Chapter 1

It was the middle of summer. Inside the Shepard Villa, a young woman sat on an expensive leather sofa, lazily enjoying her bubblegum. Her flawless skin seemed to glisten under the sunlight. She was as beautiful as a work of art. She puffed and blew a bubble even larger than her face. "Bonnie’s just not good enough for me, okay? I'm canceling the wedding!" The man standing in the doorway threw the young woman a disgusted look. Bonnie's mother, Vera Shepard, was alarmed. "Hadwin, I know I can't really blame you for this because Bonnie is always fooling around. "But her grandpa and your grandpa wanted you to marry her. How could you cancel the wedding just like that?" Vera shot Bonnie a glare. "Apologize to Hadwin now, and promise that you'll never fool around again!" Bonnie popped her bubblegum and looked up defiantly. "Apologize? He should be the one apologizing to me! He broke his promise to marry me and insulted me!" Vera was infuriated. Before she could say a word, Bonnie continued, "Besides, I've never fooled around, okay? He's the one who's been cheating on me! So I don’t care if the wedding is canceled anyway." "Bonnie! Why, you—" Vera spoke through clenched teeth. "Enough, Vera." Holding up his hand, Hadwin interrupted and said, "Bonnie's beauty is only skin deep. I appreciate inner beauty more. "I'll never marry someone like her, even if she begs me to. There's only one girl I’ll ever marry—" He looked upstairs lovingly. "And that's Trina." "Hadwin!" Moved, Trina Shepard rushed downstairs. "Trina!" Hadwin strode over to the stairwell and opened his arms. Trina threw herself into his embrace. Tears welled up in Trina's eyes. "I can finally marry you now!" "I’m sorry, Trina, I should have canceled the wedding sooner." "It's all right. I know you had your reasons…" As the couple made eyes at each other, Bonnie received a text: "Ms. Bonita, the research is at its final stage. Elite soldiers have been sent to escort you for your safety. We're arriving now." Bonnie wrote a reply: "Be right out." She spat out her bubblegum, got up, and headed toward the door. Trina, who was secretly watching her, thought Bonnie was leaving because she felt ashamed. But she didn’t think Bonnie had been humiliated enough. "Don't go, Bonnie! I'm sorry for what happened. Hadwin and I love each other. You can just blame me for this, okay? It's not his fault." Bonnie calmly looked over her shoulder. "Fuck off, bitch," Bonnie said impassively. "Won’t you forgive me? Why don't you hit me so you can feel better?" Trina took Bonnie's hand and used it to slap her own face. "What the hell are you doing, Bonnie? How dare you assault your sister!" Vera charged over and smacked Bonnie's hand away. Bonnie looked down and saw the red mark on her hand. After a few seconds, she gazed up at Vera. Vera was her biological mother, but she had always been partial to Trina, who was adopted. A teary-eyed Trina started to choke up. "It's not her fault, mom. It's all on me. I shouldn't have stolen her fiancé. I—" Before she could finish, Bonnie interrupted. "Why would I blame you? You’re a born slut. You can't help yourself, can you?" Trina was infuriated, but she couldn't ruin her nice girl image. "Trina's your younger sister, Bonnie! How could you say such a thing?" Vera looked at Bonnie in disappointment. Bonnie, however, was impassive. "She is not my sister." 20 years ago, Bonnie and Trina were accidentally switched at birth by a nurse. It wasn't until five years ago that the truth came to light, and she was brought back to the Shepard family from the countryside. Vera continued to raise Trina as she didn’t want her to live in poverty. Instead of making it up to Bonnie, Vera became biased against her due to her rural upbringing. "How could you say something so hurtful? I might not have given birth to her, but she’s still my daughter. Don't ever say that again!" Vera often wished that she had given birth to Trina instead. Bonnie had heard that many times. "I need to go. I'm not coming back tonight." Bonnie headed to the door. "What? You're going out to fool around again?" Vera was angry. "It's not like that," Bonnie replied. "Then what have you been doing? Spill it!" Vera shouted. Bonnie pursed her lips with a frown. "It's classified. I can't tell you." She left the villa before Vera could say another word. "What did I do to deserve such a daughter?" Outside, Bonnie reached the gate. She saw more than a hundred green armored vehicles come roaring over. Suddenly, a deafening ‘whoop-whoop-whoop’ was heard, accompanied by gusts of strong wind. Bonnie looked up and saw a dozen helicopters hovering in the sky, ready for action. Soldiers dressed in matching camouflage uniforms swiftly descended from the vehicles and surrounded Bonnie in an orderly fashion.