Chapter 1
The unit I had just bought came with great energy.
The realtor said a person could feel the warmth of home there.
The day after I moved in, I ran into the ex-husband I hadn't seen in five years.
After ten seconds of awkward silence, Michael Sterling spoke first.
"Charlotte, you're here?"
I didn't answer him. "I'm out for a walk."
As I stepped into the complex, his voice reached me again.
It was far too polite for the man I knew.
"Charlotte, you could go back to the Evans Family. You could go back to the Sterling Family too."
I didn't correct him. My name was Anna Quinn.
None of it mattered anymore.
I wasn't the real heiress, and I wasn't Michael's wife.
I was only myself.
*****
The cemetery felt bare and lonely in the early winter cold.
The only color came from a few bunches of white lilies set in front of the headstones.
After wandering through the cemetery, I bumped into someone I hadn't seen in five years.
Michael Sterling.
He was holding an ultrasound report, standing in front of a woman's black-and-white portrait.
After half a minute of silence, Michael spoke, slowly. "Charlotte, have you been here all these years?"
I stared at the woman's photo and lost myself for a moment.
She was my biological mother, and she was also the adoptive mother of Michael's wife, Sophie Evans.
Sophie had bought this plot so she could come and pay her respects.
Sophie was the real heiress of the Evans Family.
And I was the impostor who had held her place for twenty-five years.
I only smiled, traded a couple of polite lines, and left first.
I went to the security office, packed up my things, and clocked out.
As I walked into the complex, the window of the Mercedes-Benz beside me came down.
Michael's sharp, expensive profile showed through the opening.
"You live here? Why would you live next to a cemetery? This whole block is graveyard housing."
His brow barely furrowed, but there was a catch in his voice.
"The energy here is good," I said.
I was repeating what the realtor had told me when I bought the place.
A dozen seconds of silence followed.
The only sound left was the winter wind cutting past us.
I expected him to drive off, and then his voice came to me on the north wind.
"Charlotte, have you been all right these years?"
I stopped, then gave him a quick smile. "I'm fine."
As I turned to go, I heard the car door open.
His voice was heavy and carried something close to doubt.
"Charlotte, you've changed."
I didn't slow down, and I didn't answer him.
Five years had passed.
From living the high life to hitting rock bottom, the fake heiress had crashed hard.
Of course I had changed.
I was Anna Quinn now.
And I no longer loved him the way I loved my own life.
The winter sun went down fast.
By six, the sky was pitch black.
I was half asleep when an unknown number called.
"Hello?"
The voice on the other end shook with tears. "Charlotte, it's you. Mom finally found you."
My hand jerked, and my whole body felt like it had been dropped into cold water.
In the pitch-dark room, the only light came from the phone screen on the floor.
She kept talking.
"Charlotte, come home. Your father and I miss you so much.
"Sophie and Michael have both forgiven you. Michael was the one who tracked down your number today."
When I said nothing, that gentle tone turned into open anger.
"You are still as difficult as ever.
"What happened back then was out of our hands.
"There was no way we could cross the Sterling Family over you.
"And you took Sophie's place to begin with. We owed her something."
I curled myself into a ball, and I couldn't stop shaking.
The years ran through my head like a reel that wouldn't stop.