Her Loss Became My Fortune

My sister Nina came home from a blind date and slammed the door, absolutely furious.

What trash! His salary isn't even half of mine, and he had the nerve to tell me to stay local, get married this year, and have a baby next year. Going on a blind date with that kind of loser was absolutely disgusting!

Mom and Dad rushed over to comfort her. "We won't set up any more meetings. That matchmaker has no standards, only introducing you to complete losers."

I stared at the gift box by the door and added quietly, "He was actually pretty nice. He just gave you a ride home and even brought gifts for the whole family."

Nina's eyes flickered, and she suddenly laughed.

"What? You interested in him?"

She looked me up and down, her tone dripping with contempt.

"Makes sense. You're inferior to me in every way. A man like that is more than good enough for you."

She waved her hand impatiently.

"You want him? Take him. I have zero interest in the kind of dead-end life you get stuck in after marrying someone in a small Southern town anyway."

I quietly added the contact information she pushed my way.

I didn't dare mention that when the man drove her home earlier, he was driving our company president's car.

And as far as I knew, his family owned over thirty properties in this small town alone.

Nina's anger hadn't subsided when her phone rang.

After replying to the message, her expression grew even darker.

"So annoying! He asked me to see a movie tomorrow. I said no, but he still won't give up!"

Mom quickly tried to persuade her. "Nina, don't reject him outright."

"In a small place like ours, everyone knows everyone. If you shut him down today, tomorrow people will start gossiping, saying you think you're too good for locals just because you work in New York."

Dad nodded along.

"Exactly. Relationships are complicated around here. Who knows what relatives or friends his family knows? If you offend someone, it'll be inconvenient whenever you come back to handle things."

Nina glanced at me, her tone patronizing.

"Sarah, you go tomorrow instead."

"Just help me deal with him. Don't mess it up."

I didn't argue. I just nodded silently.

No one asked if I was willing. In this family, I'd never had the right to say "no."

To avoid messing up, I stayed up all night researching the movie Rowan had suggested.

The plot, the hidden meanings, the director's filming techniquesI filled an entire page with notes.

The next day when we met, Rowan was clearly surprised to see me.

I explained, "Nina had something come up at the last minute. She asked me to apologize on her behalf."

Then I casually mentioned a couple things about the movie.

His eyes lit up. "Since you understand film too, Miss Snow, the tickets are already bought. Let's not waste them."

After the movie, he discussed it with me enthusiastically for quite a while.

Dinner was his treat.

It was relaxed throughout. None of the sleazy preaching Nina had described.

Instead, he was very considerate, proactively serving me food and asking if everything was to my taste.

After dinner, he suddenly led me into a nearby jewelry store and picked out two necklaces.

Seeing the nearly thirty-thousand-dollar price tag, I froze and quickly tried to decline.

He smiled and shook his head, paying for them.

"Last time I brought gifts in such a rush, I didn't have time to prepare something individual for you and your sister. You keep this one, and please give her the other as an apology from me."

I accepted the pendant, understanding in my heart that he still cared about Nina.

After all, Nina was beautiful and an HR manager at a publicly traded companya top student.

As for me, I was decent-looking at best. Thoroughly ordinary.

But I had no intention of giving the pendant to Nina just yet.

When I got home, Nina glanced at my hands and snorted.

"Oh, he didn't buy you anything? I told you he was poor and cheap. Takes you out and doesn't even know how to be generous."

I ignored her and went back to my room to put away the pendant hidden in my bag.

I'd just sat down when SnapChat popped up a notificationRowan had accepted my friend request from last night.

I touched up my makeup, put on the pendant, took a photo, and posted it to my feed.

Less than two minutes later, Rowan liked it.

Outside my room, Nina's complaints continued.

"Thank god I sent Sarah instead. Otherwise he would've annoyed me to death. That broke loser actually thought he could chase me. He should take a good look at whether he's even worthy."

Mom and Dad chimed in their agreement.

"Exactly. Nina's so outstanding, she'll definitely find someone better in the future."

"I think we should just let Sarah handle these things from now on."

I leaned against the door, feeling nothing in my heart.

I'd gotten used to it long ago.

Mom and Dad didn't use birth control back then and had me by accident. They always felt guilty toward Nina, who should have been an only child.

From childhood they told me, "Sarah, don't compete with Nina. She's your older sister. You need to defer to her."

Nina took all kinds of enrichment classes growing upmusic, chess, calligraphy, paintingshe excelled at everything.

When I wanted to buy a practice workbook, Mom scolded me for "wasting money."

Nina had a high-paying job in New York, and Mom and Dad secretly supplemented her income with five thousand dollars every month.

