"Did you hear? The Carter family's long-lost daughter’s finally been found after ten years!"
"What about the adopted one, then?"
"That's not all—rumor has it, the real daughter even went through her heat cycle with that adopted girl’s fiancé!"
"Yikes, if I were that adopted one, I'd be too embarrassed to stay in the Carter house now."
In a quiet corner by the window, a stunning girl with sleek black hair leaned lazily against the frame, gently massaging her throbbing forehead. She frowned just a bit—strange, she'd had quite a bit to drink last night, but this heavy sleep still felt off. Then again, hearing the gossip from outside, she just chuckled to herself.
A decade ago, the heiress of the Alpha Prime aristocrat Carter family, Sophia Carter, went missing in a spaceship accident. Heartbroken and desperate, the Carters went to an orphanage on a barren star and adopted a little girl named Serena, who looked a lot like Sophia and was around the same age.
Ten years later, they actually found Sophia again—and of course, the family was over the moon. To make up for everything she’d missed, they spoiled her rotten—buying her all the clothes, jewelry, gadgets, even aircraft she could ever want.
They even moved her out of the shared princess quarters, just because she casually said, "Serena's place looks so pretty."
The whole family basically put her on a pedestal.
To Serena, it all made sense. After all, she was just the adopted kid. Sophia was their real daughter.
She quietly moved into her new room and did her best to be kind to Sophia. Tried really hard.
But what she didn’t expect… was that her fiancé, James Johnson, had gone through his heat with Sophia.
Shaking off the memory, Serena let out a lazy yawn and turned to start packing up her things for Imperial University. Honestly, it was about time she left the Carter house anyway.
Not that packing took long—she didn’t plan to take much. Nothing from the Carters.
She slipped on her Imperial University uniform—white and blue with clean lines—tucking the pant legs into sleek black boots. In the mirror, she tied her ink-black hair into a high ponytail.
The last thing left was her smart device.
It was a birthday gift from her adoptive brother, Sebastian Carter, two years ago. He’d always treated her kindly. He’d been sent to a distant planet on an energy inspection mission and hadn’t been home for six months.
But she knew deep down—he was Sophia’s real brother. He’d probably love her even more now.
She figured it was best to reset the smart device and return it to them.
Just as she was about to hit reset, a notification popped up.
Main AI: Miss Serena Carter, your gene match marriage application has been received. Processing now. Initiating genetic comparison…
Serena froze. The watch-like device slipped out of her hand and clattered to the floor.
On Alpha Prime, there were two ways to get married.
Option one—fall in love and tie the knot. Most people went with that.The second option was genetic matching marriage.
Once you applied, the Mainframe would scan all eligible singles on the planet and pair you with the one whose genes matched yours best.
Basically, it was like placing an online order for a spouse.
But because this approach left out all the emotional bits and often led to chaos later on, it had pretty much fallen out of use. Hardly anyone went for it anymore.
Serena’s eyes hardened.
Someone had touched her terminal and submitted the application behind her back.
She stormed out of her room and called over the housekeeping bot. “Who came into my room last night?”
The robot’s electronic eyes spun erratically.
Without wasting time, Serena popped open the bot’s control panel and went straight for the surveillance data from when she’d passed out drunk the night before.
Deleted.
Tch, as if that could stop her. Restoring files was child’s play for Serena.
A few minutes later, she was staring at the recovered footage—and there it was. That sneaky figure slipping into her room.
Sophia.
But that wasn’t all. Turns out, Sophia had also messed with her drink the night before...
**
The Carter family kitchen was spacious, usually taken over by domestic bots to handle cooking.
But that morning, Sophia was there in person, wearing a white dress, loose waves framing her face, a pink apron tied around her waist as she busied herself with breakfast.
“I’m not sure it’ll be as tasty as what the bots make,” she said softly to Mrs. Carter, who stood nearby.
Mrs. Carter, all gentle smiles and kind eyes, looked at Sophia like she was her entire world.
