From Now I Leap Into the Crowd, Each With Storms and Splendor

I'm the fake heiress blessed with extraordinary luck.

The day the real daughter came back, I packed my own bags and left.

In my last life, before the old Mrs. Pruitt died, I promised her I'd stay with the Pruitts forever, so I chose to stay.

But Narelle Pruitt used every trick she had to frame me and drive me out.

Mom and Dad were done with me.

"We never should have agreed to keep you in this family. You were always going to be an ungrateful stray we could never tame."

Donald Pruitt drove his foot into my chest.

"Narelle is the only sister I have. Wherever you crawled out of, crawl back there."

To settle the score for Narelle, they locked me in a room and starved me to death.

When I opened my eyes again, Mom, Dad, and Donald had Narelle tucked behind them.

"It's time to fix the mistake we made eighteen years ago. Narelle is our real daughter."

They don't know.

The mix-up eighteen years ago was no accident at all.

It was the old Mrs. Pruitt saving this family.

Narelle edged out cautiously from behind Donald.

She wore a white dress, her long hair loose over her shoulders, her face carrying a touch of hurt and fear.

"Marian Pruitt, even if I've come back, you can still stay with us. We're still family."

The scene in front of me was exactly like last time.

Back then I'd believed Narelle's words and truly loved her as my little sister.

What I got in return was her hurting herself on purpose, then turning around and pinning it on me, until Mr. and Mrs. Pruitt and Donald despised me more and more.

Oliver Pruitt looked at me, cold-eyed.

"Marian, since you're not our real daughter, it's hardly appropriate for you to keep living in this house."

Cicely Pruitt picked up the thread.

"Narelle's home now. Her place and her things should all go back to their rightful owner."

Donald watched me, guarded.

"This time I won't give you a single chance to hurt Narelle."

I froze for a second.

So I wasn't the only one who'd been reborn.

I gripped the handle of my suitcase and said quietly, "I'll go right now."

They hadn't expected me to give in so easily. Every one of them stood there stunned.

I dragged my suitcase and walked out of the Pruitt house without looking back.

Donald came to his senses and chased after me.

"Marian, wait."

He blocked my way and held out a bank card.

"Mom and Dad will put money in this account every month. Take it, live quietly out there, and don't come back to this family."

I didn't reach for it.

"I don't need it."

Donald glanced at my suitcase and his voice went cold.

"Marian, I knew you didn't really want to leave. Putting on an act so we'll beg you to stay? No wonder this card isn't good enough for you."

"What could a suitcase that small even hold? It's probably empty."

He ordered his bodyguard to snatch it away and open it in front of everyone.

Inside were only a few changes of clothes, a family photo, and the jade thumb ring the old Mrs. Pruitt had given me.

Oliver saw the photo on the ground and his eyes flickered.

"This picture"

Cicely wavered.

"Donald, maybe we should just let Marian come home."

Just as Donald hesitated, Narelle came over, picked up the jade thumb ring, and cradled it in her palm.

"Is this what Grandmother left behind?"

"If we hadn't been switched, this ring would have been mine, wouldn't it?"

Looking at her reddened eyes, Donald slid the jade thumb ring onto her finger.

"Back to its rightful owner. It's yours now."

"That can't go to her."

Remembering the old Mrs. Pruitt's dying words, I stepped forward to take the jade thumb ring back.

The moment my hand touched Narelle's finger, she let herself fall backward with the pressure.

"Ah"

The jade thumb ring hit the floor and shattered into pieces.

Narelle lay on the ground, trembling.

"Marian, I'm sorry, I only wanted to look at Grandmother's keepsake, I wasn't trying to take it from you"

Donald glared at me, furious.

"Marian! Now you're not even bothering to act anymore!"

Oliver and Cicely helped Narelle up and pointed at me, cursing.

"You dare shove Narelle right in front of us. Who knows what you'd do behind our backs!"

"This family has no room for a piece of work like you. Get out, now!"

I ignored them.

I crouched down and gathered up the shards of the jade thumb ring.

The clear green jade had lost its glow.

The thing the old Mrs. Pruitt had feared most before she died had happened after all.