When I wanted to venture out and see the world, I secretly bought a ticket, but Mom and Dad tore it to pieces.

That night, I overheard them discussing in their room:

"Nina will get married eventually. We can't burden her. Sarah's obedient. Having her take care of us when we're old will be enough."

In their eyes, Nina was always precious.

And me? I was just there to shield Nina from trouble and grievances.

A week later, Rowan asked Nina to go hiking.

Without a second thought, she refused and pushed me out instead.

"Sarah, you go again. Tell him I'm busy with work."

As always, I didn't argue. I changed into athletic wear and went to the date.

While hiking, I walked at a steady pace and would wait for Rowan when he fell behind.

I handed him water and helped wipe his sweat.

When we reached difficult sections, I'd remind him to be careful.

The whole thing was relaxed. I didn't deliberately try to please himjust did what felt natural.

When we reached the summit, Rowan suddenly spoke.

"Your sister said she's busy, but she really just looks down on me, right?"

My heart tightened. I was about to explain when he smiled.

"I could tell something was off at our first meeting. Today's hike confirmed it."

"Nina has never given me a kind look, much less been as patient and genuine as you. I won't force her anymore."

He paused, his gaze becoming especially serious.

"Sarah, you're special. Want to try being together?"

"Rowan and I are together now."

When I told Nina, I also took out the gold necklace from last time and gave it to her.

"This is for you. Consider it thanks for letting me go on those dates."

Nina clutched the pendant, her brow furrowed, her eyes full of suspicion.

"You take home five thousand a month and have to give Mom and Dad three thousand. How can you suddenly afford something this expensive?"

I smiled in a seemingly naive way.

"I used my savings to buy it for you. It's not easy finding someone to date in our small town. Rowan makes eight thousand a month, he's honest, and if I marry him and we're careful with money, we can live better than most people."

She laughed, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh, so I did you a favor?"

"That's all the ambition you havepicking up the man I didn't want and thinking you hit the jackpot?"

I lowered my eyes and didn't respond.

I'd listened to her mockery for over twenty years. I was immune to it by now.

Since getting together with Rowan, we had dinner dates every Friday, but I was always late.

It wasn't intentional. Ever since Manager Lee's divorce, he'd been making things difficult for me.

Every time just before quitting time, he'd dump a pile of work on me and use "discussing work" as an excuse to grope me.

That day, Rowan came to pick me up from the office to make sure I wouldn't be late.

I had just walked out of the office building.

Manager Lee chased after me, pretending to hand me something, deliberately rubbing his fingertips across the back of my hand several times.

I didn't pull away. I even frowned slightly, showing a wronged and helpless expression.

I knew Rowan could see everything clearly from the car.

He suddenly honked the horn and shouted coldly toward the building:

"Who are you? Why are you touching her?"

Manager Lee jumped in fright and hurried away.

The next day at work, the office exploded with gossip.

Manager Lee had been urgently transferred to a remote rural township.

Colleagues whispered that he must have offended someone important. Otherwise, how could he suddenly be transferred without even a chance to argue back?

That evening when Rowan picked me up from work, I casually brought up what had happened.

He looked at me, his eyes filled with tenderness.

"I did it. I won't let you be mistreated."

He came clean about his family background.

His father was the top executive at my parent company. His mother was the principal of a private school.

He said, "I didn't mention it during the blind date because I didn't want to show off."

"I studied in Switzerland for several years and had a girlfriend there. We were together for three years with a great relationship, but when graduation approached, she found out I planned to return to develop my career in this small Southern town. She thought I lacked ambition and broke up with me."

"My parents are getting older and have been pressuring me to marry and have children, which is why I agreed to the blind date."

Suddenly it all made sense.

No wonder such a high-quality man needed blind dates to find a partner.

Rowan suddenly took my hand, his tone serious.

"Sarah, I'm telling you all this because I'm not just playing around with you. I'm serious about getting married."

I looked into his sincere eyes and nodded firmly.

In our second month together, I went home with Rowan to meet his family.

His parents were wonderful people, completely satisfied with me, and even gave me a valuable gift.

Half a year flew by, and we decided to get our marriage license.

When I told my parents, they said dismissively that the family's finances were limited and they could only give me ten thousand dollars as wedding gift.

I didn't argue. I gritted my teeth and took out a bank loan, bringing my wedding gift up to one hundred and eighty thousand.

I didn't want to be looked down on at my wedding, and I definitely didn't want to be laughed at by Nina and parents.

On the wedding day, my in-laws specifically spent a million dollars to hold a lavish ceremony at the best hotel in the area.

Well-wishers came in drovesall prominent figures in the local community.

Even leaders from my company came to offer their congratulations.

