The Fake Heiress's Backer Is My Own Student

I'm a star teacher at the senior community college, fluent in music, painting, chess, and calligraphy alike.

After the Sanchez family reclaimed me as their real daughter, I wanted to fit in, so I turned everything I taught in class on my own parents.

Dad used my baiting method and pulled up a fifty-pound fish.

Mom's ballroom dancing improved so fast she became the brightest new star in the socialite circle.

In under two months, the way my parents looked at me had gone from "You're back" to "You're finally back."

Maya Sanchez, the fake daughter, thought I was trying to squeeze her out of the family, and watched me with pure suspicion.

Heaven knows I teach at school all day and come home to teach some more at night. Where would I even find the time for that?

My brother, Joel Sanchez, was convinced this was my little tactic to fight for the family's affection.

"You can't fool me. If you're trying to drive Maya out, I'll be the first to say no!"

I just shook her off. These two had too much time on their hands, marinating in their alpha-CEO romance novels all day.

Then, at my own recognition banquet, all because one of the wives praised me for carrying myself more like a real heiress.

Maya couldn't hold it in. She burst into tears and ran out.

Joel leaned against the stair railing, sneering.

"You're finished! Grandpa and Grandma love Maya most. They've given her everything she's ever wanted since she was little."

"Now that she's crying, you're done for in this family."

I followed his gaze to the new family portrait on the wall, and froze.

Wait, wasn't that... my dear, favorite students, Russell Sanchez and Naomi Sanchez?

...

"Where's Maya?" Mom came hurrying over, out of breath.

Joel deliberately turned his face away and gave a cold huff.

"Mom, every third word out of you is Daisy Sanchez, and now you suddenly remember Maya?"

"You all upset her so badly she ran off ages ago!"

His eyes drifted my way, on purpose and not, trying to pin the blame on me.

I gave an innocent shrug, exasperated. It wasn't like I could control who other people chose to praise.

I was about to explain when Mom didn't take his line at all. She fixed him with a hard glare and shouted.

"Then what are you standing there for? Go after her!"

"You think Maya's going to come back on her own just because you finished tattling to me?"

"What am I, some saint you can make wishes to?"

Joel was so choked he bared his teeth. He wanted to snap back but didn't dare, so he trudged off after her, sulking.

Back in the banquet hall, Dad and I were chatting with a few of the older gentlemen, and I didn't even notice when the two of them came back.

The elders had just gotten onto the subject of their children when Maya sidled up, all sour.

"Must be nice for you, sis, so carefree all day."

"Not like my brother and me. We have to help run the company and land deals. Never a moment's peace."

I was a little lost for words. Why was she coming at me again?

"Maya, don't talk nonsense."

"I'm plenty busy every day, thank you."

I couldn't help it. Dad's obsessed with wild fishing lately, so the second I'm off work I have to go find fishing spots with him.

At night I get home and have to be Mom's dance partner for a solid half hour. Compared to me, the poor souls grinding nine-to-nine-six workweeks are practically on vacation.

Sure enough, someone's interest was piqued, and he asked what I did for work.

"Daisy, which department are you in at the family company? What area do you handle?"

In Maya's mind, these rich heirs were all alpha CEOs, and a mere teacher like me wouldn't measure up. She was certain I'd be mortified, with nowhere to hide.

But I saw nothing shameful in it. Without a flicker of nerves, I waved a hand easily.

"I don't hold any position at the family company. I teach, out on my own."

A look of triumph flashed across Maya's face. She was sure I was about to be laughed at.

But the gentlemen only blinked for a couple of seconds, and then, to the contrary, their faces filled with envy.

"A teacher, that's wonderful! Never wanting for anything, respectable, and all that free time!"

"Exactly! Summer and winter breaks, you get to be with family every single day."

"This Daisy girl really has done well for herself."

"Old Morgan Sanchez's a lucky man. This isn't just finding your real daughter, it's slipping into a warm little sweater right before retirement!"

Dad grinned so wide he couldn't close his mouth, pride written all over him.

"Hahahaha, well, that's what you all get for not being able to have a daughter."

Maya's mouth twitched, the smile freezing on her face.

The gentlemen's words landed right where it counted for me. At the senior community college, I've seen the whole range of how life treats people, warm and cold.

So many of them had it all in their younger years, only to grow old with no one left to even talk to.

