Fake Heiress Copied My Baby Illness; I Wished Her Real, She Regretted

The fake heiress is a little copycat, and I have the baby illness.

My first day back with the Hensons, I sat at the dining table swinging my two little legs.

Baby's hungry, Mommy feed me~

The fake heiress instantly pursed her little lips, copying me.

Food's hot hot, Brother blow on it~

Mom, Dad, and my brother crowded around her at once, all doting smiles, then turned back to snap at me.

"Barely home and already fighting Ruby Henson for attention. If you won't eat, then go hungry!"

Fat little tears rolled down my face right away. They didn't know. It wasn't that I didn't want to eat. My baby illness gave me muscle weakness.

Seeing me cry, the copycat fake heiress only wailed louder.

And just as the whole family scrambled to comfort her, a system popped up in my mind.

Ding! Someone has been detected imitating the host's baby illness. Initiate transfer?

My eyes lit up and I nodded like mad.

If she wanted so badly to be a helpless, brainless overgrown infant, then I'd give her exactly that.

...

Catching the excitement on my face, my brother, busy wiping Ruby's eyes, went rigid.

"You're happy you bullied Ruby to tears?"

Mom knit her brows, thoroughly displeased.

"Get back to your room. No dinner for you today, as punishment!"

With that, she scooped Ruby onto her lap like a fussy baby and gently patted her back as she cried herself into hiccups.

The nanny behind me lowered her head, cleared away my plate, and wheeled me back to my own bedroom.

Before she left, she couldn't help murmuring a word of comfort.

"Don't be sad, miss. It's only that Miss Ruby has been in this house so long, everyone's just more used to taking care of her."

I tilted my head up with a wide grin and babbled out, "Fank you."

The moment the door shut, I couldn't wait to open the system panel.

Ding! I am the Transfer System.

One transfer of the baby illness is currently available. Host, please select a transfer target.

Friendly reminder: Once the baby illness is taken over by another, the host will return completely to a normal life.

The panel put an excited, amused look on my face.

I could tell Ruby's copycat act was on purpose.

Her whole point was to make me understand that in this house, my parents and my brother would only ever revolve around her.

And I was just some poor wretch butting into someone else's life.

She wanted me to know my place.

But what I wanted was never anyone's love. What I wanted was to become the heir to this whole family.

Lying in the oversized stroller, I stretched out my little hand and tapped at the panel.

"System, I confirm the transfer."

"Transfer my baby illness to Ruby."

The next second, the panel blazed with a harsh glare of light.

The mechanical announcement rang out.

Transfer condition confirmed. Transfer target confirmed.

After the transfer, the target's baby illness will regress further, all the way back to the newborn stage.

Current transfer progress: twenty percent.

The light faded and the panel vanished from my sight.

Just then, Mom came up to my stroller, brows drawn tight.

"Bertha Henson, you're my own flesh and blood. It won't hurt you to swallow a little."

"But Ruby lost her parents so young. We ought to look after her more. You need to understand that."

I looked at the command in her eyes, my little mouth pulling down as tears welled up on cue.

She erupted at once.

"Wipe that pitiful look off your face."

"You know full well Ruby loves to learn, and you deliberately led her astray!"

Watching her back as she slammed the door, contempt flickered in my eyes.

The one who lost her parents young was me, wasn't it?

This baby illness of mine came from exactly that, the trauma left behind by growing up with no parents to care for me.

The truth was, if they just made it up to me properly, there was still a chance I could recover.

Since you think Ruby is the one who needs looking after, then you'd all better be ready to look after her for the rest of her life.

That night, the nanny didn't wheel me out until I'd served my full day's punishment.

The second Ruby saw me lying in the oversized stroller, she wasn't having it.

She cried and threw a fit, demanding I hand the stroller over to her.

"Sissy so comfy, baby wants to sleep too."

My mother waved a hand at once, hauled me out of the stroller, and dumped me on the icy floor.

I watched, cold-eyed, as Ruby clambered into my stroller on all fours.

On the system, the transfer progress spiked wildly again.

Seeing me sprawled on the floor drooling in a pitiful heap, Ruby clutched her stomach and giggled.

"Baby's tummy, so owie."

The next second, a sharp stench and a wet trickle spread out from under her skirt.

Standing off to one side with her usual tender expression, Mom suddenly gagged.

