the ugly duckling story characters

In his past life, Harrison Cowan abandoned his own daughter for a widow, raising her two sons instead. In his old age, when he fell ill, his adopted sons refused to even pay a mere hundred thousand for his surgery. Given a second chance at life, Harrison is determined to make amends. No longer willing to play the role of a stepfather, he vows to work hard, make money, and devote his life to raising his biological daughter, living only for her from now on!

Queenie was taken out of the orphanage by her parents. She thought she could finally live a happy life, but upon returning home, she discovered the existence of a favored fake daughter, Winnie. Fearing that Queenie would take everything from her, Winnie resorted to all sorts of underhanded tactics. To frame Queenie, she even pushed her fiancé's sister down the stairs, leaving her in a vegetative state. In court, Queenie's parents biasedly supported Winnie and deleted surveillance footage. Her brother even testified against her, sending her to prison. After five years of suffering, Queenie emerged from prison feeling hopeless and no longer yearning for familial bonds. She just wanted to escape that home.\

Isabelle, the CEO of New York City’s Weston Group, wants to bring her elderly father, Jerry, from her hometown to the city so she can take care of him. Jerry hence sets out for the Big Apple, but neither father nor daughter expected that this journey would become a nightmare. No one knows that Jerry is Isabelle's father, and instead assume from his plain clothes that he’s a beggar or a pervert. Jerry suffers bullying and abuse by Weston Group’s employees and partners, until Isabelle finally arrives......

Lydia Judd watched helplessly as her mother died at the hands of her abusive father. If given a choice, she would rather have never been born than let her mother marry him. Then, fate grants her a second chance—she wakes up in the past, when her mother is still young. Determined to change her fate, Lydia helps her escape her toxic family and keeps her away from the man who would ruin her life. Instead, she entrusts her to Shawn Lane, a man who had secretly loved her mother in their past life. As her mother's future shifts, Lydia begins to fade. On the day her mother gets married, Lydia quietly disappears, her mission fulfilled.

Frank had been adopted by his foster parents who doted on him dearly. But everything changed the day his foster parents officially recognized Timothy, their biological son. No matter how earnestly Frank explained, his adoptive father chose to believe the newly acknowledged heir over the son he'd raised for over twenty years. Frank had overlooked the bond of blood. On Timothy's birthday celebration, Frank died in a car crash. In his final moments, Frank realized the entire tragedy had been orchestrated by Timothy. Consumed by regret and rage, his world plunged into darkness. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself back to the fateful day, his wife’s leap from the building.

After losing her husband in a car accident, Imelda Tobin shoulders the burden of raising their two children alone. She works tirelessly to secure their future, eventually building the Frey Corp—but at the cost of her health, ultimately leading to late-stage stomach cancer. She loves both of her children deeply, but her strictness with her stubborn son, Joshua Frey, often makes it seem like she favors her daughter, Jade Frey. Under the influence of her husband, Chad Archer, Jade begins to feel excluded from the family's future and fuels tensions between her mother and Joshua, deepening their rift.

Lyra Donovan, wealthy heiress and Aurenya Arts Academy graduate, joins her father's corporation at her parents' request. Orion Harding, her childhood companion whose family has long-standing ties with the Donovans, intends to marry her. After Luna engineers a car accident killing her own parents, she manipulates her way into being adopted by the wealthy Donovans. While working alongside Lyra and plagiarizing her artistic ideas, Luna secretly plots to eliminate Lyra and claim everything, including Orion. But fate intervenes with a second chance: Lyra is reborn.

Leola Dawson returns home from abroad for her brother Tyrone's proposal to Helen Miller. At the proposal, Helen mistakes Leola for "the other woman." Helen and her family mistreat Leola based on this misunderstanding. Tyrone, influenced by Helen's family, turns against his sister. Finally, Leola and her parents clear up the situation, and she becomes the heiress to Dawson Group.

When Melody Lowe was young, she saved Michael Pond, leaving a scar on her face. Hoping he would recognize her, she was heartbroken when he mistook Sharon Bright for his savior. Despite her love for him, she was misunderstood, but they eventually married—only because she offered him financial support during his lowest point. Melody devotes herself to their marriage, but their relationship remains cold. After being diagnosed with cancer, she passes away shortly after—only to be reborn. Determined to fight back, she seeks revenge against Michael and his mistress. Just when she thinks she can find happiness with her child, she discovers that it is her daughter who saved her life. Overwhelmed by loss, she finds solace in someone who truly loves her, while a little kid begins to cultivate on a distant mountain.

