"A fake daughter like her doesn’t belong in this house!"

"Avery feels awful every time she sees her. She has to go," a woman said coldly.

"We’ve raised her all these years. Even if there was a mistake, she’s still our kid. Come on, it’s not like we can’t afford to keep her around," the man replied, helplessness thick in his voice.

When Ruth Nolan finally came to, she was lying on a hospital bed. Heated voices from outside the door yanked her fully awake in an instant.

"No way! As soon as she wakes up, she’s going back to that broke Nolan family! Think about everything Avery’s been through!" the woman snapped, refusing to back down.

Meanwhile, the girl lying in bed had already opened her eyes. The monitor beside her beeped in a stable rhythm, as if nothing had happened.

But the people arguing outside didn’t realize that the soul in Ruth’s body had already changed.

She blinked her long lashes and stared cluelessly at the ceiling. Yeah... this was way too weird.

Then, a flood of memories crashed into her brain all at once.

Ruth sat there, completely thrown for a loop.

What the hell is this? She used to be a top-tier rich girl—gorgeous, kind, and effortlessly cool. How did she end up inside some over-the-top melodramatic novel?

Worse still, she was now playing the role of that pitiful fake heiress who was doomed to get kicked out of the rich Ryan family.

In the story, the real heiress Avery Ryan was perfect—everyone loved her, male leads could never resist her, and side characters lined up just to chase after her.

The fake daughter, on the other hand? She existed just to stir up drama and get dunked on by everyone.

And now Ruth had become that fake daughter, about to get thrown out with nothing.

Lying in this fancy hospital room, she couldn’t help but frown as she remembered how the original one had messed things up.

The original girl had tried to cling onto the Ryans by threatening suicide. She managed to hang on for a bit, but instead of keeping her head down, she kept throwing shade at the real daughter Avery until everyone hated her. In the end, she got hit by a truck—talk about brutal.

Ruth thought the whole thing was just plain ironic.

All this drama over a switched-at-birth story?

Her adoptive parents already knew the truth. Why keep clinging to something that doesn’t belong to you? Wouldn’t it be better to just go home to the Nolans?

Seriously, you dig your own grave, then complain about fate?

Outside the room, her adoptive parents Ethan Ryan and Opal Douglas were still caught in a heated argument.

Since this was a high-end hospital suite funded by the Ryans, no nurse dared to intervene despite how loud they'd gotten.

"Just be honest—who's really your daughter, Avery or Ruth? We treated Ruth pretty well all these years. Now look at what the Nolans did to Avery! They made her work jobs just so seven brothers could go to school."

"Seven grown men, all healthy and sound—why should my daughter be the one carrying them? The Nolans favored sons and treated Avery like garbage. I didn’t rage at them before, but now they expect me to accept this girl? Just seeing her pisses me off!"

"Ethan, we’ve been married for how many years? I’ll make it clear—either get Ruth out of here or I’m done with this life!"

Ethan looked at his unreasonable wife, his face full of worry with no idea how to fix any of it.

Sure, the Nolans failed Avery. But Ruth, well, she didn’t do anything wrong.

She might’ve been a little spoiled and reckless, but she truly cared about them all these years.

Suddenly, the argument stopped as the door creaked open.

In came a slender girl, her forehead bandaged and hospital gown hanging loosely from her thin frame.

Her eyes were calm, and her voice steady as she said, "No need to fight. I’ll sort out my discharge today and leave tomorrow."

She paused, then added quietly, "I’ll be going home—my real one."