Chapter 1 Chapter 1

After my parents were mistakenly killed by the Palmers' enemies, the boy from next door became the Palmers' heir and brought me into his home. For the next ten years, he controlled me with his unhealthy obsession, manipulating me into marrying him by using my grandmother's illness as leverage. Two months ago, fed up with my cold indifference, he found a woman who looked almost identical to me and started flaunting their affection in front of me. He sent me countless intimate photos, hoping to provoke a jealous reaction from me. I looked at them, said nothing, and instead picked up a paintbrush, covered in colors, and filled the walls with sunflowers. Today, the villa's walls were almost completely covered in them, and my grandmother should be out of the hospital soon. Felix Palmer had promised to let me see her once she was discharged. In a good mood, I hummed a little tune, when I suddenly heard voices from outside. "Every night without fail, he stays here. Tonight, I'm going to give him a surprise and win him over!" The others eagerly agreed. "Darcy, once you're the CEO's wife, don't forget about us!" I rushed out, wanting to warn them to leave quickly. Felix didn't allow anyone to come over here. There was a time when I had tried to escape by asking a passerby for help, only for him to turn that person into a vegetable. After that, he locked me in this remote villa on the outskirts. It was isolated, and there was no way for me to escape. He left only a loyal maid to take care of my daily needs. But as soon as I opened the door, I came face-to-face with a woman who looked almost exactly like me, freezing the air in the room. From her hairstyle to her face, to the flawless white dress, the resemblance was so striking that even I was shocked. This was Felix's new girlfriend, Darcy Sherman—finding a substitute so similar to me wasn't easy. Darcy froze for a moment, and the joy on her face quickly turned to anger. She raised her hand and slapped me. "What are you doing here? How dare you sneak into my man's villa! You really have guts!" Before I could explain, she roughly grabbed my hair and dragged me out into the sunflower-filled garden. "You wench, how dare you get plastic surgery to look like me and hide in my man's villa! Looks like you've done your homework well! You've been spying on me and my man, haven't you?" She pinched my face, her eyes full of venom. "Not only did you get surgery, but you even learned to paint like me, too. You're pathetic! How dare you try to seduce my man! You're asking for trouble! If I hadn't come today, you would've really gotten away with it!" My knees and arms scraped against the ground, tearing open, the pain shooting through me like needles. With the maid, Mona, gone, I was all alone in the house. I had no chance in a physical fight. I quickly explained, "I'm Felix's legal wife. If you don't believe me, I can call him." But just as I reached for my phone, Darcy snatched it from my hands. She grabbed my hand and unlocked my phone. She found the number saved under "Honey" before letting out a laugh. "You're telling me this is my man's number? Ha! Then whose is this one?"

Chapter 2 Chapter 2

She confidently dialed the number right in front of me. It was picked up quickly, and a cold male voice came through. "I'm in a meeting. I'll call you back later." The call ended in just two seconds, the voice distant and indifferent. I didn't have time to say a word, but I could recognize Felix's voice. Darcy yanked my hair and slapped my face with her phone. "Did you hear that? This is my man's number. It seems you weren't very thorough!" The pain in my scalp made me wince, and I couldn't stop myself from shoving her away. "Is it that unusual to have two numbers? Why don't you just call the number and ask?" As soon as Darcy's three lackeys saw that I was resisting, they rushed over to beat me, eager to show off their strength. "You're just a mistress, and you're talking like you're his wife! How dare you lay a hand on Darcy. She's going to be Mrs. Palmer. You're just asking for a beating!""How could you just pick some random number and claim it's Mr. Palmer's? Are you that dumb?""Look in the mirror. What gave you the confidence to steal someone else's man? Wait until Mr. Palmer exposes your lie. You'll regret it!" Darcy looked down at me with a confident smirk. "Then go ahead, call it. Let's see how many numbers my man has." The number saved on my phone was a private one that Felix had set up just for me. He was afraid of missing my calls, so even when he was in meetings, he wouldn't silence his phone. The "Honey" label was something he'd insisted on adding, or else he'd cut off my grandmother's medication. So, I was certain Felix would pick up the call. Seeing my calm demeanor, Darcy's face darkened, and she quickly dialed the number. I thought that once the call went through, it would prove our relationship and make them leave. But when the phone rang, the message came through that the number was unreachable. At that moment, I froze, shocked by the result. Darcy breathed a sigh of relief, fully convinced I was a liar, and slapped me hard. Her long nails left deep scratches on my face, and the sting was unbearable. "Dare to dream, huh? You think you're going to be Mrs. Palmer? Who knows whose sugar daddy's number you're calling?""He won't even answer your call. No wonder you're rushing to find another rich guy. Too bad for you, you've hit a dead end today." The lackeys, now convinced I was just a desperate mistress trying to lure Felix away, closed in on me, ready to make me pay. "Darcy, teach this shameless woman a lesson so she knows her place.""Yeah, let's show all those other cheap women out there what happens when they try to seduce Mr. Palmer!" They even pulled out their phones and started recording a video. I turned my face away to avoid the camera, but they grabbed my hair and forced me to face the lens, slapping my face and verbally humiliating me. "This wench got plastic surgery to look like me and snuck into my boyfriend's villa, trying to get into his bed. I caught her in the act. We have to teach her a lesson! She even made a mess of the villa, painting all these flowers. Perhaps she was hoping my man would praise her art. But she'll be the one paying for the cleaning! Don't you know my man hates sunflowers? He even got angry once when I wore a sunflower hairpin. And you? You filled the whole yard with them!" Hearing this, the lackeys got excited, like they were on some kind of adrenaline rush, and started tearing the sunflowers apart. I went crazy, struggling to stop them. "No! Don't touch my flowers!" Darcy kicked me back to the ground, then stepped on my stomach, pressing down hard. The pain was so intense I couldn't get up. She sneered. "These stupid flowers aren't worth anything. If they're ruined, they're ruined. This is my man's villa; who allowed you to act like this?" The value of these flowers was never about money. They were planted by Felix himself. I remembered the time when the housekeeper broke one of them while watering, and Felix broke her arm. I wasn't grieving for these worthless people, but for the sunflowers—they were my lifeline through my depression. After seeing my parents killed before my eyes, Felix had planted those sunflowers for ten years, doing everything he could to help me heal. Now, those sunflowers were being destroyed in front of me, as if they were pushing me back into the abyss. Not only that, but they even threw paint on the walls inside, ruining all the sunflowers there too. I was pinned to the ground, my eyes bloodshot, like a fish desperately struggling in despair. It was a stark contrast to Darcy's sinister face above me. I prayed Mona would come back soon. Every day, she drove down the mountain to get fresh vegetables, and she usually took about an hour to come back. If I calculated the time right, she should be back any minute now.

