Chapter 1

If the world was one big stage, then I was absurdly out of my depth.

My dad was a finance titan, but I couldn't even do basic subtraction.

My mom was a gorgeous movie star, but I was totally average-looking.

My brother put on his own art exhibit at four, but I was still waddling after him at five, babbling nonsense.

Even the household help are low-key legends: Megan the maid used to be some big-shot who retired, and Damon the butler had got his own hidden rep.

Lucky for me, they all doted on me. I'd finally come to terms with being the underachiever in the family.

Then one day, the genius girl who went viral online showed up at our door demanding I give up my spot as the real heiress.

Great. The lingering dread I'd been carrying? Consider it dead.

*****

I'd always been the odd one out in this family.

My father, Zander Deleon was a financial tycoon, and my mother, Julia, was an international movie star.

But me? I wasn't all that smart or good-looking—just average.

Life had a way of balancing things out.

My brother, Jaden was basically born on cheat mode: he held his own art exhibition at four, got into some elite genius program by eight, and at fifteen, he made it onto the world's top ten most handsome list.

Meanwhile, I just existed. I wanted to be jealous and wallow in self-pity, but in the end, I accepted myself for who I am.

After all, there was no way everyone in the family could be talented, right?

I just wasted my days away, basically doing nothing.

Then one day, the genius girl who was blowing up all over the internet suddenly showed up at our residence.

"The nurse who delivered us admitted it herself—she swapped us by accident at birth. I'm the real daughter of the Deleon family," Paula Barker announced.

She sneered at me, "Please, how could someone as plain as you possibly be Mom and Dad's daughter?

"Starting today, I'm taking back everything that's supposed to be mine."

Paula came alone, but she had such a commanding presence it felt like she'd brought a whole squad with her.

She was so dead sure about it, that all four of us just sat there, lost in our own thoughts.

Dad asked coldly, "A mix-up?"

Mom shrugged. "Beats me. I was too busy counting stretch marks after delivery. Wasn't the baby with Jaden?"

Jaden just stared for a couple seconds before responding icily, "I was only three."

Mom paused, then tried pushing the blame again.

She said, "But you loved holding the baby, Jaden. You kept asking me if you could share the fun new toy with your girlfriend, Lily."

"Lily isn't my girlfriend," Jaden replied.

"Then why was she always so sweet toward me?" Mom continued.

I sat there on pins and needles.

Paula's face looked pretty bad too.

Seeing Mom and Jaden drift further off-topic, Paula finally couldn't help but stand up and cut in. "Mom, Dad, Jaden, just look at my face, and then at Laura's. Honestly, don't we look way more like a family?"

She pointed right at me, sitting there on the couch.

I touched my average face, nodding in agreement.

Ever since we were little, Jaden got all the compliments—"handsome," "good-looking," "just like his father". The list went on.

As for me? The only thing people ever seemed to say was, "She looks nice."

I sighed.

"Moreover, I was always the star student, top of my class, total teacher's favorite. But Laura? She was always scraping by, dead last. She even had to buy her way into university," Paula added.

When I heard that, I ducked my head, cheeks burning.

From day one at school, things played out pretty much the same way.

Jaden always came out on top.

And me? Dead last, every single time.

One teacher, convinced I wasn't hopeless, tried giving me special tutoring after school. She pushed so hard, she ended up in the ICU with intracranial hypertension.

Half-conscious, she continued to clutch, mumbling, "How are these two correlated?"

Racked with guilt and desperate to prove I wasn't a total lost cause, I pulled an all-nighter before the next exam and tried to memorize the entire math textbook at once.

The result? I became the first-ever student to fill a whole exam sheet with math equations and still score a glorious zero. I became a legend in school.

Thinking about all that, I glanced over at my parents and Jaden, looking grave.

I said, "Is it possible? Maybe you guys really are a family."

Dad and Mom both fell silent, lost in thought.

Jaden looked deeply troubled.

Paula continued loudly, "Mom, Dad, don't you believe I'm your daughter? I spent eighteen years out there by myself. I finally made it home, and you don't believe me?"

When the tension reached a breaking point, the servant, Megan Thornton, who'd been quietly standing in the background, finally spoke up. "Isn't there, um, DNA tests nowadays?"

The whole DNA test thing went off without a hitch.

But of course, the results wouldn't come in for a month.

Paula wasn't having it—she started arguing with the staff right away.

"Why should it take a whole month to get the results?" she demanded.

"Because you have to wait your turn in line," the staff responded.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" Paula shot back.

"Just another citizen," the staff replied.

"Who the hell gave you the guts to talk to me like this?" Paula barked.

"The government. This is a state-run facility," the staff said.

The staff's face didn't so much as twitch.

Paula was hopping mad.

Meanwhile, I was dying of embarrassment.

People kept crowding around, making it even worse. Finally, I couldn't bear it any longer. I walked over, grabbed Paula by the arm, and tried to calm her down.

"Maybe we should just wait. It's only a month, after all..." I said.

But before I could finish, Paula yanked her arm away from me.

"Shut up! Of course you're dying to keep playing pretend in my family for another month. But I am not giving you that chance," Paula snapped.

She shoved me aside, then grabbed the young staff's lab coat. "I'm telling you—get those tests done today, or face the consequences."