The bride's stand-In

Chapter 1

I sank onto my worn-out bed, feeling the ache deep in my bones. After cleaning the mansion for the third time today alongside the other maids, I could hardly keep my eyes open. My stepmother, always ready to find another speck of dust, didn't seem to care that I, too, was Mr Dean Morgan's daughter. To her, I was only a maid's daughter—a reminder of the scandal she'd rather forget. My mother was once a maid here, but then she and my father crossed a line, and I was the result.When I was born, my mother threatened to go to the press. She was ready to bring the truth to the world if he didn't acknowledge me. So he took me in, reluctantly. But days later, my mother vanished, as if she'd never existed at all.Growing up here was anything but normal. I went to school, but even there, Diane and her friends made my life miserable. Diane, my beautiful, cruel half-sister with her long black hair, green eyes that sparkled with mischief, and a body that looked sculpted by an artist. She was set