Bullied at the Salon, I Snapped

Blood Isn't Family

But before I could strike, the two employees lunged forward and yanked me back with all their strength.

'Smack! Smack! Smack!'

Three sharp slaps landed across my face, so hard that my vision spun and my ears rang.

"You crazy bitch, how dare you fight back?! You're really asking for it!"

Even through the dizziness, I roared back at them, my voice hoarse with fury. "When… When Stellan finds out what you've done to his sister and his mother, he'll tear you apart limb by limb!"

Evelyn stopped hitting me. Instead, she grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head up until I was forced to meet her gaze. "Still putting on an act, even now? You keep saying you're Stellan's sister—take a good look at yourself. Do you even look a thing like him?"

Her words made me falter for a moment. Of course, we didn't look alike. Stellan wasn't my parents' biological child.

…

It had been a snowy winter years ago. I was six, lost in an amusement park, when a faint cry came from a bush nearby. Inside a tattered cardboard box lay an abandoned baby—Stellan.

When my parents finally found me, we called the police, but the surveillance systems back then were primitive. They couldn't locate his real parents. I had grown attached to that fragile baby boy, and my parents—believing it was fate—agreed to take him in.

We'd always planned to tell him the truth once he was older, settled, and ready. Never did I imagine that one day, the boy we raised—the brother we loved—would hide his girlfriend from us and let her destroy the very family that had given him a second chance at life.

…

Before I could pull myself from the memory, a filthy rag was shoved roughly into my mouth.

"Like being an imposter, huh?" Evelyn snarled. "Well, in that case, I'll make sure no one ever falls for your act again. Let's see how you scam people with that pretty little face once I'm done with it."

She pressed the blade of a utility knife against my cheek. The cold metal sent shivers through my entire body. I whimpered, unable to speak as warm blood trickled down my face, the iron scent filling my nose. My eyes squeezed shut in despair.

'Screech!'

A harsh braking sound tore through the air outside just then, and a sleek black Rolls-Royce Phantom came to an abrupt stop at the entrance.

One of the employees gasped in delight. "The boss is here! That's his car!"

Stellan had arrived.