Mr. CEO, You Look Strangely Familiar

Sierra Ainsworth sat there, head bowed, like a soulless puppet.

”I’m sorry.”

The two words pierced Nora Ainsworth’s heart with a sharp pain.

It reminded her of her own days at Sharon Ainsworth’s house. Her mother had treated her the same way.

She couldn’t watch anymore. She got up and went upstairs.

Quentin Grant, meanwhile, went out the door.

The matchmaking session in the living room was gradually coming to an end.

”Chapman, do you like our Sierra?”

Fatty Chapman nodded, chuckling slyly. ”I do, I do.”

She didn’t ask for Sierra Ainsworth’s opinion. ”Alright, that’s all for today. We’ll be in touch by phone.”

Mrs. Chapman nodded and left with her son.

Catherine Callahan had been holding her tongue, but as soon as Mrs. Chapman and her son were gone, she was the first to burst out laughing. ”Mom, that Fatty Chapman is so handsome and dashing, just like Pigsy. Sierra Ainsworth is in for a real treat.”

Claire Sinclair’s expression soured. She stood up and glared at Sierra Ainsworth. ”Come to my room. I have something to say to you.”

Catherine Callahan laughed, gloating, ”Looks like someone’s about to get a beating.”

Sierra Ainsworth didn’t move.

Claire Sinclair reached the foot of the stairs and saw that she was still sitting there.

She stomped back down.

Stopping beside Sierra Ainsworth, she looked down and said, ”Did you not hear me?”

The moment she looked up, she was slapped across the face. Nora Ainsworth happened to see it from where she stood at the bend in the staircase.

She watched them from a distance.

In that moment, she couldn’t help but realize something was wrong.

A moment later, she came downstairs and called out, ”Sierra, can you help me with something?”

Only then did Sierra Ainsworth stand up. She nodded at her. ”Okay.”

Claire Sinclair looked at Nora Ainsworth and said, ”What do you need? I’ll have the servants do it for you.”

Nora Ainsworth smiled faintly. ”No, thank you. This is something only Sierra can help me with. Come, come upstairs with me and help me take a look.”

She took Sierra Ainsworth by the hand and led her upstairs, right under Claire Sinclair’s nose.

She pulled her straight into her own room and locked the door from the inside.

”There’s a question I’ve been dying to ask. Sierra, I’m not a bad person, and I won’t hurt you. If you’re willing to talk, please tell me. If you’re not, that’s okay too. You’re her biological daughter, so why does she act like she’s in a hurry to kick you out of the house? The feeling I get is that she’s not like your mother, but more like an enemy.”

Sierra Ainsworth looked up, then sat on the bed. She bent over and slowly, deliberately, untied her shoelaces.

Then, she took off her sock and rolled up her pant leg.

Looking at her, she said, ”I haven’t worn a skirt in ten years. The reason is to hide this.”

Nora Ainsworth never expected her to so candidly start talking about her prosthetic limb.

She crouched down, her hand gripping the prosthetic foot, and her eyes reddened for some reason. ”That night in the wine cellar, when I helped you back and took off your shoes, I already found out.”

”Then why didn’t you ask me how this happened?”

Tears fell from Nora Ainsworth’s eyes. ”I was afraid you’d get angry and never speak to me again. Sierra, to be honest, my mother used to beat me like that too. Before she died, she told me she wasn’t my real mother.”

”What about your birth mother?”

Nora Ainsworth shook her head. ”It’s like trying to see flowers in a fog. I don’t know, I’m not sure, and I don’t dare to be sure if what she said was true. Do you have a prosthesis because of a car accident, or...?”

Sierra Ainsworth bent down again and slowly, deliberately put her sock and shoe back on. She pulled her pant leg down and said, ”A car accident? How could that be possible? I’ve never been allowed to drive alone. The family chauffeur always drives me. There’s never been an accident like that.”

Nora Ainsworth’s expression tensed. ”Then it was because...”

”This... was what my mom did, in everyone’s eyes. I remember when I was twelve years old. In the middle of the night, a group of strangers dragged me to a place I’d never seen before. I was lying on a cold marble slab, my hands and legs bound tightly so I couldn’t move at all. There was no anesthetic. It was hacked off with an ax while I was wide awake. That was her warning to me for being disobedient. My dad was away on a business trip for several days in a row and wasn’t home. That was the price for not listening to her.”

Nora Ainsworth trembled all over as she listened. Hearing her recount it in such a placid voice, Nora felt that the pain this girl in front of her had experienced was beyond words.

”So... she... isn’t your real mother...” Anyone would say the same. No biological mother would do something so monstrous to a disobedient child.

Sierra Ainsworth actually smiled. ”Her? How could she possibly be my real mother? My mom was gentle and kind. Before I was twelve, I was happy and carefree. If my life before twelve was heaven, then these past ten years have been my hell, my personal Asura’s battlefield. Nora, I’ve suppressed these words in my heart for so long. I didn’t dare tell anyone. I was too scared. I was afraid that if I angered her again, she would kill me.”

If Nora Ainsworth had been skeptical that morning about both mothers and daughters being switched, at this moment, she no longer had any reason to doubt.

At this point, she could already determine that the girl in front of her was, with ninety-nine percent certainty, her biological sister.

She unzipped her jacket and pulled out a red string she had long worn around her neck. On the string hung a Jade Pendant, now revealed for all to see.

”Do you recognize this?”

Sierra Ainsworth’s eyes widened abruptly. Tears fell like rain, blurring her vision. She wiped them away and stared intently at the Jade Pendant around her neck.

Then, she took another Jade Pendant from around her own neck and placed it in the palm of her hand.

”How could I not recognize it? This is the only keepsake my mother gave me. She...” Sierra Ainsworth choked up, unable to speak. ”She said my sister had one around her neck too, and that I had to keep it safe so I could find my sister one day. I thought... I thought I’d never get to see the other one in my lifetime.”

Nora Ainsworth slowly took hers from her neck and placed the two Jade Pendants together, examining them closely. ”They’re a pair. Look, mine has a phoenix on it, and yours has a dragon.”

”You’re my sister... You’re really my sister... My real sister... Sis!!!” She cried tears of joy, hugging Nora Ainsworth tightly. ”No wonder I felt such a connection to you the first time I saw you, so familiar, like I’d known you for a long time.”

”Me too.” Nora Ainsworth was also choked with sobs. She then hung Sierra’s Jade Pendant back around her neck and put her own back on as well. ”Stop crying now. I’m taking you somewhere.”