He Chose Her, But I Inherited His Empire Chapter 01

He Chose Her, But I Inherited His Empire Chapter 01

My mother vanished ten years ago. My father has hated me for just as long.

He was convinced that when she went to pick up my birthday gift, she strayed from her secure route because of me, and that was why she disappeared from Los Angeles. He hated me for costing him his wife, and he hated my face for looking nothing like hers.

So he adopted a girl who was the spitting image of my mother and gave her everything the Ricci family had to offer.

He seated her at his right hand, paraded her at public events, and told everyone under the Ricci family’s protection that she was the only daughter he recognized.

I wore her cast-offs and lived in an unguarded little room next to the garage.

He watched as she took my room, my identity, and my place in the family. He stood by while her friends threw filthy water on me and shoved me, a girl who couldn’t swim, into the pool. All he said was that I deserved it.

For a long time, I believed him.

Until my sixteenth birthday.

My mother came back.

…

In three days, I would turn sixteen.

Every year on that day, my father threw Blair a lavish birthday party.

This year’s was set to be even grander.

Before the night was over, the capos and allies of the Ricci family would witness her receiving the family crest. From then on, she would no longer be just the child the head of the family had adopted. She would be a protected daughter, able to represent Ricci’s legitimate businesses in public.

At school, everyone received an invitation but me.

“Genevieve, maybe the butler just forgot yours.”

Blair stood beside my desk, her tone just gentle enough to not sound openly malicious. She set the invitation on my calculus test, covering the note my teacher had written.

The teacher had asked me to stop by the engineering lab after school. The robotics team’s control program had a bug, and I’d already found two errors in the code.

It was the only place in school where no one cared what my last name was.

I pushed the invitation aside without looking at her.

Blair had been pulling stunts like this for almost ten years.

“Why are you even explaining anything to her?” Kevin, from the football team, scoffed. “You’re too nice, Blair. That’s why she’s always making trouble for you.”

Most of the students in my class had parents who did business with the Ricci family. Some of them needed my father’s permission just to operate in West Los Angeles. They had learned long ago whose side to be on.

“She’s just some relative of an estate employee. Dante Ricci lets her live there and pays for her to go to this school. Instead of being grateful, she steals Blair’s things.”

“She should be working with the staff at the party.”

“She doesn’t belong in the main hall.”

Only after they had all piled on did Blair speak again, her voice soft.

“Don’t be like that, guys. Genevieve, I wanted you to stand with me when I cut the cake, but Daddy said no. You know he’s never gotten over what happened.”

I picked up the fountain pen on my desk and threw it straight at her.

“Get out.”