I never told my family that I own a $1 billion empire. They still see me as a failure, so they invited me to Christmas Eve dinner to humiliate me and celebrate my younger sister becoming a CEO earning $500,000 a year. I wanted to see how they would treat someone they believed was poor, so I pretended to be a broken, naïve girl. But the moment I walked through the door…

I stood on the frost-dusted porch of my childhood home, the biting Christmas Eve wind cutting through the thin fabric of my thrifted coat. In my hand, I clutched a purse I’d deliberately distressed with sandpaper, its faux leather peeling to reveal the cheap mesh beneath. Inside, warmth radiated from amber-lit windows, and the muffled roar of laughter sounded less like joy and more like a weapon.Family games

They were celebrating my sister Madison’s promotion to CEO of RevTech Solutions—a $500,000 salary and enough prestige to fuel their egos for a decade. I was the contrast, the control group in their experiment of success. What they didn’t know, what no one knew, was that the shivering woman on their doorstep owned Tech Vault Industries, a global conglomerate valued at $1.2 billion. I was about to discover how cruel people can be when they believe you have nothing left to lose.

The door swung open before I could knock. My mother, Patricia, stood framed in light, resplendent in emerald velvet. Her smile was practiced, the kind reserved for tax auditors and unwelcome neighbors.

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