Yvonne, the daughter of billionaire Mel, was abducted by traffickers at a young age. Mel left everything behind to search for her for years, even resulting in a disability in one of his legs, but he ultimately found her. To celebrate Yvonne's return, Mel planned a welcome party where he intended to reveal his true identity and hand over his empire to her. However, Mel's girlfriend, Judith, mistakenly believed Yvonne was his mistress and confronted her violently, leading to a series of events until Mel finally revealed the truth.

Twenty years ago, Quilla saved Yosef and his family by chance.The two fell in love over time, and she chose to stay with Yosef, raising his three children as her own. Twenty years later,the ex-wife Mary reappears. Emotionally, the three children lean more toward their birth mother, so the family decides to drive away Quilla, the only "outsider". Heartbroken, she cuts ties with them for good. Meanwhile, the Grant family's business begins to decline,and Mary proves to be nothing but a gold-digger. They finally remember Quilla's kindness and try to win her back, but her heart is already dead, and she starts a new life.

Janet Driscoll, once the cherished darling of the family, was devastated to discover that she was not her parents' biological daughter. After their real daughter, Jaime, was welcomed home, her once-loving parents and brother began to trust Jaime blindly, hanging on her every word.When Janet was falsely accused of pushing her grandma down the stairs, the Driscoll family, without hesitation, sent her to a harsh reform school. There, she endured three years of inhumane torment that left her with permanent, life-altering disabilities.Three years later, when the family finally brought her home, they were shocked to find that the bright, cheerful Janet they once knew had vanished. In her place stood a cold, distant young woman who had shut them all out.

Dakota is Gabriella Lowery's only daughter, cherished since childhood, who later marries Chase Boone and moves far away. After marriage, Chase neglects the family and has an affair. Although Dakota suffers, she never complains to her mother. At her child's one-month celebration, Dakota hopes for her mother to attend, only to discover that everyone believes Gabriella has passed away and has kept this from her. Dakota refuses to believe it and argues with the Boone family. Years of unhappiness make her consider divorce, but Chase is unwilling. At this point, Gabriella arrives and, seeing her daughter's thin appearance, blames Chase. Still, she is willing to give him another chance. Unfortunately, the rift in Dakota and Chase's relationship is beyond repair. Dakota decides to divorce, and Gabriella supports her. Chase recognizes his mistakes, chooses to let her go, and expresses his intention to change, waiting for Dakota to return.

To save her father's life, Alicia Bennett is forced into a dangerous game of deception, swapping places with Sabrina Knight to "pretend" to be intimate with Sabrina's powerful husband, Ethan Clark. What begins as a desperate bargain to secure money for surgery soon spirals into a deadly web of secrets and manipulation, with Alicia trapped as a pawn in the ruthless Knight family's control. By day, she's Ethan's dutiful assistant; by night, she's a "stranger" in his bed, caught in a whirlwind of passion, power, and betrayal. As their complex, forbidden connection deepens, Alicia is drawn into a world where nothing is as it seems—until the shocking truth is finally exposed… Will Alicia escape the tangled web she's been caught in, or will the Knight family's plans destroy everything she's fought for?

Stella lost her parents when she was just a child and grew up in heartbreaking circumstances. But through it all, she stayed bright, strong, and kind-hearted. At eighteen, she happened to save Riley, the elegant matriarch of a wealthy family. Grateful, Riley took her in as her foster daughter. To Stella's amazement, her six new brothers were anything but ordinary. From a girl nobody cared about, she suddenly found herself at the center of a powerful family—as their beloved little sister.

Mia's world turned upside down when her first love, Logan Henry, re-entered her life with his young daughter, Jade Henry. As Jade became a constant presence in the family, Mia's relationship with her own daughter, Molly Justin, grew increasingly strained. Feeling overshadowed and repeatedly pushed aside, Molly slowly closed off her heart until one day, she left with her father, Mason Justin. Only after their departure did Mia awaken to the pain she'd caused. The weight of her indifference and the void left by her daughter's love began to consume her, plunging her into a spiral of irreparable remorse.

On Christmas Eve, James Halper visits his wife's family, only to be treated with disdain. Little do they know, he is the new Chairman of Empyrean Group, one of the world's leading companies.

In the 1990s, Trenton Zoller, the director of Windi Factory, was suddenly diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Feeling disheartened by his wife Madelyn's cold violence, Trenton refused the doctor's proposed treatment plan and decided to conceal his illness. He resolved to help the factory undergo reorganizing before losing all memory, ensuring the workers would not lose their jobs. Eventually, he planned to pass away with dignity once his memory faded completely. Misunderstood by his wife and the factory workers, Trenton had to sadly depart as his factory reorganization plan was misconstrued. Madelyn, upon learning the truth, was consumed with remorse, left only with Trenton's ashes. A decade passed in the blink of an eye, until one day Madelyn saw a person in the newspaper who bore an uncanny resemblance to Trenton Zoller...