The Heiress They Mistook for a Nobody

I'm the only daughter of the richest man in the nation, and he raised me to do absolutely as I pleased.

At three, I peed on his head. He said it meant we were close.

At eight, I used a drone to rain cash-stuffed red envelopes down over the whole school. He said I had a strong sense of social responsibility.

At fifteen, I drew comics all over my exam answer sheet. He said creativity mattered more than a score.

My stepmother said I was a little demon and needed a firm hand.

That same night, my father sent her packing with nothing to her name.

When I finally reached marrying age, my father searched high and low and picked out a golden catch for me.

Old money from Kingsport, he said. Decent looks, decent character. Just barely worthy of me.

I chartered a private jet home especially for the meeting.

Half an hour later, my match still hadn't shown.

I was starving, so I ordered a plate of braised pork to start.

I'd just lifted a piece to my mouth when a hand came out of nowhere and slapped the fork from my grip.

"How could Miles ever agree to meet someone as low as you? The man isn't even here, and you have the nerve to start eating!"

I set the fork down.

I looked at her chin, tilted high in the air.

It seemed the Farley family's century of old money had finally run its course.

1

"Dressed like that, and you show up to meet a man? Anyone can tell you crawled out of some backwoods town, a small-town striver who studied her way up and never even heard what Kingsport old money means."

Around us, the waitstaff all held their breath.

This was a private restaurant my father had given me, and every one of them knew exactly what I was capable of.

The woman didn't have the faintest idea she was playing with fire. She flaunted the hand she'd just hit me with, smug and pleased.

"Getting slapped by me is more than three lifetimes of luck could earn you. This arm alone is worth two million, you know."

The Harry Winston full-diamond sunflower piece, the Cartier emerald. Expensive, no doubt.

Pity they were the same kind of trinket I'd been chucking at people like stones when I was five.

Seeing that I stayed quiet, she grew bolder.

"Miles gave me all of it. A hick like you isn't even worthy of touching them."

I lifted the hand holding my water glass and threw the water in her face. It was sixty degrees.

"Aaah—"

The woman let out a shriek.

She dropped onto the floor in terror, scrubbing at her cheeks with her sleeves.

Her flawless makeup smeared into a mess, until she looked like a big splotchy alley cat.

Watching her flail around like that, I burst out laughing.

"The water wasn't boiling. You got off easy."

The pack of hangers-on trailing behind her rushed to help her into a chair.

She checked her face in her phone camera, careful and shaky, and once she was sure it wasn't ruined, she jabbed a furious finger at me.

"What are you even? Do you have any idea who I am!"

I raised an eyebrow at her and gave a lazy, amused, "Oh?"

She shot up from the chair, hands on her hips, looking down at me.

"I'm Violet Gilbert, the adopted sister Miles keeps closest to his heart. In all of Kingsport, when I say one, nobody dares say two."

Agreeing to meet Miles Farley at all had already been generous of me.

Now we were forty minutes past our agreed time, and not only had he failed to show up.

He'd sent a kept songbird to disgust me instead.

My face went cold.

"You'd better get clear on who I am."

She let out a scornful little laugh, chin still in the air.

"Who could you possibly be? A wage slave at best, some corporate exec who bookwormed her way into a title."

"Let me spell it out for you. The Farleys are the top family in Kingsport, and only a top beauty like me is worthy of Miles. A country bumpkin like you could try forever and still never get near the Farley door."

With that, she pressed a hand to her face and shouted to the pack behind her.

"Girls, get her."

"Miles already said. If she dies, he'll take the fall for me."