When Charlotte’s mother died, her sister Barbara wasted no time in trying to deprive her of her inheritance. Armed with an old document, Barbara smugly attempts to throw a spanner in the works. But when the truth comes out, it is Barbara who faces the ultimate betrayal, and by the time she realizes her mistake, it is far too late.
I always thought that family was indestructible.
That no matter what, blood was blood, and that at the end of the day, we would always have each other’s backs. That’s how family works, isn’t it?
A woman sitting on a bed | Source: Midjourney
But after my mother died, my sister Barbara came along and made me question everything I thought I knew.
And when the truth finally came out, it was Barbara who begged me to forgive her.
It was Barbara who asked me for forgiveness.
My mother raised two daughters: myself, Charlotte, and my older sister, Barbara.
Two smiling women | Source: Midjourney
Naturally, Barbara was always the golden child. She was the one who received all the attention.
Barbara wants a roast chicken? My mother was cooking one as she said those words. Barbara needed her laundry picked up from the dry cleaners? My mother would jump in her car and go get it.
Barbara was also very beautiful. Stunningly beautiful, she never failed to turn heads. She was blonde and had piercing blue eyes, just like my mother.
Roast chicken and vegetables on a platter | Source: Midjourney
During this time, I was a bit of an oddity. I had dark hair and eyes, and to be honest, I never really looked like either.
But I never questioned it. Why would I? I loved my mother.
No, I loved my mother with everything I had. She was my everything.
A smiling woman | Source: Midjourney
So when she got sick, I was the one who put my life on hold to take care of her. I didn’t complain once. Not when bruises bloomed on my arms because she clung tightly to me when I took her to the bathroom. Not when she got frustrated and threw her food across the room. Not even when she broke down and cried for hours.
Barbara, on the other hand?
She was too busy pursuing her dreams of becoming an actress.
“I can’t look after Mom, Charlotte. I have auditions. I have producers to meet. I have to stay relevant and be seen at events. You understand, don’t you? Don’t you, Lottie?”
A sick woman lying in bed | Source: Midjourney
And that’s what I did.
Because that’s what I’ve always done. I’ve always been understanding, while Barbara lived her life as she saw fit. I tried not to focus on her and how she could have helped me.
Instead, I let Barbara come and go of the house, wear her new clothes, and show off pictures of herself with actors and actresses she had met.
A woman standing near a mirror | Source: Midjourney
“It’s a glamorous life, Mom,” she said one day when Mom was too weak to get out of bed and eat her soup. “And you really should improve your appearance, Lottie. You need to get noticed. Your posture is terrible because you’re sitting hunched over in front of that computer.”
“It’s my job, Barbara,” I replied simply.
Life went on like this for months. And finally, Mom died. But that’s when Barbara came back.
A bowl of soup | Source: Midjourney
And she wasn’t grieving. Not at all. She was hungry, she was starving, even.
For our mother’s money.
After the funeral, we met with Alistair, my mother’s lawyer. Barbara walked in as if she owned the place, dressed in black but wearing diamond earrings I’d never seen before.
I should have known something was wrong when she sat down with a smirk.
A woman standing in a doorway | Source: Midjourney
The lawyer pulled out the official will, but before he could even read it, my sister made her first outburst. Barbara rummaged through her designer bag and pulled out a yellowed, folded piece of paper.
“Before you read this,” she said kindly, “I have something interesting to share.”
She slid the paper across the table to me.
“Look what I found in Mom’s drawer when I was looking for her jewelry.”
A sheet of paper on a table | Source: Midjourney
I unfolded it, and as soon as I read the words at the top, my stomach dropped.
ADOPTION DECREE.
Barbara leaned back with a smirk.
“Well, well, well,” she said. “It seems I finally know why you’ve always looked so different from us.”
My hands shook as I reread the document.
A woman reading a piece of paper | Source: Midjourney
Once. Twice. Three times.
“You… you’re lying,” I gasped. “You made this up! You asked one of your weird friends to do this!”
She let out a fake breath, her long nails tapping against the desk.