Chapter 3 Chapter 3

At that moment, Darcy answered a call, her tone sharp and annoyed. "So what if you're stopped on the road? It's your problem if you can't get here. Why are you even driving, you old hag?" She hung up the phone immediately, but I recognized the frantic voice on the other end—it was Mona. Darcy's car was blocking the road, preventing Mona from getting back! She was rushing home to cook, and even if she had to walk back carrying the groceries, it would take her some time. I was done for. Darcy crouched down in front of me, her eyes glinting with malice. "Look at what you've done to my man's villa. How should I punish you for that?" One of the women with her picked up a bucket of bright, colorful paint and poured it over my head. "If she likes to paint so much, let's give her a real masterpiece! She's so pathetic for trying to copy you, Darcy!" The other two women joined in with their own cruel suggestions. "Does she really need a man that badly? Why not just bring a few to cheer her up and keep her from obsessing over other people's boyfriends?""That would be too easy on her. Haha! She's gonna have to pay up so much, she'll probably go bankrupt. Maybe we should introduce her to a few clients. She's good at seducing men, so she might just make enough money to cover it." Darcy kept staring at my face, her anger growing. She suddenly stood up and kicked me hard in the stomach. "How dare you try to look like me! It's time I take that face back, don't you think?" I heard a sickening crack as my nose broke, the pain making my head spin. Their laughter echoed in my ears. "Of course it's fake! No real nose would break that easily. Hilarious!""And she even copied Darcy's hairstyle! Cut it off!""Right! She even tried to wear a white dress like Darcy. Let's take that off her!" I tried to fight back, but the three of them overwhelmed me, punching and kicking until I was dizzy and couldn't do anything. Finally, they pulled out their phones, laughing at my helplessness as they filmed. Darcy wasn't finished yet. She grabbed a utility knife and came toward me with a menacing grin. "I won't allow you to use this face to chase after my man. You only have yourself to blame for being so pathetic." She was only with Felix because of her looks, and she would never allow any threat to that. The three lackeys laughed nervously. "Darcy, maybe that's enough. Don't make too much of a scene. This is Mr. Palmer's villa, after all. It could cause problems for him." Darcy scoffed. "What's the big deal? He'll take responsibility for whatever happens. It's not like I'm killing her; I'm just ruining her face! If he comes back and sees what she's done to the house, he might make things worse for her." Hearing that, the three of them gained more confidence and pinned me down, holding my arms and legs. I felt the blade cut across my face, the pain making me scream in agony. They laughed even harder as they watched me suffer. When the torture finally ended, my throat was raw, and I lay on the ground, too weak to even cry out. Darcy's eyes gleamed with venom. "She needs a real lesson, or everyone will start copying her. I might lose my position as the future Mrs. Palmer! Since you love to imitate me so much, I'll make sure you can't anymore!" She grabbed my hand and began snapping my fingers one by one with a wicked smile. "This is all your fault for being so greedy. Don't blame me if you can't paint anymore!" By the time all ten of my fingers were broken, I couldn't make a sound anymore. As I teetered on the brink of unconsciousness from the pain, someone finally arrived. It was Felix. He stood frozen, his face pale with fury as he took in the chaos around him. "What the hell are you doing? Who gave you permission to come here?"