Ask why, and it's always the same: the children are busy, the children have their own careers.

But no matter how little they claim to mind, that loneliness in their eyes is something they can never quite hide.

Thinking of that, I made up my mind to tell Dad about Grandpa and Grandma, so Maya couldn't keep jerking the old folks around.

Maya still wouldn't let it go, forcing a smile as she spoke.

"You've got it wrong, gentlemen. My sister isn't an elementary or middle school teacher."

"It's the senior community college."

"Forget summer and winter breaks. She doesn't even have a tenured position!"

The huge banquet hall seemed to hit pause, gone suddenly silent.

A moment later, the whole room erupted.

"What! A senior community college?"

"You mean the kind of place that teaches people to grow flowers and play chess?"

"We old-timers have been dreading how boring retirement's going to be. Come on, tell your uncles all about it!"

When it comes to my field, I get proud, and before I knew it I'd slipped straight into recruitment mode.

"Uncle Stone, Uncle Lynn, the senior college offers a lot more than that."

"For instruments, we teach saxophone, cello, flute."

"And if you like the outdoors, our most popular class is How to Actually Catch Fish Instead of Feeding Them for Free."

He slapped his hands together, his voice jumping two octaves.

"That explains it! Lately your dad hasn't come home empty-handed once. Every trip he's landing a big one!"

"You have no idea. He used to be the patron saint of chumming an empty spot!"

"I asked him how he mixed his bait, and he actually told me it was a trade secret. Wouldn't tell me to save his life!"

The society wives beside us, who'd been listening with their ears pricked, couldn't hold back any longer.

Their eyes practically glowed green, and they pounced like weasels catching the scent of a henhouse.

"Daisy, sweetheart, did you teach your mother those dance steps too?"

"She's lost so much weight lately. She's got the figure of a young girl!"

"I'll give you a sports car, honey. Could you teach me a move or two as well?"

Seeing that many potential clients, I couldn't keep the corners of my mouth down. My enrollment quota for the year was as good as met.

Adding everyone one by one was too much of a hassle, so I just started a senior community college enrollment chat group.

"Everyone, I'll drop the official site info in the group. If you want to sign up, remember to put my name in the recruiting teacher field."

I'd become the center of the whole room, and Maya was ready to explode.

She held on to the smile on her face with effort and spoke slowly.

"Being good to our elders is all well and good, but as heirs to these families we should have some career ambition too, and carry on what our forebears built."

"If we don't step up, doesn't the family business just fall into someone else's hands? Am I right?"

She turned her hopeful gaze to Ruby Chavez, who was sitting closest to her.

"Ruby, wouldn't you agree?"

But across from her, Ruby just waved a hand, her face sour.

"That good-for-nothing of mine came to me for three million two years ago to open a restaurant. It folded in under six months."

"Last year he wanted five million to play at investing. Lost every cent inside a month!"

"You know what they say online? You don't have to worry about a rich kid lying flat and spending money. You worry the day a rich kid suddenly decides to try hard."

"My company's going to the rotating presidents from here on out. He's not laying a finger on it!"

The aunts and uncles nodded along in agreement, leaving the pack of rich heirs so mortified they wanted to crawl into a crack in the floor, all glaring daggers at Maya.

The look said it all: "Is there something seriously wrong with your head? You know we're a bunch of screwups, so why bring up the one thing nobody wants to hear!"

Seeing which way things were going, Joel quickly signaled his friend to step in and rescue the moment.

"Here, here, today's the day the Sanchez family's true daughter comes home. Let me raise a glass to you, sis."

"Right, let the aunts and uncles have their conversation. Our generation drinks with our own."

"Think of today as a meet-and-greet. Nobody leaves sober!"

I was a little annoyed. Joel knew I don't touch a drop, and he still had his friend pushing liquor on me.

The stuff in their hands was at least a hundred and forty proof. One glass and I'd be in the hospital.

"I'll toast with tea. Help yourselves."

"Sis, who exactly are you putting on airs for?"

Maya spotted her opening and stoked the fire, her tone all sneering edge.

"Everyone's showing up to give you face as the real daughter. You're not going to kill the mood for the whole room, are you?"

That one line had me roasting over the coals. Even my parents' table went quiet, their eyes sweeping over like searchlights.

As the saying goes, it takes a crowd to carry the fancy sedan chair. These families have their own kind of face to keep.

