The Unveiling of Secret Queen

The June sky over McKinney was like a furnace, the scorching sun creating layers upon layers of heat waves over the tarred road, leaving it devoid of people.

Nathalie Quinlan dragged her newly packed luggage out of her room.

Before she even descended the stairs, she could hear Ghania's chattering voice from downstairs.

"Mom and Dad, are Nathalie's biological parents really coming to pick her up?"

Mr. Quinlan sternly asked her, "Why do you care about that, have you practiced the piano piece you'll need later? Your grandma's friends are coming over from Beijing, and one of them is a professor at the National Artists University, a national-level piano master. If you perform well, grandma might help you make some connections, and then your college education in Beijing will be set."

"I've been practicing it."

Before Nathalie could go downstairs, she heard Ghania cooing again.

"Dad, what do you think her biological parents look like?"

No sooner had she finished speaking than she muttered disdainfully under the guise of innocence, "Her parents said they'd come the day before yesterday, but they've only arrived today! They couldn't possibly have bought train tickets and spent two days and a night on a train coming from the backwoods to pick her up, could they?"

At the top of the stairs, Nathalie's footsteps involuntarily stopped, and a trace of irony crossed the cold depths of her eyes.

Three months ago, she accidentally discovered that her dear sister Ghania and her boyfriend had been having a secret affair behind her back.

Furious, she exposed the affair and found out that she was not a Quinlan by blood at all but had been adopted from an orphanage.

The Quinlan family hadn't adopted her out of pure benevolence or to do a good deed.

Rather, Ghania was born with a rare blood disease that, aside from medication, required regular blood transfusions each month.

The Quinlan family owned a company that had gone public the previous year and were considered somewhat prestigious in McKinney. If Ghania's condition had solely required money, the Quinlan family wouldn't have had any issue.

Unfortunately for Ghania, in addition to her bad luck of being ill from birth, she was also born with the rare Rh blood type. This blood type was so scarce that it was said only one or two people in a hundred thousand possessed it.

Because it was so rare, this blood type was referred to as Rh negative blood type or 'panda blood' by the hospitals.

It was as precious as the giant panda.

The Quinlan family had the funds for treatment but couldn't ensure that the hospital would have enough Rh negative blood for Ghania every month. Thus, after much thought, they came up with a solution—to adopt a child from the orphanage with a matching blood type to serve as a mobile blood bag for their daughter!

She was that 'free' mobile blood bag.

Nathalie had been raised to be a good sister from a young age, giving her prettier clothes to Ghania to wear and her chances of winning awards to Ghania… If it hadn't been for the affair between Ghania and Zayn Fisher coming to light, she would still be in the dark!

The Quinlan family told her about her adoption simply because Ghania had mostly recovered after years of treatment. If she stayed cautious, she no longer needed medication or transfusions.

Nathalie was no longer of any use to them, and with Grandma Quinlan outraged by Nathalie causing a scene at Ghania's birthday banquet, the family decided to 'expose' her as a faux heiress in front of everyone to save Ghania's reputation and the Quinlan family's face.

Mr. Quinlan, not wanting to mention Nathalie, said, "You talk too much."

Ghania was not buying it and pouted, "That's just how it is. If they could afford airplane tickets, they wouldn't have arrived only now. They must be penniless!"

"Alright."

Mr. Quinlan, from the corner of his eye, caught sight of Nathalie coming down the stairs and spoke in a low voice to stop her.

What first caught his eye was her carefree face. She wore a light blue T-shirt with a red and white striped shirt casually tied over it, the hem tucked into her denim shorts, revealing her long, slender, and fair legs.

Everyone in their family was fair, but Nathalie was even fairer than the rest of them.

Perhaps it was because of her pale skin that Nathalie's eyes always seemed particularly dark, giving Jeff Quinlan a sense of distance that seemed to stand between them every time he saw her.

Indeed, the reason was that she was not his natural child.

"Nathalie, have you packed everything?" After all, he had raised her for over ten years, Mr. Quinlan pursed his lips, looked away and asked in a milder tone than other members of the Quinlan family did.

Carrying her lightweight luggage, Nathalie gave an affirming sound.

Ghania finally noticed her and immediately put away her gossipy demeanor, pretending to act nonchalant as she called out, "Sis."

"…" Nathalie couldn't even be bothered to grunt at her and simply strode past her.

Ghania, ignored by Nathalie, pouted her lips unwillingly, as if wronged, her long eyelashes drooping down. Her pale face appeared almost colorless, frail like a white flower in the wind.

Cindy Lawrence's face fell on the spot, she scowled darkly, tapping her cane and huffed, "Ghania just spoke to you, can't you hear?"

Ghania immediately clung to her hand, looked up, shook her head weakly, and spoke on her behalf with bitten lips, "Grandma, let it be. Sister is in a bad mood, I don't mind."

With that, Cindy Lawrence found the young girl passing by even more distasteful; everything about her seemed to be flawed, and she said disparagingly, "Just as I thought, she's not a Quinlan child. Over ten years of education and still can't change her low-class nature!"

"Mom."

Jeff Quinlan, as if pleading, called out to her and approached Nathalie, pretendingly offering a card, "Here's ten thousand."

He sighed as he handed it to Nathalie, "Take this! When you go back to your dad and mom's home, behave yourself, and use this money to buy some clothes. In the future, for your studies... you might need it."

He had always been cautious in his dealings, and it was a critical time as the Quinlan family had just secured a government development project, so Jeff Quinlan didn't want any complications.

He had investigated Nathalie's biological parents who were coming to pick her up, they seemed to have the surname Jiang and were listed as teachers from Hillwood County.

Hillwood was three hundred kilometers away from McKinney, a notoriously impoverished county that was a frequent target of philanthropic donations from entrepreneurs, including donations from him. He didn't look further into those county school teachers, automatically picturing the hardworking rural teachers often interviewed in the news.

Nathalie was already in her last year of high school. Going back to Hillwood, the chances of her getting into university were almost nil, let alone following in Ghania's footsteps and going to a university in Beijing after graduating from No. 1 Middle School in McKinney.

Her life was ruined!