The Real Heiress Sells Me, the Usurping Fake, But I'm Her Aunt

The true heiress, lost to the world for twenty years, came home and the first thing she did was drop to her knees in front of me.

Thank you for taking care of Mom and Dad in my place. I'm back now, so from here on you can go be with your own parents.

But no matter where you end up, we'll always be the people closest to you.

I caught her meaning right away. She had my identity all wrong.

Before I could open my mouth to explain, though

Reg Baxter and Violet Goodwin, who had only just gotten their child back, cut me off, wiping away tears.

"Evangeline Baxter is such a thoughtful girl, so considerate of others."

"But this is Amber Baxter's home. Her parents are here too, and she'll be good to you from now on."

The true heiress looked awkward, certain I was just working some angle, and her hostility toward me only deepened.

In front of Reg and Violet, she was their sweet, devoted daughter.

In front of me, she turned snide and mocking, vowing to sell off the fake heiress who had stolen her nest.

All this true-heiress-fake-heiress talk of hers was giving me a headache.

"I know you've read a few gigabytes of true-and-fake-heiress stories and you want to go a round with me."

"But you've got the wrong target. I'm a true heiress too. In fact, I'm a true heiress one generation above you."

Reg Baxter and Violet Goodwin held the true heiress, Evangeline, and cried their eyes out for the better part of an hour. It wasn't until they saw me start yawning that they realized how late it had gotten.

"Amber got a room ready for you a few days ago. Go rest for now!"

Evangeline offered up another round of snide thanks, then followed sweetly behind me into the elevator.

But when we reached her room, she didn't go in.

"There are needles in the bed, mold on the pillow, dust and allergens all over the room."

"So when something happens to me, you can say I'm too delicate and pampered, that I threw your kindness back in your face. Right?"

"This room should be yours. I'm taking your room instead."

I was surprised how fast her face changed, but I didn't bother explaining. I just pushed the door open and let the clean, immaculate, exquisitely luxurious interior speak for itself.

"Your parents said I prepared this room, but all I did was pick which one."

"Everything inside was arranged by your mother. I'm not your nanny. These things aren't mine to do, because I'm"

Evangeline looked at the room, and her face seemed to sting a little.

So she didn't let me finish. She cut me off through gritted teeth.

"You're the fake heiress who stole my nest. You're the knockoff Mom and Dad brought home to replace me after I was taken."

"Everything you have is mine. The moment I come home, you should know your place and get out. Since ancient times, no knockoff has ever dared to strut around in front of the real thing."

"But you can't bear to leave all this wealth and comfort, so you won't go. I'm not afraid of that either."

"Because I've read every true-and-fake-heiress story there is, and people like you are exactly who I know how to beat. Sooner or later I'll sell you off and make you wish you were dead!"

I couldn't be bothered to say more.

Yawning, I turned to leave. All this true-and-fake-heiress business could wait until tomorrow.

But Evangeline grabbed my hand and held on tight, glanced around, then pulled me over to the edge of the stairs. Under my puzzled gaze, she started walking down slowly.

I thought she was going to run off and tell on me. But the next second, she just lay down flat on the floor and let out a scream.

"Ah, sister, why did you push me!"

The words had barely landed.

Reg and Violet, always fierce when it came to their darling daughter, came rushing over. They looked at me standing on the stairs, then at Evangeline lying on the floor, and their eyes went red on the spot.

"Amber, what have you done?"

"Didn't you say you couldn't wait for Evangeline to come home, because your dream was always to have a sister close to your own age?"

"You've known her less than a day. Why would you do something this vicious?"

I felt wronged.

In all my years, I had never been accused like this.

Reg and Violet weren't my parents, but because Evangeline had been taken before she was even a year old, they had raised me almost as their own daughter, doting on me all along.

To be blamed like this, without a single question asked, was a first.

"Me?"

"This was clearly her"

Evangeline choked out a few sobs.

"Don't blame her. I lost my footing on my own. She was only showing me the staircase!"

"It really is my fault. I shouldn't have opened my mouth, going on about wanting to see her room, wanting to share a room with her."

"But I truly didn't mean any harm. I honestly want us to be sisters. I never once thought of her as an enemy."

I rolled my eyes.

"Enough with the act."

"I was standing right here watching. You walked down those stairs yourself and lay down yourself. No one pushed you!"

Evangeline nodded over and over.

"Yes, yes, that's right, I walked down and lay down on my own."

