The Comments Told Me to Fight the Fake Heiress but I Chose Her as My Sister Chapter 01

The Comments Told Me to Fight the Fake Heiress but I Chose Her as My Sister Chapter 01

At the Home-coming Gala, a reporter shoved a microphone in my face.

“Ms. Voss, you were switched at birth and raised by strangers for eighteen years. The girl who took your life—does that bother you?”

I opened my mouth to answer.

Then a wall of crimson lines of text scrolled across my vision.

[Of course it bothers her! She took eighteen years of your life—why is she still here?]

[Elowen is a sugar-coated snake! She’s going to steal your parents, your brother, your fiancé—even Voss Holdings!]

[If you don’t kick her out, she’ll destroy you!]

My hand paused on the microphone.

I’d believed those words once.

In my past life, I’d fought Elowen like a wild woman. Fought over bedrooms, over gowns, over one line of “Lila, you’ve suffered.” Fought over a man who never loved me.

I’d ended up the laughingstock of the whole city, dying in a rainstorm the night I left the Voss Estate, clutching nothing but a waterlogged DNA test.

Now I lifted my eyes to Elowen—the girl the crimson text called a wicked adopted daughter.

She was looking right back at me.

I smiled.

“It bothers me.”

******

The room went dead silent.

The crimson lines practically exploded.

[YES! Exactly!]

[Tell her to GET OUT!]

I kept going.

“Being deliberately switched at birth—of course that bothers me.”

“But Elowen didn’t steal my life.”

“She was just another girl pushed into the same trap.”

When I finished, you could hear the crystal chandeliers breathe.

Elowen froze.

She clearly hadn’t expected that. Even her lips went pale.

The crimson lines glitched for a beat, then exploded red again.

[She’s FAKING! Don’t fall for it!]

[In your past life, she destroyed you with exactly this act!]

Past life?

I sneered inwardly.

In my past life, I’d believed it.

I’d stood right here and announced, “Now that I’m back, why is she still standing in this house?”

Elowen had gone white as a sheet. Clara had broken down in tears. August had gone quiet for a long time.

The guests had exchanged looks.

The next day, every headline screamed “The real Voss daughter is so petty” and “Raised in an impoverished rural community—what did you expect?”

I thought I’d won my identity.

But from that second on, I’d already lost every scrap of dignity.

This time, when I finished speaking, the only sound was shutters clicking.

Someone gasped.

Someone else awkwardly looked away from the drama.

Clara’s eyes were red as she took my hand.

“Lila…”

She tried to say something, then choked on it.

I understood the knot in her chest.

Her blood daughter had been gone for eighteen years. Her adopted daughter had been by her side for eighteen years. She couldn’t cut either one loose.

A reporter lunged for another question.

One look from Caspian shut him down.

Caspian was my older brother and Voss Holdings’ vice president.

In my past life, he’d been the first one to give up on me.

Now he stood behind me and said quietly, “That was well handled.”

I didn’t answer.

I wasn’t ready to expect that much from his praise yet.

The gala moved on.

August and Clara paraded me around, and I smiled through a dozen lines of “She looks just like August,” “All that suffering finally paid off,” “We’ll make it up to you.”

Every word was cotton wrapped around a needle.

My jaw ached from smiling.

I turned to grab a glass of water—and a hand appeared in front of me.

Long fingers. Bone structure that said old money.

He held out a glass of warm water.

“You just got back. Skip the cold.”

His voice was gentle. Exactly the kind of lifeline I’d once destroyed myself trying to grab.