The Pruitt family's fortunes were about to turn.

That same day, word of the Pruitts' fake and true daughters raced through New York's elite circle.

Everyone knew the fraud, me, had been thrown out.

And the real one, Narelle Pruitt, was the toast of the season.

I didn't need to guess who was behind it. The Pruitts, of course.

It gave Narelle a solid footing in the circle, and it killed any notion I might have of coming back.

I dragged my luggage to the villa the old Mrs. Pruitt had bought me.

The servants who used to fawn over me now looked at me like something scraped off a shoe.

"She's not the Pruitts' eldest daughter anymore. How does she still have the nerve to live in a villa the old lady bought? What a thick skin."

"Born lower than a hired hand like me, probably, and she still wants to order us around?"

"If you ask me, we should send her packing. Wouldn't want to get kicked out ourselves once the young master boots her out again."

Two of them stood at the door, dripping sarcasm.

I gave them a glance, took out my phone, and pulled up the property deed and the payment records.

"First. This villa's title has my name on it, along with a signed deed of gift from the old Mrs. Pruitt."

"Second. Your wages are paid by me. Open your eyes and look carefully at who your actual employer is."

"Last. I don't keep servants who run their mouths. You're fired."

The color drained from their faces. They hadn't expected me to be so merciless.

"Miss, we were wrong."

"Please don't fire us. We'll never say another word out of line."

I ignored the begging and had the butler put them out of the villa.

In my last life, those two helped Narelle frame me. They were among the ones who got me killed.

The next day, around noon.

I sat at the dining table and ate every last bite in front of me.

My stomach was round and tight, and still I felt like I couldn't get full.

The hunger I felt before I died last time was still lodged in my head.

Then Barrett showed up at my door.

"Miss Pruitt, you can't leave the Pruitts, you just can't! For the old lady's sake, won't you set aside your grudge with the family and come home?"

I set down my water glass.

"Uncle Barrett, it's not that I don't want to go back. I can't."

"You must have heard what happened at the house. Narelle is back. There's no place for me there anymore."

His brow knotted, his face full of worry and strain.

"What are we going to do? The Pruitt family was the old lady's life's work. I can't stand by and watch it fall apart."

His gaze dropped to the shattered jade thumb ring on the table, and his steps caught.

"The old lady's jade thumb ring. How could it..."

I let out a soft sigh.

"Narelle smashed it on purpose. I didn't shield it."

That jade thumb ring was the Pruitts' treasure. It carried the fortune of generations of the family.

Even after they cast me out, as long as the ring stayed in my hands, the Pruitts' wealth and prosperity would hold.

They destroyed the family's own protective charm with their own hands.

Barrett swayed and nearly went down.

"Miss Pruitt, whatever it takes, you have to come home this time. I promised the old lady I would guard this family for her. I'm begging you..."

He started to lower himself to his knees.

Donald burst in and caught him before he could.

"Uncle Barrett, why are you begging her to come back? She was never one of us to begin with!"

Barrett's face went grave.

"Young Master, have you forgotten what the old lady said before she died?"

"The Pruitts rose to be one of the four great families of the city's elite in just eighteen years, and it was all because of Marian, because of her luck."

"If Marian leaves this family, then the Pruitt name in this city vanishes too."

Just then Oliver and Cicely arrived, Narelle with them.

"Donald, don't listen to his nonsense."

Oliver shot Barrett a glare.

"The children were never switched by accident back then. Your grandmother swapped them on purpose."

"All because that fraud of a fortune-teller said Marian's fate was good for this family, and that Narelle wouldn't live past twenty here."

"Barrett was your grandmother's man. Of course he takes Marian's side."

Then he lowered his voice to Donald.

"Last life Narelle made it past her twentieth birthday in this house too, didn't she? Nothing happened at all."

Narelle leaned into Cicely's arms, the picture of injured innocence.

"I'm the one who's Mom and Dad's real daughter. Why would Grandmother do this to me..."

Watching her play the victim, Donald's voice went cold.

"I'm not just throwing Marian out of the Pruitt family. I'm removing her name from our records and striking her from the family register!"

"I'd like to see exactly what happens to this family without her."

