His Secret Family, My Public Shame

“For five years, my adoptive family told me my sister, Seraphina, was being punished at a strict boarding school for framing me for a political crime. I played the part of the perfect daughter, happily engaged to a brilliant congressman, my life a picture of success and privilege. Then, on the night of my fifth engagement anniversary, I saw her laughing in a park with my fiancé, Liam, and their four-year-old son. My entire world was a lie. I wasn't his beloved fiancée; I was a placeholder, a political shield to protect their secret family. Every family dinner, every whispered "I love you," was a performance for an audience of one: me. My own mother, who preached about my sister's need for "reflection," was secretly using family money to fund the comfortable life of the woman who tried to destroy me. But it was worse than an affair. I discovered Seraphina was blackmailing them. The scandal she framed me for was real, and my own father was involved. They had sacrificed me to protect their legacy from the criminal they raised. In a hidden email, she called me a "plain social worker," a fool they had to pretend to love. They were wrong. At my mother's annual charity gala, I made a small change to the evening's presentation. As the lights dimmed, a photo of my fiancé's real family flashed onto the screens for all of Washington's elite to see.”