Chapter 2

I found it laughable.

If this had been the old Amanda, she would’ve been desperate for their approval and affection. But not me.

I didn’t know much about this world yet, but I had always been a quick learner.

Reaching under the pillow, I found a device called a “phone.” Using the memories of the original Amanda, I unlocked it and searched for everything I needed to know.

It turned out that thousands of years had passed since the war-torn era I once lived in.

This country knew no war or bloodshed. Children here grew up happy and carefree, surrounded by peace and prosperity.

Though I missed the past, I found myself liking this world much more.

I stayed up late into the night, lost in thought as I absorbed everything. By the time I finally fell asleep, my mind was a whirlwind of ideas.

When I woke up again, the parents and brother of this body were standing by my hospital bed.

My father, Grant Cooper, frowned deeply, while my mother, Emily Cooper, spoke gently. “Are you feeling better?”

I nodded, keeping my distance emotionally. I had no interest in bonding with them. “After winter break, can I move into the dorms?”

That was the reason I’d asked Lucas yesterday where Mom and Dad were.

Grant immediately lost his temper. “How long are you planning to keep this up? You’re constantly at odds with Stephanie, always stirring up trouble. And now you’re trying to threaten us by moving out? This is completely unreasonable!”

Emily shook her head with a sigh, her tone tinged with frustration. “Just tell us—what is it that you want this time?”

At that moment, a girl walked in. Stephanie.

She wasn’t particularly beautiful, but she carried herself with an air of refinement. Her carefully cultivated grace and polite smiles gave her the aura of someone who had been raised in wealth and privilege. She exuded the kind of elegance that came from being the favored child of the Cooper family.

“Alright, Amanda,” she said with a practiced smile. “I’ve already forgiven you for what happened yesterday. You don’t need to say things like ‘moving out’ just to be dramatic.”

In the original Amanda’s memories, Stephanie had always looked down on her. But there was also a hint of fear—because Stephanie knew the truth. She was the fake. She was the one who had no blood ties to the Cooper family.

Years ago, it had been Stephanie’s mother who orchestrated the switch, swapping her daughter for me. If not for that, I would’ve been the one raised in privilege.

And even now, with the truth out in the open, nothing had changed. Stephanie’s mother was still perfectly fine, living her life as if nothing had happened. The Coopers had no intention of kicking Stephanie out.

Why?

Because Stephanie was everything they wanted in a daughter. She was graceful, composed, and well-educated—the perfect image of a Cooper family heiress. To them, I was nothing but an unpolished outsider who could never take her place.

I smiled faintly. “I heard there are security cameras by the lake. Should we check the footage?”

Stephanie’s composed demeanor cracked for a moment, panic flashing in her eyes. “Mom, Dad, I… I feel so dizzy.”

Grant’s expression immediately shifted to one of concern. “You must be overworking yourself with all that dancing.”

“She should see a doctor,” Emily said, her voice filled with worry.

And just like that, the three of them—Stephanie and my supposed parents—left together, leaving me alone in the room.