Barrett fainted dead away at Oliver Pruitt's words.

I didn't explain.

Eighteen years ago, the old Mrs. Pruitt had brought me home to the Pruitts, an orphan from the moment I was born, and handed Narelle over to a kind couple to raise.

The Pruitts rose to become one of New York's elite families on the strength of the luck I carried.

Narelle, raised outside the family, had not suffered for it.

The old Mrs. Pruitt had still groomed her as the Pruitts' eldest daughter, only she never got the chance to bring her home herself.

And in my last life, Narelle came back early.

To save her life, I burned through every scrap of my own good fortune, and in the end I came to a wretched death.

Seeing I stayed silent, Oliver's mouth curled.

"Marian Pruitt, don't think that talking Barrett into playing along with your little act is going to fool any of us."

"What kind of feudal superstition is this, in the modern world? If there really were such a thing as a lucky charm's blessing, the one who carried it would be Narelle."

Narelle sniffled.

"I don't want any lucky charm's blessing. I only want to be beside Mom and Dad and my brother."

Oliver and Cicely closed protectively around Narelle, and Donald stepped to the front, shielding her.

Watching them, a dull ache pressed at my chest.

This kind of love from family had once been mine.

For as long as I could remember, Donald had stood in front of me as my brother and taken every blow meant for me.

And Oliver and Cicely had doted on me like a little princess.

In my last life, the moment they learned I wasn't their blood, they rushed home to comfort me.

Even Oliver's stern face had reddened, a rare thing.

"Marian, you'll always be a child of this family. You're our daughter."

Cicely had held my hand tight.

"Blood or no blood, you're the daughter I watched grow up."

Donald had gently ruffled my hair.

"Marian, I'll always be the brother standing in front of you, keeping you safe."

Once, I truly had loved them.

Even when they lost their trust in me over Narelle, even when they scolded me, I never once thought of giving them up.

Not until they got me killed. Then my heart went cold for good.

"Marian Pruitt, what are you standing there for? Changed your mind about coming off the family's records?"

Donald's voice pulled me out of the memory.

Looking at the ice in his eyes.

I spoke slowly.

"Fine. Let's go do it now."

I got in the car with them and rode to the records office.

Barrett, come to again, watched us go and bowed his head with a sigh.

"Madam, I'm sorry. In the end I still couldn't keep the Pruitts safe for you. It's fate, I suppose."

At the office.

The Pruitts pulled a few strings, and it was done in no time.

Narelle looked at her own name on the Pruitt household register, her whole face lit with joy.

"This is wonderful. Now I'm really family with Mom, Dad, and my brother."

Someone in the group chat posted the family register.

My name was struck from the ledger, and Narelle's was written in.

The relatives crowded the chat with congratulations.

"Welcome home, Narelle!"

"Can't have the family bloodline all muddled up. Good thing it's been set right."

The next second, the system showed I'd been removed from the group.

Narelle threw me a taunting little smile.

I glanced at her.

And laughed coldly inside.

If she was in this much of a hurry to dig her own grave, I couldn't be bothered to stop her.

I was just about to leave.

Narelle suddenly caught my arm.

"The Pruitts are throwing me a family-recognition banquet tonight. Everyone who's anyone in New York's elite circle will be there. You should come too."

"You can tell them all, in front of everyone, that leaving was your own choice. That no one forced you."

"So people won't say Mom and Dad turned their backs on family and threw you out. Wouldn't want it hurting the Pruitt name."

Cicely was touched.

"Narelle, you always think of everything."

I pulled my arm back.

"I'm not going."

Donald gave a flick of his eyes, and two bodyguards were on me at once, pinning down my shoulders.

"This is about the family's face. You're going whether you want to or not."

He gave the order.

"Get Marian Pruitt in the car. Keep an eye on her. Take her to the banquet hotel now."

The lounge.

Narelle stood there in a couture gown, her eyes glittering with triumph.

"Marian Pruitt, so you hogged eighteen years of my life. What of it? In the end you're handing all of it back to me anyway."

Something seemed to come back to her, and her voice turned to a grind of teeth.

"I really don't know what got into that old woman, insisting I be raised out in the countryside. When I was the one who should have had everyone fawning over me."