By rights, what I was doing was a bit rude. At the very least I should have taken a symbolic sip.

But I kept my hand steady on the glass, my face calm as I looked at the one pressing me to drink.

"Melvin Dickerson, let me give you a piece of advice. Put the glass down."

"You've got dark circles under your eyes, and your fingers have twitched a dozen times in the last minute. From a traditional medicine standpoint, that's kidney-yang deficiency."

"To put it plainly, it's an early symptom of impotence."

Melvin froze, then shot up like a cat with its tail stepped on.

"You how dare you slander me out of thin air!"

"What kidney deficiency? I just didn't sleep well last night, that's all!"

His guard was fully up, his voice going shrill enough to crack.

"Daisy Sanchez, you've been the real heiress for all of what, a few days, and already you've got the nerve to humiliate me like this?"

At the next table, Melvin's parents went cold too, slamming their glasses down onto the table.

"Morgan, what exactly is your daughter playing at?"

My parents rushed to smooth things over, shooting me look after look, my father's voice low. "You're always so sensible. What's gotten into you today?"

I stayed calm, taking my time to explain.

"Do you go out drinking a lot, taking on business over dinners, keeping your days and nights turned upside down?"

"Low energy during the day, listless, along with poor appetite, dark urine, thirst, and a bitter taste on your lips?"

"That's a textbook sign your kidneys are in trouble."

Melvin swallowed hard, his face going pale.

The more I talked, the more I got into it. Occupational habit kicked in and I simply couldn't stop, launching into a full lecture on wellness and holistic health.

From preventing high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol all the way to nourishing yin and boosting yang.

I made it clear and easy to follow, and the aunts and uncles hung on every word.

Even Melvin stopped playing the smooth young charmer and quietly pulled out his phone to take notes.

Watching all this, Joel could barely hold himself together, and Maya was so furious she looked ready to fall apart.

She thought I wasn't playing fair.

Weren't the real and fake heiresses supposed to yank each other's hair, trade slaps, plant stolen goods, then shove the other one down a staircase or something?

Ruthless scheming and manipulation of human naturethat was the main theme.

Everyone else is bringing their acting chops, and you go and run a little wellness class?

This wasn't right at all. Something had gone seriously wrong with this world.

And just like that, at the family recognition banquet, I became the darling of the elite circle.

Peter, Chad, and the other fishing enthusiasts sat up straight, asking me what bait worked best for which fish and when.

Every move they made was as devout as grade-schoolers who'd found the author of a cheat code.

The aunts went full fangirl, elbowing my mother clean out of the way.

It got her scolding them, "Even kidnappers aren't this brazen! This is my daughter! Go have your own if you want one!"

Seeing which way things were going, Maya and Joel didn't dare stir up any more trouble, hiding off to the side, muttering who knew what.

And right in the middle of my beaming, of really soaking in that taste of stardom, a single text message scared the soul right out of me.

"Your bank account ending in has completed an incoming transfer."

That long string of zeros after the amount made my head spin.

The name of the sender yanked my memory back to a few days earlier, when Maya came asking me to deliver documents. She'd said,

"Sis, you're the only one at home with nothing to do. You've got to help out with something."

"This purchase contract is already drawn up. Just go sign it on behalf of Sanchez Group."

I'd taken a curious look at the contract and nearly missed a heartbeat, refusing over and over.

"No way. The biggest thing I've ever presided over is the flag-raising ceremony on the school field every Monday."

"A two-hundred-million contract? I wouldn't dare put my name on that!"

But she'd shoved it at me impatiently.

"Mom and Dad and our brother are all busy lately, and I've got to step out for a while. You're the only living soul left at home."

"Don't worry, the company lawyer will go with you!"

There was no way out of it, so I gritted my teeth and took the job. At least it all went smoothly.

I'd honestly forgotten the whole thing. I never imagined the other side would quietly wire me twenty million!

Didn't that nail me for taking kickbacks?!

I clutched my phone, forcing myself to look composed, but inside my chest my heart was already pounding like a war drum.

This was bad. I'd been set up.

"Sis, who texted you? Why do you look like you just robbed a bank?"

In that split second, it all clicked. This had to be Maya's doing.

No wonder they'd suddenly handed a deal that size to a beginner like me.

Damn it. The supplier was in Maya's pocket, and for all I knew Joel was in on it too.

