Chapter 1

I was the true heiress, the real daughter of the richest man in the city. Vanessa, the imposter, was just a two-faced schemer.

She hit me with the waterworks, sniffling, "Emily, I know you hate me. I should just go."

I drew a breath to expose her little performance, but my father cut me off.

He tossed Vanessa's stuff out with a look of disdain and snapped, "If you're leaving, do it now. You're blocking my sweetheart's light."

*****

When the Carter family found me, I'd been camped out in the lab for three days straight, running an experiment that required real-time monitoring.

So when I returned to the Carter residence and saw Vanessa, the girl who stole my life, she was dressed in Chanel, with flawless makeup and perfectly styled hair.

Meanwhile, I showed up at their place looking like I'd been through a war: greasy hair, dead on my feet, my face a waxy mannequin's.

The second she saw me, she rushed over like we were long-lost sisters, all smiles and excitement, and grabbed my hand.

She shouted, "You must be Dad's real daughter, Emily. Wow, you're so natural and authentic. I really envy girls like you who don't care about what others think."

Then she let go, discreetly wiped her hand with a handkerchief, spritzed it with perfume, and fluttered her eyelashes at me, still smiling sweetly.

"We are going to be best friends," she chirped.

Wow, what a fake sweet act.

*****

My return to the Carter family was spectacularly bad timing.

My real father was stuck overseas on a business trip, completely stranded by the pandemic.

That didn't stop him from blowing up my phone with a video call, though.

On the call, he was wailing like a banshee.

He cried, "My sweetheart, I'm so sorry for letting you suffer out there all alone for so long. If your late mom knew, she'd kill me."

I'd always been the aloof type, so dealing with my over-the-top, dramatic dad was a bit much for me. All I could do was awkwardly mumble, "It really wasn't that bad."

Sure, life in the orphanage was pretty rough. But later, as a top student and with scholarships, I actually did pretty well for myself.

He wasn't having any of it. He carried on, sobbing and sniveling for a solid hour before he finally calmed down enough to wire me a few million as "pocket money."

"I'll be back in a couple of days," he said.

Before hanging up, he tossed out casually, "Oh, right, Vanessa's such a poor girl. The house is plenty big. As long as she knows her place, she can stay."

He said it like she was just some random nobody.

But Vanessa? Really? She knew her place? Yeah, right.

*****

And sure enough, my gut feeling was spot on.

Vanessa barely lasted three days before she cracked.

She'd invited a whole pack of her friends over.

When I came downstairs for breakfast, they all marched into the dining room and started checking me out, chattering away nonstop.

"Vanessa, is this your dad's real daughter? Such a bumpkin? No way."

"Yeah, and I heard she grew up in an orphanage? God, was it, like, super ghetto?"

"Yeah. I saw a documentary where they all sleep in one room and eat what looks like actual slop."

They kept judging me, and Vanessa just stood there, grinning from ear to ear.

And she just put on her best innocent act. "Hey, guys, stop it already."

Then she turned to me and smiled softly, "Emily, don't mind them. We've just never met anyone from such a... unique background. It's just fascinating, and that's all."

I just looked right back at her, totally calm. "It's fine. I've never met anyone with such a stunning lack of self-awareness either, so I guess we're both learning something new today."

Vanessa's smile vanished, her face going pale.

Before she could even muster a fake tear, her friends jumped to her defense.

"Hey, who do you think you are? Being his daughter doesn't make you special."

"Totally. Mr. Carter practically raised Vanessa himself. You can't imagine how he dotes on her."

"Yeah, guess that ditch you crawled out of taught you nothing about respect. Know your place."

While they were all screeching, I just kept a straight face, walked over to the window, and slid it open.

I turned to them seriously. "Sorry, had to do that. The sheer density of the stupidity in here was getting hard to breathe."

There was a beat of silence while they all tried to process the insult. When it finally clicked, their faces turned purple with rage.

And Vanessa jumped in and stopped them.

Then she turned to me, her eyes brimming with tears.

She cried, "Emily, I know you hate me. This is all my fault. I stole the life that should have been yours. If you want me gone, I'll just leave!"

With that, she wiped her tears dramatically and ran upstairs.

I raised an eyebrow, shocked by her sudden speech.

Suddenly, one of her friends shouted, "Hey, Mr. Carter's back."