"Good thing she's finally dead. She doesn't get to call the shots in this house anymore."

I fixed my eyes on her, cold as ice.

"The old Mrs. Pruitt's death had something to do with you?"

Narelle dropped her voice, a wicked little smile on her lips.

"I happened to overhear my foster parents on the phone with the old woman, and that's how I found out I was supposed to be the real heiress."

"I never thought a fake suicide would scare her enough to come running to me."

"To get back into the Pruitt family, I had to cut the brakes on her car so she'd die in a crash."

The words were barely out before I was on my feet, slapping her hard across the face.

She cupped her red, swelling cheek and turned toward the door.

"Donald, she told me to get out of the family, and now she's hitting me"

Before I could react, Donald came charging in and shoved me aside.

"Marian! How dare you lay a hand on Narelle! You've lost your mind!"

My mouth opened, then I swallowed the words back down.

This scene had played out too many times in my last life.

There were cameras in the lounge, but even if I pointed them out, they'd never check the footage.

They only ever believed Narelle.

Oliver stormed in and jabbed a finger at my face.

"Marian, so you really are exactly what Narelle said. All quiet and harmless on the surface, and behind everyone's back you're trying to kill her!"

Cicely held Narelle close, her eyes going red with pity.

"The banquet's about to start. What are we supposed to do about her face now?"

They led the sobbing Narelle off to find a doctor.

That left just me and Donald in the lounge.

Donald drew a slow breath, forcing down the anger underneath.

He pulled out a stack of papers and dropped them at my feet.

"This is the share transfer for Pruitt Group, and the deed transfer for that villa Grandmother gave you."

"Mom and Dad were willing to let all of this go, out of respect for the fact that you grew up in this house. But today you've disappointed us too much."

"So here's your choice."

"Either you kneel and apologize to Narelle in front of everyone, and you don't have to sign a thing."

"Or you sign these, and you walk out with nothing."

Donald looked at me one last time before he left.

"Marian, you know which one's the smart choice."

I picked the papers up off the floor, took a pen, and signed my name.

That was when Lester Gilbert walked in, the Gilbert heir I'd been betrothed to since childhood.

"I've heard about everything going on with the Pruitts."

I ignored him and pressed my thumbprint over my signature.

Lester went on as if I hadn't.

"You know this was always a marriage alliance between the Gilberts and the Pruitts. Now that Narelle's back, my fiance changes to her."

"But in my heart, you're the one who's my wife. The Pruitts don't want you, so from now on you can be with me."

I set the papers down and lifted my eyes to him.

"You want me to be your mistress?"

Lester frowned.

"What young man in New York's elite circle doesn't keep a few on the side these days? I only want you. Don't be ungrateful."

In my last life, the final call I made begging for help was to him.

He mocked me on the line.

"On paper you can call yourself a Pruitt daughter all you like, but everyone in the circle knows you're nothing more than the little maid who carries Narelle's bags."

"Behave yourself in that house. Once Narelle and I are married, I'll take you in as my mistress."

I tugged the corner of my mouth into something like a smile.

"Lester, the Gilberts don't have many good days left either."

The Gilbert family only got where they were because of the betrothal to me, riding on the luck I carried.

The moment that engagement was torn up, the Gilberts would end up exactly like the Pruitts.

Inside the hall, the family-recognition banquet began.

After introducing Narelle, Donald stepped forward to make an announcement.

"The Pruitts' adopted daughter, Marian, wishes to kneel before you all and personally apologize to Narelle for the life she stole for eighteen years."

The words fell, and the room went silent.

But a full minute passed, and I never appeared.

The assistant sent to find me came hurrying over.

"Young Master Pruitt, Marian's gone. There were only these two documents on the table in the lounge."

Donald looked at the signature and the red thumbprint on the papers, and his face darkened.

I was cut off from the Pruitts for good.

At that very moment, Oliver took a call from the company.

"What? What do you mean the funds in the company accounts have vanished?"

Donald had just turned to question his father.

Beside him, Narelle suddenly clutched her chest and dropped to the floor.

Cicely let out a terrified scream.

"Narelle! What's wrong!"