“Oh, Charlotte,” she said. “Don’t be so dramatic. My friends have things going on in their lives. And anyway, it’s all here. You’re adopted. You’re not even Mommy’s real daughter. I always knew your brown eyes and hair didn’t belong in our family.”
A woman’s hand on a desk | Source: Midjourney
I felt sick. I felt bile rising in my throat.
Had my mother been hiding this from me all my life? But why would she do that? Why not tell me the truth?
Would that have changed anything?
Not for me. I would have been more grateful to her.
Barbara crosses her arms.
A distraught woman | Source: Midjourney
“So, despite Mom’s will saying we share everything, you know, she kept saying, I’m going to make sure you get nothing. You don’t belong in this family, so why should you get anything?”
“Ladies, calm down. Let’s take a moment to think about this,” the lawyer said.
But I was too stunned to speak. Barbara’s words had affected me. Deeply.
A sufficient woman | Source: Midjourney
And that’s when I understood. There was one detail she had overlooked in her scheme. The name on the adoption papers had been erased. Someone had deliberately tried to erase it.
And this?
This made me suspicious.
“Please, Alistair,” she said. “You can do whatever comes next, but as far as the inheritance goes, I want everything. I can wait while you sort out the paperwork.”
A lawyer sitting at his desk | Source: Midjourney
The lawyer sighs and nods.
“But I think you two need to have a heart-to-heart talk before we see each other again.”
Barbara laughs.
“It’s not necessary.”
Barbara was so sure she’d won. But I wasn’t going to let her take everything without proof. I didn’t want to be horrible about it, but I’d missed out on two promotions during the months I’d been caring for our mother.
A smug woman sitting in an office | Source: Midjourney
I needed to know I had the safety net of his money. I just needed to have something in my name…
I decided to demand a DNA test.
“What’s the point, Charlotte?” she mocks. “You know what that’s going to mean, Lottie. That you’re not family. I wonder where Mom found you. Do you think your birth mother misses you?”
I couldn’t think of anything other than that our mother would be turning in her grave at Barbara’s behavior.
A woman standing in a kitchen | Source: Midjourney
“Just do it,” I demanded. “Think of it this way. If I’m really adopted and there’s proof, you’ll have more rights to everything.”
That’s what happened. She slowly moved her head from side to side. Suddenly, she stood up from the couch, martini in hand, and looked at me.
“All right. Let’s do it.”
But the results?
A woman frowning | Source: Midjourney
Oh my God. They shocked everyone. Because Barbara?
She was the one who was not biologically related to our mother.
After receiving the results, I went to see my aunt Helen, my mother’s younger sister. She hadn’t said anything about everything, but after I told her about the DNA results, she finally told me the truth.
“Your mother never wanted you two to know, Lottie,” Aunt Helen told me, tears in her eyes. “Because she knew how much it would hurt you both.”
A sad elderly woman | Source: Midjourney
“Know what?” I asked, my heart pounding, but I understood that it was about Barbara’s birth.
“Barbara wasn’t Mom’s biological daughter, Lottie.”
“So, you knew?”
Aunt Helen nodded.
“Your mother found Barbara in a train station when she was two years old. She was abandoned. My sister took her in and raised her as her own. And she never, ever wanted Barbara to feel less than loved. The fact that she had the same blond hair and blue eyes helped.”
A little girl sitting on a bench | Source: Midjourney
“Okay,” I said slowly, trying to put all the pieces together. “But how did Barbara get an adoption decree? If she was found in a train station, I mean?”
Aunt Helen sighed and glanced out the window, as if gathering her thoughts.
“Because your mother made things official, darling. She went through the court system and legally adopted Barbara a year later. She wanted to make sure no one could ever take her away.”
A mother-daughter duo in a courtroom | Source: Midjourney
My stomach twisted. I didn’t know how to feel. Or what to feel.
“So, Mom didn’t tell him?”
Aunt Helen shakes her head.