Maya smirked and lifted a folder high over her head.

"Mom, Dad, and all of you, aunts and uncles, I have a whistleblower letter right here!"

"Someone had the nerve to use the Sanchez name to extort money, reaching into the filthiest place there is."

"The one who blew the whistle is one of the Sanchez family's biggest suppliers, and the person being accused"

"is none other than the real heiress this family just brought home, the guest of honor at this very banquet, Daisy Sanchez!"

The ballroom went dead silent, then exploded.

"That's some nerve, back only a few days and already couldn't hold back..."

"No way! She looks like such a quiet, well-behaved girl!"

"That's what they mean by never knowing what's under the surface. What was she even thinking? It's all family money!"

"Oh my, and I just added her on Instagram too!"

My chest cinched tight, the breath jammed there until my ribs ached.

"You're making this up! I only signed my name. I barely said two words to the supplier!"

Maya let out a scornful laugh and turned to walk toward my parents.

"Mom, Dad, take a good look at this!"

"My sister says she suffered enough all these years as the true heiress, and now she wants money to make up for it!"

"She squeezed a ten-percent kickback out of the supplier, and if they refused, she threatened to cut them from the purchasing list."

"If I hadn't gone to inspect this time and happened to catch the signs, they wouldn't have dared breathe a single word!"

My vision went black with rage, and my voice came out tight and rushed, forced through my teeth.

"Lies! Do you have any proof?"

"Proof? Fine, do you dare take out your phone and let me see your bank records?"

"You"

I ground my teeth, my fists clenched so hard the joints creaked, nails digging deep into my palms.

"They transferred that money to my card out of nowhere. I had no idea!"

"Please, who's going to believe that? Twenty million isn't twenty bucks. A supplier's money doesn't fall out of the sky!"

Watching my parents' faces turn cold, panic surged through me.

"Wait, I can call Lawyer Lambert. He was there that day too!"

Half an hour later, Lawyer Lambert hurried in, and I let out a breath.

"Julian Lambert, help me prove it. Weren't the two of us together the whole time that day?"

Instead, he adjusted his glasses and, of all things, put on a look of surprise.

"Miss Sanchez, what do you mean?"

"We only saw each other at the signing ceremony. Whatever you did privately... I have no idea about that!"

I knew every word he said, but as they landed in my ears, they made no sound at all.

My mind went blank with a ringing hum, and it took a few seconds before it registered.

I'd been played. Julian was one of them too.

Dad's brow knotted tight, and for a long moment he said nothing.

"Dad, we have witnesses and evidence. Do you still not believe it?"

Maya spoke through tears, as if she were the most wronged person in the room.

After a long while, Dad finally spoke, the weariness and disappointment in his voice impossible to hide.

"What more do you have to say?"

I opened my mouth, but my tongue felt tied in knots, a thousand words jammed in my throat, and not one of them would come out.

He closed his eyes, looking hollowed out, and waved a weak hand.

"Forget it, forget it. From now on, company matters... you're not to touch them again."

Mom's eyes reddened, her shoulders trembling almost imperceptibly.

"If you were short on money, you could have told me. Why would you do something like taking kickbacks?"

A glint of satisfaction flickered in Maya's eyes, the look of a scheme come good, and she jabbed her finger hard into my chest a few times.

"To think the real heiress this family went to such lengths to find would do something like this!"

"Maya, get your filthy hands off me!"

She leaned in close, her voice dropping very low.

"Grandpa and Grandma are almost here. If they find out their own granddaughter is a thief..."

The word thief drove into my chest like a knife, and all my fury poured out through the wound.

"You're the thief! Get away from me!" I shoved her back, hatred behind it.

Her stunned expression froze for a few seconds, then she let herself drop to the floor and shrieked like she was throwing a tantrum.

"You're finished! A thief who dares get physical?"

Joel came charging over like a madman, throwing himself in front of her like a mother hen guarding her chick.

"You violent lunatic! You dare bully Maya? Grandpa and Grandma won't let this go!"

The words had barely left his mouth when a commotion broke out by the entrance.

My head snapped up. There they were, those two familiar figures, standing not far off.

My throat tightened, and before I could think I called out.

"Grandpa Sanchez, Grandma Sanchez."

"Teacher Daisy, what are you doing here?"

The wild delight on Maya's face hadn't even had time to fade before it froze into pure bewilderment.