I Escaped Traffickers But Was Condemned By My Entire Family

I fought tooth and nail to escape the human traffickers. But my little sister was left behind. My mother called me a cold-blooded monster. My father cut off my allowance and threatened to kick me out of the house. And my childhood sweetheart, the man who promised to marry me, locked me out in the dead of winter on our wedding night. Temperatures dropped well below zero. I froze to death on the unforgiving asphalt. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the rusted van. The day we were kidnapped. 1 I waited over a decade for my wedding with Noah. At four in the morning, the makeup artist joked that having my parents by my side would calm my pre-wedding jitters. But when they finally arrived at the venue, they were dressed entirely in mourning black. It was a grotesque contrast to the romantic pastel florals decorating the hall. My mother stared at me with eyes as cold as ice. "Your sister is still missing, and you expect us to celebrate? We haven't had the stomach for a wedding in years. Every time we look at you, we remember how you abandoned her to save your own skin. It makes us sick. Do you have any conscience left at all, you ungrateful brat?" I froze, the breath knocked out of my lungs. Years ago, my sister was taken, and I barely escaped. I dragged my bloodied, bruised body all the way home, desperate to collapse into my parents' arms and just cry. Instead, I was met with absolute disgust. "How do you have the nerve to come back alone? You're the older sister! Why didn't you protect her? Having a daughter like you is a disgrace." They never found her. From that day on, I ceased to exist to them. They stopped asking about my grades. They skipped my parent-teacher conferences. The dining table only ever had two plates set. My bedroom became a storage closet for junk, and my framed photos were tossed into the trash. The cruelest part was the financial cutoff. They refused to pay my tuition or even buy my groceries. I worked three part-time jobs just to survive, sleeping barely four hours a night. I used to tell myself it was just their grief talking. I thought the pain of losing a child had temporarily blinded them. I was wrong. Years had passed. And on the most important day of my life, they still chose to carve my heart out with their venomous words. Blinking back the burning tears, I looked up at the altar. Noah was waiting for me. We had grown up together. He was a sickly kid, constantly bullied in school, and I spent nine years being his fierce protector. The day we graduated high school, he held my hands and made a solemn vow. "You protected me for nine years, Riley. Now, I'm going to protect you for the rest of our lives." He was my true family. Even without my parents' blessing, I thought I still had him. Trembling with nerves and hope, I stepped up to the altar, waiting for the man I loved to slip the ring onto my finger. Instead, his hand cracked across my cheek. The slap echoed through the silent chapel. "I've waited years for this," Noah hissed, his voice dripping with venom. "I'm doing this for the woman I actually love. If you weren't such a selfish coward, she wouldn't be out there suffering. Actions have consequences, Riley. I hate you." My bouquet hit the marble floor. My knees buckled, and I collapsed right there in my white gown. My dream wedding was nothing but a meticulously planned humiliation. That night, he threw me out into the street. The blizzard was howling, temperatures dropping deep into the negatives. I was wearing nothing but a thin silk nightgown. Even my own parents refused to open their door when I dragged myself to their porch, pleading for shelter. With nowhere left to go, the winter claimed me. I died curled up on the frozen concrete. Then, I blinked. I was back in the suffocating darkness of the kidnappers' van. The two men had just stepped out to grab smokes from a gas station. In my past life, my sister Lily and I used this exact window of time to whisper a plan. We pretended to be unconscious, waited for them to lower their guard, and fought our way out. I made it. But after running for miles, I realized Lily had frozen in terror and never left the van. I refused to let history repeat itself. The men climbed back in. Lily and I kept our eyes shut, playing dead. Half an hour later, they dragged us out to hand us over to a buyer. Just like last time, I let out a feral scream and launched myself forward. But this time, I didn't run for the trees. I tackled the man holding Lily. The distraction worked. She broke free and sprinted into the woods. The trafficker was furious. He kicked me hard in the ribs. "You got a death wish, crazy bitch? Was it worth it? She didn't even look back at you!" Blood filled my mouth, coating my teeth in a metallic tang. But I just tilted my head back and laughed. My ticket to a billionaire empire was right here. 2 On the night I was thrown out in my past life, a massive news story was broadcasting on every billboard in the city. The White family, the wealthiest dynasty in the state, had finally found their missing heir after a decade. They had offered a hundred-million-dollar bounty for his safe return. By some twisted stroke of luck, Lily had been sold to the exact same rural household where Rowan White was trapped. When people saw the news, the gossip spread like wildfire. "Can you believe that girl got sold to the same house as the White heir? Talk about a golden ticket. The Whites could make her royalty with a snap of their fingers." "I heard the family bought luxury penthouses in every major city just hoping he'd come home." "Hell, they said whoever brings him back practically gets the keys to the entire White empire." Luck had landed right in Lily's lap. But because of the trauma from his kidnapping, Rowan suffered from severe hysteria. His mind was shattered. He acted like a shell of a person. Lily despised him. She called him a r*tard, bullied him relentlessly, and beat him whenever she was frustrated. When the black SUVs finally rolled in and his true identity was revealed, Lily dropped to her knees, sobbing and begging for his forgiveness. But Rowan's mind had cleared. He looked at her with pure disgust and threw her off him. The whole city laughed at her stupidity. "Imagine having a billionaire heir right in front of you and treating him like garbage. Bet she's crying blood now." "Some people are just born losers. You could hand her a diamond, and she'd throw it in the mud." Remembering those words, I looked at the boy sitting across from me in the damp cellar. His eyes were vacant, his expression entirely hollow. I swallowed hard. This guy wasn't just a person. He was a walking gold mine. I leaned in close, keeping my voice soft and hypnotic. "Your name