“Whatever you make, sweetie, it’s bound to be the most delicious thing ever.”
Sophia beamed, just about to reply—
“Thud thud thud,” hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway.
She turned just in time to catch Serena’s hand across her cheek.
Smack!
Covering her cheek, tears welled up in Sophia’s eyes. “Serena, why did you hit me?!”
Mrs. Carter’s expression twisted as she rushed to support Sophia, her eyes sharp with fury as they locked onto Serena.
“Have you gone mad? It’s not even 9 a.m., and you’re already hitting your sister?”
Serena’s voice was ice. “Why don’t you ask Sophia what she did with my terminal?”
“No matter what she did, that’s no excuse to lay a hand on her!”
Serena laughed coldly. “Not even if she secretly submitted a genetic marriage application for me?”
Mrs. Carter froze.
She spun to look at her daughter, whose tears now streamed down like falling pearls.
“Mom, I didn’t mean to… I just wanted to borrow some of Serena’s review notes from her terminal...”
“You know she got into the Imperial University already, and I’m the same age, but because I was missing for so long, I never got the chance to study properly… I just wanted to try my best this year so I could apply too...”“Serena was passed out drunk last night. I didn’t have the heart to wake her, so I just downloaded the study files myself. I must’ve hit the wrong button or something... I didn’t mean to send that application, I swear!”
Mrs. Carter’s heart ached more with every word.
After all, her daughter had suffered so much out there.
Every time she thought about it, she couldn’t help but feel guilty and crushed.
She turned to Serena with a frown. “Serena, whatever happened, Sophia didn’t do it on purpose. If you’re unhappy with the gene match, the Carter family will pay for your divorce, okay?”
Serena stared at the once-gentle and elegant woman, hearing her brush off the forced marriage like it was nothing.
Her heart turned cold.
“Do you even know what she did last night? She snuck into the kitchen and spiked my drink.”
“Then she broke into my room and used my neural device to submit the marriage gene matching request.”
“She planned it all out—she just wants to kick me out of this house.”
Mrs. Carter looked stunned. “Wait, that can’t be true... right?”
Serena’s voice was calm. “Don’t believe me? I sent all the surveillance footage to your inbox.”
Mrs. Carter stood there, shocked. She looked at her tearful biological daughter, hesitating, clearly torn inside.
“Serena, I’m sure Sophia didn’t mean it that way. Please try to forgive her, okay? She’s had it so hard all these years. We raised you for ten years, doesn’t that count for something? Can’t you just cut her some slack?”
Those words felt like ice water poured over Serena’s heart.
The colder she felt, the calmer she became.
“Mrs. Carter, I haven’t forgotten the past ten years. You spent 168,000 star coins on me—I’ll pay it back.”
She turned, ready to leave.
Mrs. Carter just realized what she had said and froze. “Serena, did you just call me Mrs. Carter...? You’re cutting ties with us over something like this?”
Sophia looked up and, seeing the pain and hesitation in her mother’s eyes, suddenly burst into loud sobs.
“It’s all my fault! Serena’s mad because of me and James, isn’t she? If you’re angry, take it out on me, okay? Serena, we took care of you for ten whole years! If you just walk away like this, think how much that’ll hurt Mom and the others!”
Serena turned around and, sure enough, spotted the tears welling up in Mrs. Carter’s eyes.
It was like somehow, she was the only one in the wrong from the start.
Watching Sophia put on this Oscar-worthy act, Serena realized one thing—life in the Carter house was about to get a whole lot more “interesting” with her around.
Go ahead, spoil her to the heavens. Be my guest.
Right then, her neural device pinged softly.
Serena looked down and saw the marriage application had actually been approved?
Without a word, she wiped the device, dropped it on the ground, and walked straight out.
Mrs. Carter called out in distress. “Serena, where are you going?!”
Serena didn’t even look back as she waved her hand. “To the mainframe civil office. Gotta go pick up my husband.”