“She never told either of you, Lottie,” Aunt Helen said softly. “Because in her eyes, it didn’t matter. Barbara was her daughter, just like you were. Blood or not, she loved you both equally, and nothing was going to change that.”
An elderly woman sitting on a sofa | Source: Midjourney
But Barbara had never seen things that way.
She had spent her whole life being treated like the golden child, as if she belonged there.
And yet, in the end?
Barbara was the one who was adopted. I was our mother’s real daughter…
A woman sitting on a sofa | Source: Midjourney
The biological daughter.
When I told my sister the truth, she laughed at first. We were in the kitchen, and I couldn’t wait to tell her. She needed to know the truth, too.
“You’re lying now, Charlotte,” she said. “You probably asked someone to falsify the results, didn’t you? Or you hacked the system! You’re a computer whiz…”
But when I showed him the DNA test and told him everything Aunt Helen had said?
His face turned pale.
A distraught woman | Source: Midjourney
“No, no, it’s not possible. Mom loved me. She… she wouldn’t take in an abandoned child!”
But she did it. She did it.
“Barbara,” I said. “She loved you. And the fact that you were adopted doesn’t change that. Our mother was wonderful. She probably saw you and couldn’t wait to love you.”
Barbara looked at me. She was… I don’t know. I couldn’t read her face. I couldn’t understand what she was thinking. I had no idea .
A woman leaning on a kitchen counter | Source: Midjourney
It was empty.
As for my mother, she had given everything to Barbara. She had seen a little child and wanted to take him into her home and love him, make this child her own.
And instead of spreading this love and joy… what did Barbara do in return?
She tried to steal my inheritance.
A child sitting on a bench | Source: Midjourney
She tried to erase me from my own mother’s life.
And now ?
She’s the one who lost everything.
We went back to see the lawyer. Together, but in different cars. Barbara couldn’t even look at me.
Alistair had confirmed that my mother’s will was valid. Despite Barbara’s cruel attempt to push me out, I still had half of everything.
A lawyer sitting at his desk | Source: Midjourney
“But… wait!” Barbara said, her nails digging into her thigh. “I don’t want to share…”
“Barbara,” Alistair said. “It’s clear. Your mother wanted you two to share everything. It’s 50-50. Now, if you want to play this biological daughter game, I don’t know what to tell you… Charlotte could take it all.”
My sister thought she could rewrite history, but legally? She couldn’t touch anything.
The will was still clear. We were supposed to share everything.
A document on a desk | Source: Midjourney
But after her outburst? After trying to erase me from my own mother’s legacy? Barbara lost more than her pride.
“Let’s go to court,” she said.
“I really don’t recommend it,” Alistair said.
“So what?” Barbara fumed. “You just want us to split the money and pretend we’re a family again? I want nothing to do with Charlotte. I want my money and my house. And I want this all over again!”
A distraught woman | Source: Midjourney
“Barbara, come on…” I said.
“Shut up!” she yelled, throwing one of Alistair’s pens to the floor. “I don’t want you here. You’ll just be here to remind me that I’m not biologically our mother’s daughter. So, no. We’re going to do this. And when I win, you’ll get out of my house.”
That was it. That’s all. I didn’t want to be nice. I didn’t want to share. I didn’t want Barbara any more than she wanted me.
A pen on a carpet | Source: Midjourney
So what?
I hired Alistair on the spot. For me this time, not on behalf of my deceased mother’s estate.
“Let’s do it,” I said. “Let’s go to court.”
“But I want Alistair!” Barbara said, standing up.
“Too late, sister,” I replied.
Months later, Barbara fought in court, desperate to take everything for herself. But she failed.
A woman standing with her arms crossed | Source: Midjourney
Ultimately, the judge ruled against her.
And I got it all.
She tried to destroy me, and in doing so, she destroyed herself and her future.
And you know what?
I think she deserved all of this.
A woman sitting on a sofa | Source: Midjourney
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This work is inspired by real events and people, but has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the story. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims regarding the accuracy of events or character portrayals and are not responsible for any misinterpretations. This story is provided “as is,” and all opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the opinions of the author or publisher.
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