In Brooklyn, Cindy Paulson had just stepped out of her fine arts class, where she had learned the skills to become a jewelry designer and eventually take over her mother's company, Tonia's Jewelry.
Just then, Cindy's phone rang loudly from her bag as she walked alongside her friend, Rachel Nolan.
Pulling out her phone, Cindy furrowed her brows deeply upon spotting her father's name on the screen. She was his firstborn daughter, yet he treated her worse than a maid.
Though tempted to reject the call, Cindy hesitated and answered it. After all, the university semester had just begun, and she would need her father's financial support for her education.
"Hello, Father. What is it?" Cindy asked coldly, her face scrunching up with obvious irritation.
"Where are you, Cindy? Come home quickly. We have something important to discuss," her father, Mr. Rex, declared over the phone.
Clenching her fist, Cindy drew a deep breath. "I do not want to come home."
"Cindy, you have no choice. This is about your mother, Tonia White. I'm sure you don't want her to die."
A wave of annoyance washed over Cindy's slender figure.
"Fine. I'll be back. Just give me an hour to get home," she replied, her tone laced with annoyance, while her father grinned.
"Good. I'll be expecting you."
Once the call ended, Rachel gazed at Cindy with concern etched across her face.
"What's the matter?" she asked, her voice thick with worry.
"It's my dad. I have to go home. I don't know what he's calling about, but I'll be back. You can go home," Cindy said, her voice firm and irritable.
Cindy had avoided going home because she didn't want to witness her father's displays of affection toward her stepsister, Tasha, and his wife, Mabel. She believed they were the ones who had driven her mother insane.
"Are you sure you'll be fine, Cindy?" Rachel asked, her voice tinged with concern as she hesitated to let Cindy go.
"Of course. There's nothing I can't handle. I'll call you when I get home or if anything happens," Cindy replied, her brows furrowed deeply.
"Alright. Take care," Rachel replied, knowing how harshly Cindy had been treated despite being the firstborn daughter of the Paulson family. She wasn't recognized as such, and her father favored Tasha.
Rachel could only hope for the best for Cindy. She stood watching as Cindy hailed a cab and headed home. They both came from average homes, but unlike Cindy, Rachel's family didn't care about her and favored her brothers over her. They believed a woman's place was in the kitchen and by her husband's side. Meanwhile, Rachel had to take on menial jobs to support her education, just like Cindy. They worked as waitresses in a restaurant to fund their university expenses.
Shaking her head, Rachel headed to the room she shared with Cindy, where she changed out of the dress she had worn to class that morning. She stepped out in a blue dress and went to work at the restaurant.
****
Cindy arrived at her father's house, a white duplex, yet her father acted as if he were destitute, refusing to sponsor Cindy's mother's medical expenses for her mental health condition.
"Cindy, you're back," said Mr. Paulson, as he perched on the living room couch alongside his wife, Mabel, and their precious daughter, Tasha.
Mabel was a 44-year-old woman. She had once been Cindy's mother's friend, which fueled Cindy's deep-seated hatred for the woman. She had secretly befriended Cindy's father, and as soon as her mother's health deteriorated, Mabel swooped into the family, pretending to care for Cindy before ushering in her own daughter, Tasha, and her son, Amos.
Cindy was 24 years old, while Tasha was 22, and Amos was 20.
Cindy despised Tasha; after all, she had been only 7 years old when her father married Mabel and her mother was admitted to the hospital.
Mabel then brought Tasha and her son, Amos, into the home.
Cindy seethed with fury over her father's betrayal. She had discovered that he never truly loved her mother; his real love was Mabel, whom he had concealed to seize control of her mother's flourishing small business.
Taking a deep breath as she stood in the living room, dressed in a white flowing dress, Cindy peered at her father and asked, "Why did you call me home, Dad?"
"Cindy, is that how you greet your own father? Well, this is about your mother, Tonia White. I found a cure for her."
"Really?" Cindy's eyes sparkled with hope. She had longed for her mother's health condition to improve, but it hadn't budged in 17 years. She had already lost hope that her mother would ever return to normal.
Her mother had been an orphan with no one to help her. And now, Cindy was thrust into the care of her father and his new family.
"Good. Have a seat; let's talk business first," Mr. Paulson said, his voice unusually gentle compared to the harsh tone he had always used with Cindy before.
It was still after 3 p.m., and Cindy knew she had to rush to work at the restaurant by 4 p.m., where she toiled until nightfall.
As she moved to take a seat on the living room's black couch, Cindy fixed her gaze on her father.
"Yes, Dad. What business do you want?"
"Well, Cindy," Mabel chimed in with a syrupy sweet voice.
"The Sullivan family is looking for a wife for the elderly Mr. Daniel Sullivan. He is 70 years old, and they promised to compensate any family that allows their daughter to marry him with the hefty sum of 20 million dollars. That will be enough to fund your mother's medical bills, right?" Mabel flashed her pristine white teeth at Cindy, whose fists clenched.
'So this is what it's all about,' Cindy thought inwardly as she watched her dad and his beloved wife, who had treated her so poorly.
Cindy bore many scars on her body from her evil stepmother's brutality.
But whenever she had complained to her father in the past, he always brushed it off, telling her it would heal on its own. He never confronted his wife or protected her.
What made them think she would trust them to spend the money on her mother? Moreover, why would she be the one to marry an old man? Why not Tasha?