"Look, if you don't believe me, I'm perfectly fine, not a mark on me."

"As long as you don't throw me out as some troublemaker who tears families apart, I'll take anything."

With that, Evangeline struggled to her feet, then made a show of pushing up her sleeve to prove she was fine. But the moment the sleeve went up, the ugly bruising along her arm made Reg and Violet jump.

"You call that fine?"

"Quick, call an ambulance!"

Three:

Evangeline backed away a few steps.

Baring her teeth, she said,

"Mom, Dad, I really am fine. These bruises are nothing. Compared to what I went through growing up, this doesn't hurt at all!"

"Let's not go to the hospital. If word gets out that I got hurt and went to the hospital the day I came home, people will think she's jealous of me, afraid I'll steal her share of your love!"

"I don't want my coming home to throw the whole family into chaos!"

Reg and Violet, of course, ached for her.

They instinctively believed their own flesh and blood, certain I was the one waging some spiteful war. Not only did they insist on the hospital, they were even shouting about calling the police.

"No need for the hospital. I can heal her injury right now."

With that, I picked up the vase nearby, pulled out the flowers, wet the handkerchief, then took hold of Evangeline's arm and scrubbed hard at the wound.

In no time.

The purple bruising vanished, leaving skin that was a little dark, but without a single injury on it.

Reg and Violet exchanged a glance, their faces a little awkward.

They weren't fools. They understood well enough that this whole performance came from Evangeline getting my identity wrong, so Violet forced a few laughs and turned to explain to her.

"Evangeline, you may have misunderstood something."

"Amber isn't the fake heiress who took your place. She's..."

Evangeline nodded, her face a picture of hurt.

"I know. I was too foolish. I only wanted Mom and Dad to love me a little more!"

"But I should have seen it sooner. She's a star in the sky, and I'm only a raindrop. I shouldn't have lost sight of my place. I shouldn't have done these foolish things."

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me!"

Evangeline finished and started to kneel and kowtow to me again.

I sighed.

"Evangeline, your parents were so caught up in their reunion with you that they never introduced me, so you got my identity wrong."

"You shouldn't be calling me your sister. I'm your father's sister, not yours."

"I may be a few months younger than you, but by the family line, you should be calling me aunt."

"Aunt?"

"You're saying you're my aunt?"

Evangeline's face cracked. She turned her head stiffly and glanced at Reg and Violet, and only after both of them nodded did the look on her face grow even more mortified than when I'd wiped the fake wound off her arm.

I nodded.

"That's right. You were taken before you'd even turned one. A few days after you were stolen, my mother, that is, your grandmother, found out she was pregnant."

"She wasn't young anymore, but the doctors said her health was good, so I was born."

"Which means my existence has nothing to do with you. Even if you'd never been lost, I'd still exist. The room I live in, my name, everything of mine, all of it was always mine. I didn't take any of it from you."

"Can you understand that?"

Evangeline could understand it. She just couldn't believe it.

"How is that even possible?"

Reg and Violet vouched for me over and over, confirming who I was, but they still wanted me to apologize to Evangeline.

"Her injury was fake, yes, but if you hadn't pushed her, she wouldn't have had anything to pin on you in the first place."

"Evangeline only treats you like a rival because she's so afraid of being outshone by you. You've been pampered since you were little. Just let it go this once, all right?"

I said nothing. I pointed up at the security camera.

"Fine. Then let's call the police. We'll pull the footage and see whether someone pushed her or whether she walked down there on her own!"

I took out my phone to make the call.

Evangeline caved instantly. Her apology came fast.

"I was wrong. I didn't mean it."

"I really just lost my head for a moment. For the sake of everything I've suffered all these years, please, forgive me this once!"

Evangeline was crying hard, and Reg and Violet wore matching looks of apology.

I sighed.

In the end I didn't want to blow the whole thing up, so I said nothing. I just turned and went back to my room.

Five:

I'd assumed that after this confession, Evangeline would settle back to normal.

I'd assumed too much.

She kept grinding out the word "aunt" at me through her teeth, but her hostility ran just as deep as before, because she still believed I'd stolen her place.

So when a certain "male friend" of mine came by to see me,

she stood behind me, eyeing the person up and down.

"This is your betrothed, isn't it? You may be the Baxters' real heiress, but if I hadn't been taken away, this betrothed of yours should have been mine, shouldn't he?"

My "male friend" jumped.

"Girl, are you mentally ill? I cut my hair short, sure, but I'm still a woman."

