Ten Years of Misjudgment: By the Time He Woke Up, I Was Married

My father died in a car accident when I was twelve.

With no other choice, my mother brought me to the home she had married into.

She told me to behave and not upset my stepfather or his children, my stepbrother and stepsister.

I nodded obediently. I never tried to stand out or compete for anything.

My stepfather and his daughter treated me well. His son, however, resented me.

I did not want to make things difficult for Mom, so I was careful around him. Sometimes I took over from the housekeeper and brought him a late-night snack, hoping to win him over.

Then I happened to overhear him talking to his sister.

“Qi Ran is just like her mother. Fake as they come. Stay away from her, or she’ll make a fool of you.”

“Ranran is innocent. She isn’t like that.”

“You’ve fallen for that pretty face. She only acts sweet because she wants to use Dad’s connections to marry into money. Hmph!”

His undisguised contempt destroyed any wish I had to think of him as family.

Once people decide they are right, no amount of explaining will change their minds.

So I grew quieter and more cautious still.

Over the next ten years, I studied hard, got into the university I wanted, found a steady job, and finally moved out of the Shen house.

And before he came home from studying abroad, I got married.