But until the ceremony started, I never saw my parents arrive.

Just as I stood on stage in my wedding dress, barely able to hold myself together, I received a message from my parents. Just a few short sentences:

[Sarah, Mom and Dad aren't coming. Nina suddenly got a fever, so we have to rush to New York overnight to take care of her.]

[Your in-laws are just showing off, insisting on holding it at the most expensive restaurant. We looked at the smallest banquet hall there beforeit's barely bigger than a conference room. Going would just be embarrassing. Nina's illness is more important.]

My knuckles turned white as I gripped my phone.

Only then did I realize my parents hadn't even carefully read the invitation.

Subconsciously, they didn't care about me, and by extension, didn't care about the husband and family I was marrying into.

Fortunately, Rowan's family didn't take it to heart at all.

In fact, my mother-in-law felt especially sorry for me.

They said since I was marrying into the family without money to my name, they'd let me manage all the gift money received.

Eight hundred thousand dollars in gift money.

Four times the two hundred thousand dollar wedding gift my parents had prepared for Nina.

That night, I posted our wedding photos to my feed.

But the family group chat remained silent. No one sent a single word of blessing.

Nina, however, soon posted a photo of a bowl of soup, captioned:

[Family is always the most reliable harbor.]

I wasn't angry or sad.

After all, I had eight hundred thousand dollars.

Money is the best medicine for healing in this world.

Shortly after the wedding, Rowan felt bad about my difficult commute and bought me a Ferrari.

That morning, I drove to work and passed a flower bed by the road. I took a photo of the blooming flowers and posted it to my feed.

Unexpectedly, Nina directly private messaged me, screenshotting the Ferrari logo visible in the corner of the photo, sending three question marks.

[Where did you get a car? And a Ferrari?]

My heart skipped a beat. I immediately remembered that since childhood, Nina couldn't stand me having anything better than her.

Once she found out, she'd find ways to ruin it.

I suppressed my thoughts and replied: [Just hitching a ride with a coworker.]

Her response dripped with mockery: [Hahaha, hilarious. Someone who rides a bicycle goes to work every day with someone who drives a Ferrari and doesn't feel inferior? Stop pretending. People get the kind of life they deserve.]

I didn't reply. Instead, I clicked on her feed.

She'd been working in New York for four years, and this year her salary had risen to eighteen thousand.

It looked glamorous on the surface, but to save commute time, she lived in a studio apartment that cost twelve thousand a month in rent, without even a balcony.

Her most recent post was about flowers she bought at a subway station.

I'd ridden that subway line before. Even at eleven at night, it was packed so tight you couldn't breathe.

Another post complained about ordering a pretty meal for delivery that cost over a hundred dollars but the portions were so small she couldn't even fill up.

Meanwhile, I only had to drive five minutes after work to eat a hot, home-cooked meal.

Life is meant to be lived for yourself, not performed for others.

Six months after the wedding, I got pregnant.

The whole family was overjoyed. They wouldn't let me do any chores and made me all kinds of nutritious supplements every day.

Coincidentally, not long after, Nina also announced good news in the family group chat, saying she'd found a boyfriend who made seven hundred thousand a year and would bring him home next month during the holidays for Mom and Dad to meet.

Mom and Dad were thrilled, praising Nina endlessly for being accomplished and having good taste in men.

The holiday season arrived quickly. With my big belly, Rowan supported me as we returned to my parents' home together.

As soon as we walked in, Nina looked me up and down.

"Sarah, why are you wearing so little? Poor thing, pregnant and just wearing a thin jacket. Can't even afford a thicker down coat anymore?"

I didn't explain. The route from our home garage to my parents' place had heating the whole way.

And it was running at full blast, making my face flush red.

Seeing my silence, Nina grew even more smug, deliberately raising her voice.

"My boyfriend drove a Mercedes GLE here this time. I bet our little town doesn't even have many luxury cars like that."

Mom and Dad crowded around her in praise. "Nina's so accomplished! The man she found is rich and treats her wellten thousand times better than what Sarah found! Sarah, you really need to learn from Nina."

Just as they were talking, Nina's boyfriend pushed through the door, his face showing some impatience.

"Uncle, Auntie, your complex is really hard to find parking in. I drove around in circles for ages before finding a spot."

"But I just saw a Mercedes G-Wagon downstairs. Didn't expect your small town to have such wealthy neighbors."

The moment he finished speaking, Rowan helped me sit down and casually pulled out the G-Wagon keys from his pocket, placing them in my hand and saying gently:

"Honey, are your hands cold?"

"Hold onto the keys. When we leave later, you can get in the car first and turn on the heat."

The entire room instantly fell silent.