Chapter 1 Released from prison

San Francisco, prison.

"Don't look back once you're out. Make a good life for yourself."

Jasmine Wilson stood trembling in the biting wind.

Five years had passed.

She was only 21 when she was imprisoned.

"Get in the car."

A black Maybach was parked by the road, and the man in it was speaking in a frosty tone.

He was Jasmine's 'brother.' For 21 years, Jasmine had affectionately called him her 'brother,' until one day she discovered that they shared no blood relation.

"Bro...," Jasmine's voice was hoarse, and she looked down, feeling quite uncomfortable.

"I'm not your brother; don't disgust me with that," Evan Wilson's face darkened as he checked the time. "You've stolen 21 years of my sister's life and made her suffer endless humiliation in that home. What right do you have to call me brother?"

Jasmine's cracked lips moved, but she ended up saying nothing.

In San Francisco, the only heiress to the Wilson family fortune, Jasmine Wilson, turned out to be the nanny's child. The real Wilson family heiress had been secretly switched at birth.

"I'm sorry..." After a long silence, Jasmine apologized in a raspy voice.

Framed and imprisoned for five years, she had learned to bow her head, apologize, and do anything for survival-including begging on her knees.

Once upon a time, she was the lofty heiress of the Wilson family, adored by her brother and cherished by her parents.

But one day, the true heiress of the Wilson family burst into her life in tattered clothes. Overnight, her birth mother turned into a criminal, and she became the impostor heiress, a pariah in San Francisco, and a laughingstock despised by all.

No one cared that when her mother switched her at birth, she was just an infant, without any choice in the matter.

Jasmine, who once had lived the pampered life of a wealthy heiress in their home for twenty-one years, so delicate and resplendent, admired by everyone, now appeared dusty, pale, and pathetically diminished to the bone.

Clearly, she had a rough time on the inside.

"Don't make me repeat myself; get in the car!" Evan's resentful gaze pierced Jasmine. "Serena's had an accident. Are you happy now? You owe her; let's go to the hospital and pay your debt!"

Jasmine's hollow eyes froze with sudden fear.

After stepping out of the detention center, she thought she was hallucinating. Why would her brother come for her when the entire Wilson family loathed her to their core?

Yet, Evan did come.

And it wasn't to pick her up.

"What do you mean... " Jasmine trembled.

"Serena had a car accident and needs a kidney transplant. You owe her," Evan spoke with a furrowed brow and a grave tone.

Jasmine took a deep breath, stepped back once more, and turned to run, her instinct to survive kicking in.

"Jasmine, you are as venomous as ever."

She didn't get far before someone grabbed her wrist harshly, sending her crashing to the ground.

Lying in a heap, her forehead struck the curb, and blood began to stream out.

That voice... it was cold and eerily familiar.

Turning her head, Jasmine recoiled in fear.

Daniel Douglas, her former fiancé and one of those who'd fabricated evidence to send her to prison.

"You owe this to Serena," Daniel said, each word deliberate as he dragged Jasmine, fresh out of prison, back into a hellish abyss.

She thought that once she was released, she'd be free.

In the courtroom, she offered no explanation, and indeed, she had no explanation to give.

She figured that pleading guilty and serving five years behind bars would atone for all her sins. But she was wrong; it was hardly enough.

"Let's hurry up and get her to the hospital; Serena is waiting," Evan said, his patience wearing thin.

"What if she refuses?" The driver inquired.

"Refuses? Her life should belong to Serena; what right does she have to refuse?" Daniel scoffed, grabbing Jasmine's chin in his hand. "Your vile birth mother is still rotting in jail. If you want her to live, you better do as you're told and trade your kidney for her life."

Jasmine's body shuddered and then grew stiff. Sure enough, freedom from prison only led her to another hell.

To survive among these devils, she had to fight tooth and nail to rise above them.

In all of San Francisco, the only man who could protect her was Ethan, CEO of Stellar Enterprises and Daniel's own brother.