Then she caught sight of the mess spreading under Ruby, and her hands flew everywhere in a panic.

Barret Henson, who'd been playing games in the living room, came over fast with a big wad of tissues.

"It's all sticky, hurry up and wipe it off."

Ruby looked down at what was on her dress and burst into tears.

But she spotted me standing right there with my eyes wide open, and she swallowed the thought back down.

She turned and reached out toward Barret.

"Baby hurts. Bro-bro, hold me."

The instant Barret lifted Ruby out of the stroller, his handsome face twisted.

"What the hell! You're actually doing this!"

Ruby, dropped on the floor before he'd even thought about it, went stiff with shock.

She was about to open her mouth and whine, but Mom, wiping her down and fighting back her own nausea, cut in first.

"Ruby's had a rough few days. It's normal for her body to be a little off for a while."

"She's the sister you raised for eighteen years. You two even used to bathe together when you were little. How can you find her disgusting?"

Barret's color came back a little at that, but watching Ruby stretch her arms out to be held, and remembering what had just happened, was too much.

In the end he couldn't take it. He bolted upstairs to shower.

I sat on the floor watching the transfer bar on the panel. It was already at seventy percent.

The moment Ruby became a full-blown useless infant wasn't far off now.

Early the next morning, I watched the nanny come out of Ruby's room looking exhausted.

She shot a resentful glance at my own personal caretaker and grumbled,

"You sure landed the easy job. Miss Ruby kept me up all night."

"If she wasn't hungry she was thirsty, and she absolutely had to have baby formula."

"In the middle of the night she made me hold her and rock her to sleep. I'm worn out."

Even Mom had noticed something was off with Ruby.

Barret glared at me. "She only turned like this after you came back."

"We're all going to the old estate for dinner today. You'd better behave yourself!"

The truth was, I could take care of myself perfectly well now.

But to keep Ruby from stopping her little copycat act, I had no choice but to keep playing along.

We'd barely rolled into the old estate in my stroller, and before I could say a word, Ruby had already flung her arms out for Barret to carry her.

My mouth twisted and I was about to call out, but Mom's eyes cut straight to me.

"Bertha, if you can't get in there, then you can crawl in!"

"In our hearts, Ruby is the one who comes first!"

Barret gave a cold snort too. "From now on, don't call me your brother in front of Ruby. I've said it before, Ruby is the only sister I have."

I looked at the smug light in Ruby's eyes and could only climb down slowly and follow along behind them.

The moment we stepped through the door, a dozen or so pairs of eyes swung straight to Ruby.

Sitting beside Grandfather was the man I'd been betrothed to since childhood, Eric Gilbert.

Word was Ruby had liked him for a long time, and only because Grandfather kept holding the line had she failed to take my place and marry him instead.

The second she saw him, Ruby's eyes lit up.

There was no way Mom didn't know what she was thinking. She immediately signaled Barret with a look to set her down.

Eric's gaze passed lightly over me, then moved to Ruby.

That single look was all it took to send Ruby into raptures.

She'd completely forgotten how strange she'd acted the day before.

"Handsome Eric, baby likes you. Want a hug."

Eric frowned slightly, but out of politeness he still answered with a thank you.

Hearing Ruby's words, Mom could only smooth things over for her, embarrassed.

"Ruby's been watching a lot of those Taiwanese dramas lately. That's just how she talks now."

Just then Ruby suddenly took an excited step forward and flopped down flat on the floor in front of Eric with a thud.

"Waaah! Baby hurts, hurts! The floor hit me! The floor hit me!"

My mother caught on at once.

By the time she reached to cover Ruby's mouth, it was already too late.

Seated at the head of the table, Grandfather let out a cold snort. "Treating an adopted daughter like a treasure. Look at what you've spoiled her into!"

"Bertha, take Eric for a walk in the back garden. I have things to say to your parents."

Ruby stared at me and Eric standing together, her face twisted with grief and fury, biting her lower lip as if she were about to cry.

My mother immediately pushed Ruby forward with a fawning smile.

"Eric, you and Ruby grew up together. Surely the two of you have more to talk about."

"Let Ruby be the one to walk the back garden with you."

Eric stayed where he was, his gaze drifting coldly over Ruby.

"Sorry. My mother never let me play with the mentally challenged when I was little."

My mother's face darkened. She followed Eric's line of sight, only to find Ruby still with her thumb in her mouth, crying prettily.

