? After a mysterious bodyguard pulled me from the water, I watched my family frantically wrap the other two women in warm blankets. I didn't shed a single tear. "I am no longer a part of this family. I never want to see any of you again." I publicly canceled the engagement, turned my back on the wealthy estate, and walked away into the freezing winter night.”