is Rowan. Your real home is by the ocean. Your parents have been tearing the world apart looking for you. Listen to me, and I promise to take you home." He muttered the word "home" under his breath, staring blankly at the dirt floor. The evening sun bled through the cracked window. Even buried under dirt and malnutrition, his sharp jawline and striking features were impossible to hide. A single ray of light caught his dark eyes. Slowly, he nodded. My heart hammered against my ribs. I started massaging his temples, working down to his neck, shoulders, and the pressure points in his feet. I wanted to soothe his frayed nervous system. I had picked up this holistic acupressure technique from an old physical therapist back in high school. The old man was a miracle worker who had helped plenty of veterans with severe PTSD. Just as I hoped, the tension melted out of Rowan's muscles, and he fell into a deep, peaceful sleep. For the next two years, Rowan and I played a dangerous game of survival. His adoptive mother was a nightmare. She bought him hoping for a son, only to realize his mind was broken. She took all her bitter resentment out on him, which was exactly why his trauma never healed in my past life. She eventually scraped enough money together to buy me, hoping I'd give her a grandson. Unfortunately for her, she bought the wrong girl. I made sure her twisted dreams never came true. As the months dragged on, her temper grew violently short. "Did I pay good money for a barren hen? You're nothing but bad luck." I just smirked in the shadows. Whenever she raised a hand to strike Rowan, I threw myself in front of him and took the hit. Whenever she ordered him to break his back in the fields, I snatched the tools from his hands and did the labor myself. When she starved him, I stole food from the kitchen and fed him in secret. Every single night, I gave him acupressure therapy and fed him herbal remedies I scavenged from the woods. Then, one morning, exactly two years later, Rowan sat up in bed. The fog in his eyes was gone. They were sharp, intelligent, and crystal clear. He was back. Rowan smuggled us out of that hellhole the very next night. When we walked into the towering glass lobby of the White Corporation, his identical resemblance to his father sent shockwaves through the entire board of directors. The White patriarch immediately wired an astronomical sum into my bank account and promised to fulfill any request I had. Rowan didn't say a word to the press. Instead, he quietly transferred his entire share of the company into my name and promised me the most magnificent wedding the city had ever seen. I went from freezing in the gutters to being treated like absolute royalty. Looking into Rowan's fiercely loyal eyes, I knew he was nothing like Noah. Wedding preparations began immediately. One afternoon, while I was at an exclusive bridal boutique trying on gowns, I heard a sickeningly familiar voice drifting from the fitting room next door. "Noah, baby, it really is destiny that we made it to the altar." Noah chuckled, his voice thick with affection. "If Riley hadn't been kidnapped, I might have missed out on you completely." Lily giggled, a sweet, poisonous sound. "Then I hope she never comes back. Honestly, nobody wants to see her again anyway. Everyone's so much happier without her." It was almost laughable. Noah and I had been promised to each other since we were kids. I thought we were deeply in love. I had no idea they had been sneaking around behind my back for years. My kidnapping didn't ruin Noah's life. It just made things more convenient for him. Then, I heard my father. The man who rarely smiled let out a booming laugh. "Who cares if Riley comes back? You two are a match made in heaven. If she ever shows her face, she can just stand back and watch how happy you are." My mother chimed in, agreeing warmly. What a perfectly happy little family. In my past life, when Lily went missing, they blamed me until the day I died. But this time? I had been kidnapped for two entire years. They didn't put up a single missing person flyer. They didn't ask the police a single question. We shared the same blood. How could a mother and father be so utterly, disgustingly biased? I ground my teeth together, grabbed the velvet curtain of their fitting room, and ripped it back. I stepped right into their little family reunion. Lily screamed and fell backward onto the plush carpet. My parents, who had been lounging on the velvet sofas, shot up in pure horror. Noah stood completely frozen, his eyes wide enough to fall out of his skull. Before I could even open my mouth, my mother's shock morphed into fury. She marched forward and slapped me hard across the cheek. "You heartless wretch! If you managed to crawl back, why didn't you call us? Do you have zero respect for this family?" Lily scrambled up, eyeing my dress with a mix of suspicion and greed. "That gown looks expensive. Did you latch onto some old sugar daddy to survive?" Noah looked slightly guilty at first, but after hearing Lily's comment, his gaze turned judgmental. He looked me up and down with deep disappointment. "Even if I don't love you anymore, Riley, you shouldn't degrade yourself like this." Lily immediately flagged down the boutique manager. She pointed at me and threw a tantrum, demanding I take the dress off so she could try it on. The manager took one look at the red handprint blooming on my cheek and looked like she was about to pass out from pure panic. But Lily was oblivious. She actually reached out and tried to yank the delicate lace off my shoulder. The manager shrieked and shoved herself between us, shielding me with her own body. "Ma'am, please step back! This gown is completely bespoke, designed specifically for Miss Riley. It is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, and it is priceless!" Lily crossed her arms and scoffed. "Excuse me? Are you implying I can't afford it?" Noah adjusted his cuffs, trying to look wealthy. "It's just a dress. How much could it possibly be?" My mother looked at me with absolute disdain. "Riley, it's just a piece of fabric. You're the older sister. Isn't it your job to give things up for Lily?" There it was again. Give it up. Because I was older, I had to bleed for her. In kindergarten, Lily couldn't make friends, so my parents forced me to give her my friend group and isolate myself. In elementary school, there was a field trip I had been looking forward to for months. Lily wanted to go, so they secretly called the school and swapped my name for hers. By high school, I wore the same threadbare uniform every single day because they had given all my extra sets to her. And now, they wanted me to strip off my own wedding dress and hand it over. They wanted me to hand over my entire life to her.