The Boyfriend Who Faked a Business Trip Lives Next Door with the Fake Heiress Chapter 07

The Boyfriend Who Faked a Business Trip Lives Next Door with the Fake Heiress Chapter 07

Day five in the hospital.

An unexpected visitor.

Donovan’s father.

Custom suit. Aura of authority. Two assistants trailing behind him.

“Ms. Gray. I’m here to discuss terms.”

I leaned back against my pillows. “What terms?”

“Donovan.” Mr. Black sat down. All business. “He’s cut ties with the family over you. Walked away from his inheritance. He doesn’t even have a place to sleep tonight.”

I said nothing.

“My request is simple.” He looked at me like I was a problem to be solved. “Leave Donovan alone. Disappear. In exchange, I’m prepared to offer you five million dollars.”

I almost laughed.

First Violet with the bag. Then Donovan with the villa. Now Daddy Black with a check.

“One,” I said, holding up a finger. “Donovan left on his own. I didn’t ask him to.”

“Two. I never asked him to save me. That was his choice.”

Mr. Black frowned.

“Three.” I smiled. “Five million? Do you know how much Donovan and Violet spent over five years? Violet’s Instagram alone-that’s over twenty million dollars’ worth of stuff.”

“Donovan paid for most of it.”

“And you want to pay me five to walk away?”

Mr. Black’s expression shifted.

“That one-hundred-thirty-thousand-dollar bag?” I continued. “Donovan took thirty from me and added a hundred. That hundred? I’m guessing that came from you.”

“So you want to use your own money to buy me off. Cute.”

Mr. Black stood up. Face like thunder.

“Ms. Gray. Think very carefully about who you’re talking to. Crossing the Black family has consequences.’

I met his eyes. “I’m not crossing anyone. Your family owes me.”

“Your son lied to me for five years. He helped a fake heiress humiliate me. Did you know?”

He didn’t answer.

“Of course you did.” I answered for him. “Or you didn’t care. Real daughter, fake daughter-who cares, as long as the last name is Gray.”

“Clara!” His voice boomed.

“Am I wrong?” I held his stare. “Violet’s in jail now. So much for that merger. So you came to buy me off-when you should be begging me to stay with him, so you can still get your precious Gray

connection.”

Mr. Black went purple.

“How dare you -”

He pointed at me. His hand shook.

“I could destroy the entire Gray family with one phone call!”

I nodded. “Sure. But you won’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because right now, a lot of people are watching you and the Grays.” I picked up my phone. Pulled

up my livestream recording and held it out.

Millions of views.

Comments section digging into both families’ dirty laundry. Screenshots of Violet’s Instagram.

Every single one.

“What Lady Gray wants: Clara to have hope-and then lose it all over again.”

That post alone had been shared a hundred thousand times.

Mr. Black’s hand dropped.

His eyes went wide.

“Your stock’s down twelve percent in three days,” I said. “Billions in market cap, gone.”

“And you did it to yourselves.”

“If you hadn’t let your son play his little games. If you’d told him it was wrong. If you’d called Violet out when you knew what she was doing-”

“None of this would be happening.”

Silence.

Finally: “What do you want?”

“Nothing.” I turned away. “I want all of you to leave me alone.”

“Not your son’s money. Not your money. Not the Grays’ money.”

“I just want you out of my life.”

Mr. Black stared at me for a long time.

“You’ll regret this,” he said.

“What’s to regret?” I almost laughed again. “That I didn’t let you keep using me? That I didn’t let

your son make a fool of me? That I didn’t let Violet grind me into the dirt?”

“The only thing I regret is saying yes to Donovan in the first place.”

Mr. Black left.

His assistant handed me a card on the way out. “If you change your mind, Ms. Gray…”

I tore it up and dropped it in the trash.

The day I got discharged.

Sun on my face. Warm.

My phone rang. Unknown number.

“Ms. Clara Gray? This is the police. Regarding Violet Gray’s attempted murder charge-we need

you to come in for an additional statement.”

“I’ll be right there.”

At the station, the detective handed me a file.

“Ms. Gray has confessed to everything. But she’s asking to see you.”

I looked up. “See me?”

“She says she has something to return.”

I thought about it. “Okay.”

They brought Violet out. I almost didn’t recognize her.

Short hair. No makeup. Prison uniform. Cuffed.

No designer bags. No couture gowns. She looked like a regular person.

No-worse than a regular person.

Sunken eyes. Sallow skin. Cracked lips.

When she saw me, her eyes flashed with hate. Then she smiled.

“Clara. You came.”

“You said you had something to give back.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled something out. Put it on the table.

A doll.

Old. Worn. One arm crudely sewn back on.

I recognized it instantly.

My favorite doll. From when I was five.

The one Violet had cut to pieces in front of me.

“I kept it,” Violet said. “I sewed it back together. Took me ten years.”

“You’ve hated me for twenty years because I took everything from you.”

“Did you ever stop to think that none of this was my choice either?”

Her eyes were wet.

“I was switched at birth. I was a baby. What was I supposed to do?”

“I grew up in the Gray house. I thought it was my family. Then you showed up and everyone told me I was a fraud.”

“You have any idea what that feels like?”

I didn’t answer.

“So I hated you,” Violet continued. “I hated you for existing. For turning me from a princess into a joke.”

“So I took your things. Turned everyone against you.”

“Didn’t think I’d end up the one losing.”

She laughed. Tears fell.

“Clara. You win.”

“I’m in jail. You took Donovan. You ruined both families.”

“Happy now?”

I looked at her. Said nothing.

She waited. Finally snapped: “Say something!”

“I’ve got nothing to say.” I stood up. “Keep the doll. I don’t want it.”

“You’re just leaving?”

“What do you want, Violet? Forgiveness? Me to tell you I don’t hate you?”

“I did hate you. For twenty years.”

“But I’m done.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because hating you takes energy. And I’m done spending any of it on you.”

“You’re nothing to me anymore.”

I turned and walked out.

Behind me, Violet started crying.

I didn’t look back.