Chapter 1

Before I found out I was the fake heiress, I acted like a total queen around my brother, Leo Ellington, every single day.

I'd wake him up in the middle of the night to cook me dishes, or force him into a tight, sexy black sweater to pick me up from school.

Leo was beyond annoyed, but he had to put up with it for the sake of our family elders.

Then that day, I gave him another order.

Leo spoke coldly, "Not happening."

As I was about to throw a huge fit, a few lines of tiny text floated before my eyes.

[The fake heiress, Lydia Carrington, is still throwing her weight around, not knowing the real one, Leona Crawford, has become Leo's direct junior.

[The two had dinner together today, and Leo was gentle and thoughtful the whole time, nothing like how he acts with that spoiled brat, just pure impatience.]

[Once Leo finds out Lydia isn't his real sister, he'll kick her out of the car before even getting off the highway. By the time someone sees her, she'll be in pieces, impossible to put back together.]

[She torments Leo all day long. She deserves all this.]

I shuddered, weakly tugging at the half-damp long hair in Leo's hand. "Leo, if you don't want to, it's fine. I-I can ask someone else instead."

*****

"Someone else?" Leo Ellington's voice was wrapped in shards of ice, slicing through the roar of the hair dryer.

I blurted out, feeling unsettled. "Yeah, yeah, I'll ask my friend or the class president tomorrow. They—"

"Lydia," Leo spoke coldly, his tone flat and completely devoid of emotion.

A shiver ran through me. Leo uses Mom's surname, while I use Dad's.

Back when I was at my most self-absorbed, I'd force Leo to say my name fifty times a day because I liked how it sounded. But today, hearing it made my hair stand on end.

I forced a smile. "Leo, w-what's wrong?"

Leo stared at me for a few seconds, his Adam's apple bobbing. "I've got experiments to run. I can't get random tattoos on my hand."

As soon as he finished, the comments started flooding in, all of them roasting me.

[Seriously? Forcing Leo to get her name tattooed on his hand? Is that something a normal person would do? She's totally nuts.]

[I can't imagine how much Leo's had to put up with all these years. Good thing his sweet, understanding sister is coming back soon. Lydia, wait and see. You're about to be finished.]

I was biting my lip so hard that it was about to bleed. It was all my rival Esme Langford's fault. She had to provoke me yesterday, pointing at a photo of Leo and saying her brother was way hotter.

Of course, I wasn't having it. I rolled up my sleeves and started arguing with her. "Did you get mud in your eyes or something? Leo's way hotter than your brother. He's 6'4. Can your brother reach that? Oh, and he's got a six-pack."

More and more classmates started crowding around, and before I knew it, our argument had taken a whole new turn.

Esme shot back, "My brother makes me a full eight-course meal with soup every single day."

I blew on my nails, totally unfazed. "Sorry, but Leo serves up two extra dishes."

Esme's face turned bright red, then she flashed a confident, victorious grin. "My brother's got my initials tattooed on his wrist."

Seeing Esme gloat like that made me so furious that I lost all sense and blurted out an order for Leo to do the same.

Now the comments kept pouring in, insulting me nonstop and roasting me so harshly that I could barely hold my head up.

I wanted to hurry back to my room and get some peace and quiet. "Alright, I'm heading to bed."

Leo didn't seem to react at all.

It wasn't until I was halfway through my door that I finally heard him call out, "Come here. Your hair's still wet."

He'd finished setting the hair dryer with his hand when I snatched it away from him. "Leo, I can handle it myself. No need to fuss over me."

Leo kept his hand raised, but his expression soured with every word I said.

[She always says she won't bother him, but every single time Leo's asleep, she's banging on his door, either wanting hair oil or craving crayfish.]

[Whenever I see this, I wish I could slap her through the screen. Leo's probably sick of it by now.]

Head down, clutching the hair dryer and Leo's hair oil, I slunk off to my room without a word.

The comments finally died down.

I sat on the edge of my bed, zoning out as I stared at the photo wall full of pictures of Leo and me.

The latest one was from last week, when Leo picked me up from school, and I dragged him into a selfie.

In the photo, I was grinning at the camera, flashing a peace sign, while Leo looked away into the void, his face completely blank.

Scrolling through the old photos, I realized that whenever I was around, Leo always had that icy expression, always looking somewhere else.

Back then, I figured he was trying to act cool.

It wasn't until I read the comments today that I realized Leo had started resenting me way back, long before I ever noticed.

Quietly, I took down every photo of me and Leo from the wall, packed them all into a box, planning to throw them out tomorrow.

According to the comments, the real heiress, Leona Crawford, had already met Leo, and soon they would reunite as brother and sister.

I couldn't change how the story went, so all I could do was hope I didn't push Leo's patience any further.

Maybe, if I were lucky, Leo would remember the old days and show me a little mercy.

There was a knock at the door, and I got up and opened it.

Leo silently offered me a mug of milk.

Without thinking, I pushed it away. "Leo, I don't want it."

[Seriously, can someone haul this drama queen out of here? I'm so sick of her. She used to make a scene if Leo didn't get her a cup of milk every night. Now he hands it over, and she won't drink it. What's her problem?]

[And that's not the worst. She'd make him drink it with her when she knows Leo absolutely hates milk.]

The moment Leo's face turned stormy, I snatched the milk from his hand and chugged it all down in one go.

Leo's expression eased up a bit as he reached for the empty cup in my hand.

I hurriedly sidestepped, barely grazing his fingertips as I rushed off to the kitchen. "No, thanks. I'll wash it."

After washing the cup, I turned around and saw Leo standing in the kitchen doorway, staring me down.

Leo looked down, watching me for a while before finally speaking. "Lydia, you're mad at me."