The Mistress's Daughter Chapter 1

My mother was the mistress of a man who’d married into the Sterling dynasty.

Which, of course, made me the mistress’s child.

But she didn’t know the man was married until after I was born. The second his wife found out, the coward cut my mother off completely.

After years of scraping by on scraps, my mother stormed the gates of the Sterling estate, brandishing a paternity test and causing a scene. To protect their precious reputation, the Sterlings took me in, passing me off as an adopted daughter.

Then, when I was fifteen, the patriarch of the Pierce family came to visit.

Grandpa Pierce took one look at me and decided I would be his granddaughter-in-law.

And so, at twenty, I married Kael Pierce, a man with severe autism.

I found myself on the same dead-end road as my mother. Only my situation was worse. I didn't have my mother-in-law's power or status; I had no way to fight back against my husband's new infatuation.

All I could do was watch him fawn over another woman, right in front of me.

But recently, I’ve decided to break free from it all.

I’m sorry, Grandpa Pierce.

Cora Sterling is done being your pawn.

* * *

The day I was sent to the Sterling estate was the day I lost my mother forever.

She was crying, but she was smiling. "Cora, my sweet girl," she’d said, "you'll never have to go hungry again."

She was so naive.

My father saw me as a stain on his reputation. Mrs. Sterling despised me. The staff, ever the opportunists, followed their lead, treating me with cold indifference. As for my half-sisters, they invented new ways to torment me daily.

But my mother would never know. Our meeting at the Sterling gates was the last time I ever saw her. She had late-stage cancer and couldn't afford the treatment. After handing me over to my father, she threw herself from a bridge.

I grew up in the Sterling house as the "adopted" daughter, walking on eggshells every moment of every day.

When I was fifteen, I met a boy on the estate grounds.

A rose thorn had sliced his arm open, and blood was trickling down his skin, but he seemed completely oblivious, lost in the music playing through his headphones.

I hesitated for a moment, then ran to get an antiseptic wipe and a Band-Aid for his wound.

Later, I learned his name was Kael Pierce. He was visiting the Sterlings with his grandfather.

For reasons I’ll never understand, Grandpa Pierce took a liking to me. He wanted me to be his grandson’s wife.

The Pierces were old money, a dynasty in their own right, so my father eagerly agreed.

When my sisters heard the news, they cornered me, their laughter sharp as glass.

"You really think you've hit the jackpot? If he were such a great catch, do you think they'd ever let him go to you?"

"That Kael Pierce has been autistic since he was a kid. He has violent mood swings. He's not even normal."

But because of the engagement, Mrs. Sterling finally started treating me with a sliver of decency. Life at the Sterling estate became bearable. At least the daily torment stopped.

I often thought about that quiet, slender boy in the garden. He had no idea that, in his own silent way, he had saved me. I was truly grateful to him. I started reading everything I could about his condition, trying to learn how I would one day be a good wife to him.

And then, when I turned twenty, our families arranged the wedding, and I married Kael Pierce.