After Rebirth, I Stopped Competing, and the Fake Heiress Lost It Chapter 05

After Rebirth, I Stopped Competing, and the Fake Heiress Lost It Chapter 05

A few days later, Sloane went back to school. Mom tried to talk her out of it, but Sloane wouldn’t hear it.

Mom called a little after ten. She was barely holding it together.

“Tessa, something happened to Sloane. She’s at the police station. They said you need to come in too.”

I hung up. I hadn’t expected Sloane to make her move this fast.

The station was freezing, with the AC cranked all the way up.

Sloane sat on a bench with an officer’s jacket draped around her shoulders. Underneath it, the collar of her school uniform had been ripped open.

She had her knees pulled to her chest, and red marks trailed down her bare shoulder. The second my parents walked in, her eyes filled with tears.

“Mom…” Her voice cracked on the word.

Mom rushed over and pulled her close. Dad turned to the officer, his face hard.

The officer flipped open the file.

“The suspects say someone paid them to corner your daughter at school.” The officer paused and glanced at my parents. “They’re saying it was your other daughter, the one who just came home.”

Sloane sobbed until she was gasping, clutching at Mom’s arm.

“Mom, please don’t be angry at Tessa. She probably just… she couldn’t help it. After everything she went through, of course she hates me…”

[It’s over, it’s over, it’s OVER!!!]

[Tessa, SAY you didn’t do it! You still have time!]

Last time, Sloane pulled the exact same stunt.

I didn’t even get a word out before Dad slapped me right across the face.

I screamed, I cried, I tried to explain.

Nobody believed me. A girl like Sloane would never ruin her own reputation just to frame someone. That was the logic.

They decided I was the monster and washed their hands of me.

But this time…

Mom looked at me, pleading. “Tessa…”

She knew I didn’t even go to Sloane’s school.

But she didn’t want me to make a scene.

I met Mom’s eyes. She opened her mouth but nothing else came out.

I gave them what they wanted. I turned to Sloane. “Let’s just go home. I’ll pretend this never happened.”

Dad nodded at me, grateful and ashamed in the same breath.

Sloane was still crying, shoulders shaking. She stared at me like she couldn’t process what I’d just said.

“I don’t blame you, Tessa. I really don’t. Let’s just drop it. I know you hate me for stealing your life. If this is what you need to feel better, I can take it…”

Graham grabbed Sloane’s wrist. “Stop talking.”

Sloane’s head snapped between them, panicked, because she didn’t understand why no one was siding with her. She jabbed a finger at the bleached-blond kids handcuffed to the bench nearby, and her voice broke.

“You think I’m making this up?! I’m a girl. What girl would trash her own reputation just to set someone up?! They already confessed!”

Word for word. The exact same speech she gave last time. I almost laughed.

Nobody was biting. Sloane’s sobs climbed higher.

“I said I’d let it go and you STILL won’t believe me?! You can’t just take her side on everything because she’s your real daughter!”

The room shifted the second those words left her mouth.

Real daughter. The phrase landed like a slap.

For the first time, it hit them, all of it. Everything they’d put their own daughter through to protect the child of the people who’d hurt her.

Dad was done covering for her. His voice dropped. “Sloane, Tessa hasn’t set foot in your school since the day she transferred.”