Chapter 2

I had barely made it past the gates when I spotted him. Max Hughes, my fiancé, at least in name.

Our eyes met, and he looked caught off guard, like he hadn't expected to run into me here.

Max and I had been engaged since we were kids. Our families arranged the whole thing before we could even walk, and over the years, I'd grown to care about him. Maybe even more than I wanted to admit.

But if he were here now, he probably already knew the truth. He knew I was the fake heiress, the one who'd been switched at birth.

I wondered what he would do with that information.

Max pulled his car to the side of the road and walked up to me. "Sophia, what are you doing out here?"

I looked up at him. "They kicked me out."

Shock and disbelief flickered across his face. "How? You lived with them for eighteen years."

But the evidence was standing right in front of him, and no amount of disbelief could change that.

"Their real daughter came home," I said, keeping my voice steady. "So the impostor had to go. And Max, that means I'm not your fiancée anymore either."

I held his gaze and waited for his answer.

I could see the words caught in his throat, and I could see the conflict in his eyes.

That told me everything I needed to know.

It hurt, but I let it go faster than I expected.

None of them chose me, so why should I keep drowning in love and loyalty that were never really mine?

I stepped around him and headed for the door, but Max grabbed my wrist. "Sophia, you know the Hughes family and the Youngs are too deeply tied together."

I knew that. So I was the one who got thrown away? Was that how this worked?

I pulled free of his grip and smiled. "You're going to make a beautiful family."

I turned and walked out. From this moment on, they had nothing to do with me.

My ride was already waiting outside. The car pulled away, and every block put more distance between us, a gap that felt impossible to cross.

I arrived at the apartment I'd bought on my own. My phone rang, and it was Maya.

I had met Maya Lane by chance back in middle school.

She was getting roughed up in an alley, and I called the cops.

After that, she showed up with a little knitted teddy bear she'd made by hand as a thank-you.

We kept running into each other, and before long, we were close.

When I found out she was about to drop out because her family couldn't afford tuition, I covered her expenses.

She was the kind of friend I could trust with my life.

Her voice on the other end cut through my thoughts. "Sophia, are you okay?"

The worry in her tone made my eyes sting.

"I'm fine," I said.

She launched straight into fury. "The Youngs are absolute garbage. When their company was about to go under, you were the one who stepped in and saved them from total collapse."

She sneered, "And it hasn't even been that long, but they've already forgotten all of it. They actually kicked you out."

Her outrage on my behalf sent a wave of warmth through my chest.

But I had never told her that the Youngs had thrown me out. How did she know?

I voiced my confusion. "How did you find out?"

"Young Foods just posted about it on their official X. They're absolutely shameless."

My heart dropped, and I scrambled to open the app.

Sure enough, just ten minutes ago, the Young Foods official account had published a post announcing that they had found their real daughter, and that I no longer had any ties to the family.

I stumbled back a step. Whatever shred of warmth I had been holding onto vanished completely.

When Maya heard the silence on my end, her voice grew anxious. "Sophia, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

I hung up quickly, and my mind drifted back to the beginning.