I never found out what Grandfather said to my parents after I left.

The moment I got home, my father lifted his head and fixed a cold stare on me.

"Kneel!"

I stood there blank, and Barret kicked me from behind so that I dropped to the floor.

Ruby sat in my mother's arms, crying until both eyes were red.

"Baby hurts..."

The words had barely left her mouth when Barret jabbed a finger at me, his face livid.

"You still dare to act like a baby here?!"

"If you hadn't put ideas in Ruby's head, how could she have humiliated herself like that in front of the man she loves?!"

"Grandfather has already spoken. Since you're back, your engagement banquet with Eric will be moved up as soon as possible."

"And you still claim you didn't set Ruby up on purpose!"

My mother's eyes were red too, and her stare was just as cold.

"Lock Bertha in her room!"

"She stays there until she agrees to give Eric up to Ruby!"

I bit my lip and shook my head, desperate.

I had no idea what Grandfather was planning.

But they only waved me off, impatient, and had the caretaker lock me straight into the basement.

Ruby had been slighted at the old estate, and it only made them ache for her more.

I looked at the system panel. The progress had already reached ninety percent.

Ruby could no longer take care of herself at all now.

But the Hensons, drowning in their guilt, never noticed.

They only tried, desperately, to keep her happy.

Even her everyday clothes had been remade into oversized onesies.

My father went so far as to spend a fortune bringing in the best childcare team in the world to see to Ruby's every need.

I wasn't let out of the basement until the day of the engagement.

I looked at Ruby in her onesie, a pacifier in her mouth, and the corner of my eye twitched violently.

Behind me, my mother stood there urging me on, her face tight with anxiety.

"Go with Eric to the ballroom first."

"When it comes time for the engagement, you hide yourself away."

"We've invited every media reporter in Harbor City. Once the news goes out, the Gilberts won't be able to weasel out of it."

They dressed me like a puppet on strings, painted my face into something flawless.

It was only when I slipped on the heels that I truly felt myself come back to life.

But on the other side of the fitting room, a very different scene was playing out.

Ruby had just changed into a gown identical to mine, and promptly threw up all over it.

My mother stared at the bawling Ruby, worn thin.

"Ruby, eat less. There's only the one gown."

My father snapped, frowning, thoroughly displeased.

"Ruby, there's a limit to your nonsense. You're not an actual baby, so how are you spitting up milk?"

The only answer he got was Ruby's wailing.

I handed the surveillance footage to Eric Gilbert, seated beside me.

The moment he saw it, disgust flickered through his eyes.

"What's this idiot putting on now?"

I curved my lips into a smile. "A stand-in for the real thing."

Beside me, Eric looked genuinely sickened.

He listened to my plan through to the end, expressionless, and finally dropped one line.

"I'll help you. There's no way I'm marrying a twenty-year-old idiot who still wets the bed."

So now not only had every reporter and outlet in Harbor City shown up, but every person of standing in the city had come too.

On my side, my makeup was done and I sat with my eyes closed, resting.

On Ruby's side, the gown had already been dry-cleaned three times.

As the music swelled through the hall, I opened the system panel.

Transfer progress had reached ninety-nine percent.

Just then, my mother appeared in my dressing room with Ruby, whose makeup was every bit as flawless.

The one thing that didn't fit that face was the pacifier in her mouth.

The moment she saw me, she stretched out her hands and clapped in delight.

"Getting married! Ruby's getting married!"

My mother turned and shot me a hard, severe glare.

"Your part's done. Stay hidden here, and don't you dare ruin your sister's big day!"

I watched, contempt filling my eyes, as Ruby was settled onto the rising platform.

Afraid Ruby would give herself away, they'd actually come up with a scheme like this.

I stood behind the lounge door, watching Eric's signal come through. Everything was set.

Eric walked toward Ruby across a floor scattered with flowers.

Just then the panel in front of me flashed wildly, blazing out a fierce white light.

Baby illness transfer progress: One hundred percent!

A crisp ding!

Ruby, who a moment ago had been sitting on the rising platform, dropped flat onto the floor.

"Waaah!"

A piercing infant's cry rang out through the whole venue.

Then Eric flung the veil off Ruby's head and turned to my parents, ice in his face.

"The Hensons dared pull a baby swap? Trying to marry this fool off to me?!"