I always believed that family was everything.
That no matter what happened, we would always stand together. Blood was blood, and at the end of the day, we were bound by love.
But after my mother passed away, my sister, Barbara, made me question everything I thought I knew about family.
And when the truth finally came out?
Barbara was the one left begging for forgiveness.
My mother had raised two daughters: me, Charlotte, and my older sister, Barbara.
Barbara was always the golden child. She was beautiful, blonde, and had piercing blue eyes, just like our mother. She walked into a room, and heads would turn. Everyone adored her.
Meanwhile, I was different. Dark hair, dark eyes, and in many ways, I never really looked like either of them. But I never questioned it. Why would I? I loved my mother. She was my entire world.
So when she got sick, I was the one who put my life on hold to care for her. I bathed her, fed her, and held her when she cried. It was exhausting, but I never complained. Not once.
Barbara, on the other hand?
She was too busy chasing her dream of becoming an actress.
“I can’t take care of Mom, Charlotte. I have auditions. I have producers to meet. I have to stay relevant. You understand, right? Right, Lottie?”
And, like always, I did. I understood.
Barbara would come and go as she pleased, always dressed in designer clothes, always showing off pictures of herself at glamorous events.
“This is the life, Mom,” she said one day as Mom lay in bed, too weak to even eat. “And you should really clean up your look, Lottie. Your posture is terrible from sitting in front of that computer all day.”
“It’s my job, Barbara,” I replied simply.
And then, after months of battling her illness, Mom was gone. Just like that.
I was devastated.
Barbara? She wasn’t grieving. Not at all.
She was hungry. Starving, even.
For our mother’s money.
After the funeral, we met with Alistair, our mother’s lawyer. Barbara walked into his office like she owned the place, dressed in an expensive black dress and wearing diamond earrings I had never seen before.
I should have known something was off the moment she sat down with that smug smile.
Alistair pulled out the official will, but before he could even read it, Barbara reached into her designer handbag and pulled out a folded, yellowed piece of paper.
“Before you read that,” she said sweetly, “I have something interesting to share.”
She slid the paper across the table to me.
“Look what I found in Mom’s drawer when I was searching for her jewelry.”
I unfolded it, and my stomach dropped.
ADOPTION DECREE.
Barbara leaned back, smirking.
“Well, well, well,” she said. “Looks like I finally know why you always looked so different from us.”
My hands shook as I reread the document.
“You… you’re lying,” I whispered. “You made this up!”
Barbara let out a fake gasp, tapping her manicured nails against the desk.
“Oh, Charlotte, don’t be so dramatic. The proof is right there. You’re adopted. You’re not even Mom’s real daughter. I always knew your brown eyes and brown hair didn’t belong in our family.”
I felt sick. My mother had hidden this from me my entire life. Why? Would it have changed anything?
Not for me. I would have been even more grateful for her.
Barbara crossed her arms. “Since Mom’s will says we should split everything, I’ll be making sure you get nothing. You don’t belong in this family.”
“Ladies, calm down. Let’s take a moment to think about this,” Alistair said.
But I had already noticed something. There was a detail she had overlooked.
The name on the adoption decree had been erased.
Someone had deliberately tried to remove it.
And that? That made me suspicious.
I demanded a DNA test.
Barbara scoffed. “What’s the point, Charlotte? You know what it’ll say—that you’re not family. I wonder where Mom found you. Do you think your birth mother misses you?”
I clenched my jaw. “Just do it, Barbara. If I’m really adopted, then you’ll have even more of a claim.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Let’s do it.”
The results?
Oh, they shocked everyone.
Because Barbara? She was the one who wasn’t biologically related to our mother.
I went to my Aunt Helen, my mother’s younger sister. She had always been tight-lipped, but when I showed her the DNA results, she finally told me the truth.
“Your mother never wanted either of you to know, Lottie,” Aunt Helen said, her eyes filled with tears. “She knew how much it would hurt you both.”
“Know what?” I asked, my heart pounding.
“Barbara wasn’t your mom’s biological daughter.”
“So, you knew?”
Aunt Helen nodded. “Your mother found Barbara at a train station when she was two years old. She had been abandoned. My sister took her in, raised her as her own. And she never, ever wanted Barbara to feel anything less than loved.”
My stomach twisted. “But how did Barbara have an adoption decree?”
“Because your mother made it official. She went through the court system and legally adopted Barbara a year later. She wanted to make sure no one could take her away.”
When I told Barbara the truth, she laughed.
“You’re lying now, Charlotte. You probably faked the results!”
But when I showed her the documents from Aunt Helen?
Her face went pale.
“No… no, this can’t be right. Mom loved me. She wouldn’t just take in some abandoned kid!”
“She did, Barbara. Because she loved you.”
Barbara looked at me, but I couldn’t read her expression. She was blank.
We went to see the lawyer again. Barbara refused to look at me.
Alistair confirmed that our mother’s will was valid. Despite Barbara’s cruel attempt to cut me out, I still got half of everything.
“Wait!” Barbara snapped. “I don’t want to share…”
“Barbara,” Alistair said firmly. “Your mother wanted you both to share everything. 50-50. Now, if you want to argue biological ties, Charlotte could take it all.”
Barbara’s eyes widened. She had lost. And she knew it.
But she wasn’t done yet.
“Let’s go to court,” she said, her voice shaking.
I had had enough.
“Let’s do it,” I said, hiring Alistair on the spot.
Months later, Barbara fought in court, desperate to take everything. But she failed.
The judge ruled against her.
And I got it all.
Barbara tried to destroy me, and in doing so, she destroyed herself.
And do you know what?
I think she deserved every single bit of it.
