Chapter 1

My stepsister loved taking things from me.

When we were children, she stole my clothes and snacks, and when we grew up, she started stealing my boyfriends.

Whenever I confronted her, she always acted as if she were doing it for my own good.

She said I was too innocent and that she was worried men would trick me, so she was helping me test them properly.

And somehow, that test always ended up in bed.

The moment I pushed open the door and saw her sitting half-naked on yet another one of my boyfriends, I was furious.

She looked down at my humiliated expression with a superior smile.

“Sweet sister, I’m helping you. See? You’re terrible at judging people.”

I glared at her, but there was nothing I could do.

This time, I had started dating Adrian, a rising star in the financial world.

He was different from the others. He was the first man who had ever rejected my stepsister.

I thought he was the one and decided to get engaged to him.

But on the eve of our engagement, my stepsister proudly waved a photo of herself and Adrian kissing it in front of me.

Instead, I breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, this was exactly the trap I had prepared for her.

Claire held up a photo of herself kissing Adrian and showed it off shamelessly.

“A rising star in finance? He’s nothing but a dog at my side.”

“My sweet sister, luckily you have me. Otherwise, you would have been fooled again. Do you know how desperately he begged to be with me?”

I slapped the table, unable to hold back my anger any longer.

“That’s my fiancé. How can you be so shameless?”

Claire froze, then put on a wounded expression.

“Nora, I was afraid you’d be deceived. How can you be so ungrateful?”

Lily, a coworker who had always wanted to win Claire’s favor, immediately defended her.

“Nora, you’re way too blinded by love. Is it really worth fighting with your sister over a man?”

“Exactly. If it weren’t for Claire, who knows how many times you would have been cheated on? She’s helping you weed out the jerks. You should be thanking her!”

Another coworker, Sophie, also chose to stand on Claire’s side.

I opened my mouth, but not a single word came out.

Although my five former fiancé candidates really were terrible men, Claire had been the one to seduce every single one of them first.

I had seen some of their messages. Claire had sent them plenty of suggestive photos, with the necklines of her pajamas cut dangerously low.

She had even asked them, “Do you think my breasts are big?”

The conversation below had been even more explicit, and as for what happened afterward—

They had all eventually chosen Claire.

When she saw that I was silent, Claire leaned closer, her voice full of smugness.

“Nora, you’re not actually angry, are you?”

“I didn’t expect this, either. I only chatted with them a little, and they all fell in love with me. You can’t blame me for that, right?”

“They were the ones who couldn’t stay loyal. And I was only doing this for your sake, sweet sister.”

Lily chimed in.

“Of course no one can blame you. You’re just too charming. Unlike certain people who think the whole world should revolve around them just because they graduated from a prestigious university.”

She exchanged a knowing glance with Sophie, and the two of them smiled.

“If you like them so much, you can have them all.”

I put away my phone and spoke with complete indifference.

The office fell silent for several seconds.

“What did you say?” Claire asked, apparently surprised by how calm I was.

At that moment, several gasps came from outside.

Lily hurried to the window and cried out in surprise.

“Oh my God, look who that is!”

“That’s Ethan! Ethan! What is he doing outside our office?”

Sophie rushed over as well.

“The heir to the Hartwell Group and a regular on the covers of financial magazines—why would he come here? He even brought roses.”

Lily seemed to realize something and looked at Claire.

“Claire, didn’t you go on a blind date with Ethan before? Could he be here to pick you up?”

Claire’s expression shifted, but she said nothing.

Back then, our stepmother had arranged the date between Claire and Ethan, but he had left before he had even finished his coffee.

I touched up my lipstick in the mirror and prepared to leave.

Claire blocked my path.

“Where are you going? Don’t tell me you have another date tonight dressed like that.”

I shook off her hand and continued walking forward.

“Where I go is none of your business. I don’t have to report to you.”

My phone suddenly rang, and I answered immediately.

A cool, deep voice came from the other end.

“Are you there, sweetheart? I’m downstairs.”

“I’ll be right down.”

I was about to hang up when the phone was suddenly snatched away.

Claire glared at me.

“No wonder you dumped Adrian. So you already found someone new.”

Then she spoke into my phone in an exaggeratedly sweet voice.

“Hello, I’m Nora’s older sister, Claire. Are you Nora’s boyfriend?”

I had no idea what the person on the other end said, but the smile on her face suddenly froze.

While she was distracted, I snatched the phone back and hung up at once.

Wild jealousy surged into Claire’s eyes as she stared at me.

“Your boyfriend is Ethan?”