CHAPTER 3: HIDDEN TRUTHS

The next few days felt like walking on broken glass for Mei Xing. Every smile from her parents now seemed shadowed with secrets, and every room in the mansion echoed with questions she couldn't silence. She went about her daily routine—charity board meetings, etiquette classes, family dinners—but her mind was elsewhere, locked in the corners of doubt that grew larger by the hour.

She knew she couldn't ignore it any longer. The truth was buried somewhere, and she was going to dig it out.

Her first stop was the family archives.

The Lins were meticulous record-keepers. Their study had drawers upon drawers of documents—property files, medical reports, school records, legal contracts. If her parents had hidden something, there was a slim chance they overlooked a clue somewhere within.

Late one evening, when her parents were away at a business dinner, Mei Xing snuck into the study with a racing heart. Her fingers trembled as she opened the cabinet labeled "Family – Private Records."

Birth certificates. Hospital documents. Adoption records—if any.

She began flipping through folders. Most had her father's meticulous handwriting on the labels.

Then she found it.

A slim brown file, hidden behind another labeled "Travel Records." It had her name scribbled faintly on the corner: "Mei Xing – Confidential."

Her breath caught.

She opened it slowly, eyes scanning the documents inside. What she saw made her world tilt.

There was a hospital report from a rural clinic—not the elite city hospital her father had claimed. There was also a letter, folded and yellowed at the edges, signed by a woman she'd never heard of—Yu Lan, a woman from a small village on the city's outskirts.

Then, her eyes landed on a document marked "Child Transfer Authorization."

It wasn't an official adoption paper—it was something much worse. A quiet exchange. A deal made in secrecy.

Her name wasn't listed as the biological child of Mr. and Mrs. Lin.

Her heart slammed against her ribs. She clutched the file to her chest, stumbling backward, her breathing ragged.

She wasn't their daughter.

Everything she had ever known was a lie.

A deep sob escaped her lips, and for the first time in her life, she felt like a stranger in her own home.

She wanted to scream, to confront them, to demand the truth—but a part of her knew she wasn't ready. Not yet. First, she needed to know everything—who Yu Lan was, why she had been given away, and most importantly, who she really was.

One thing was certain now: the life she thought was hers… had been borrowed.

And somewhere out there, her past—her real past—was waiting to be uncovered.