"And what betrothal? You think this is the old days? Families like ours don't go in for that stuff. Read fewer novels. That's all poor people's fantasy writing. Us rich people really don't live like that."

Evangeline was so furious her face went crooked, and after that she came at me even harder, needling me with snide remarks at every turn. And every single time, Reg and Violet stood on their biological daughter's side and told me to bear with it.

"Evangeline just worries too much about losing what she has."

"You may be younger, but you're the elder here. How can you stoop to a junior's level?"

The result of Reg and Violet always taking her side was that Evangeline only grew more brazen, until one day, when she insisted on making me eat chopped chives, I slammed down my chopsticks.

"Evangeline, are you done yet? Is this how you treat an elder?"

But Evangeline was angrier than I was. Her chopsticks flew even farther than mine.

"Who's the one who won't quit here?"

"I've already played along with all of you pretending that you, the fake heiress, are actually my aunt. What more do you want? Do you expect me, the real heiress, to kneel to a knockoff like you every single day?"

I was at a loss for words.

What playing along, what pretending? I was her aunt to begin with.

But before I could explain anything, Evangeline flung out several DNA paternity tests.

"Didn't you say you were my aunt?"

"Then what is this?"

I was confused, and Reg and Violet clearly had no idea what Evangeline was playing at either.

So all three of us picked up the DNA test and looked.

It was the paternity test between me and Reg and Violet, and it said plainly that we had no parent-child relationship. Not only that, there wasn't even the blood tie there should have been.

If you're my aunt, my grandparents' late-born daughter, then why is there no relation between you and my parents?

The result is obvious. After I was lost all those years ago, Mom and Dad were heartbroken, and so were Grandma and Grandpa, so they pretended Grandma was pregnant and brought a fake like you home!

My parents have been so good to me, never had another child all these years. That's proof enough that they love me, so they could never accept adopting a counterfeit like you. And Grandma and Grandpa knew all of it, which is why they said you were their own child!

If you don't believe it, the two of you can go get tested again!

I froze.

For a moment I didn't know what to say. Evangeline loved to talk nonsense and pin things on me, but this test result didn't look fake.

And the fact that she could so brazenly tell us to go run the test again only made it more convincing.

I wanted the truth.

So I ignored Evangeline, took out my phone, and started to call my parents to get an answer.

But Evangeline snatched the phone away.

Calling for backup?

You think Grandma and Grandpa will let you stay for old times' sake? Dream on!

Why do you think I'm telling you all this today? Because I have to deal with you before they get back from overseas.

Today, I'm selling you off, you fake, so you can never come back and take what belongs to me and my parents!

Reg glanced at me, looking like he'd gone a little soft.

Evangeline, whether or not Amber is your aunt, we have no right to say...

Evangeline clicked her tongue.

She looked at Reg like she wanted to shake some sense into him.

Dad, you think I'm driving her out just to be the only real heiress of the Baxter family?

No, I'm doing it for you!

I've looked into all of it. Grandma and Grandpa dote on her. She'll be your rival when you take over the Baxter business. You show her mercy, but you think she'll show you any when she's grabbing your inheritance?

Reg frowned, but Violet took it in.

Evangeline's right. Mom and Dad really do adore her. If she were your real sister, splitting half the fortune would be understandable, but a counterfeit, a fake heiress taking half, that... that makes no sense!

I looked at the three of them in front of me.

A chill went through me. I couldn't bear to think what they meant to do, so I whipped around to run.

But Evangeline had already guessed I would, and she grabbed a vase and threw it straight at me. My head throbbed once, and then something warm was running down from my scalp onto my face.

The world spun and I went down.

You're insane. Mom and Dad won't let you get away with this....

Evangeline crouched in front of me and patted my cheek.

Grandma and Grandpa would have to see you to know what we did.

I've already arranged it. The moment you go out that door, you'll turn up overseas tomorrow. Maybe in pieces, maybe wishing you were dead. Either way, you'll never in your life get the chance to run to Grandma and Grandpa about it!

When they get back, we'll just say you ran away from home. No matter how much they love you, they can't put you above my dad and me.

I told you already. I'm selling you off, and I wasn't joking.

My head was clear and I still had some strength to fight, but I was no match for three people. All I could do was let them tie me up and haul me out of the villa.

Just as they were about to throw me into a car headed somewhere unknown.

My parents' faces appeared in front of me.

What do you think you're doing!