The Wife They Cast Aside

“For ten years, I lived a life that wasn' t mine, sacrificing my scientific dreams to become the perfect wife and mother. My carefully built world shattered when I overheard my husband, Mark, tell our ten-year-old daughter Mia, that her real mother, my sister Sophia, was finally coming back. He then twisted a venomous lie, blaming me for Sophia' s decade-long absence, claiming I was jealous and drove her away. Mia' s face twisted in fury, her blue eyes, once filled with love, now burned with hatred as she screamed, "You're a monster! I hate you!" Before I could react, she lunged and shoved me down the grand staircase, leaving me crumpled and bleeding on the marble, physically and emotionally broken. My parents, witnessing my prostrate form and Mia' s crocodile tears, immediately sided with their 'precious' granddaughter, my mother slapping me and my father lecturing me on duty. They saw me not as a daughter, but as a business asset, a pawn to save their shaky social standing and financial future. How could the people who were supposed to love me unconditionally abandon me so easily, believing such a blatant lie? Why did my years of selfless devotion to a child and a family that wasn't truly mine only lead to such profound betrayal? Lying there, bleeding and discarded, a chilling clarity pierced through the agony: My life as Olivia Reynolds, the aspiring scientist, was violently reclaimed. I would divorce my indifferent husband, leave my ungrateful family, and reclaim the life stolen from me a decade ago.”