The Comments Told Me to Fight the Fake Heiress but I Chose Her as My Sister Chapter 04

The Comments Told Me to Fight the Fake Heiress but I Chose Her as My Sister Chapter 04

I closed the bracelet box and pushed it back.

“Thanks, but it’s too much. I just got back. I don’t want to owe favors to outsiders.”

Something shifted in his eyes.

“Outsiders?”

I looked up at him.

“We’re nominally engaged, but we haven’t actually set a date, have we?”

The table went quiet.

The crimson lines flooded my vision.

[ARE YOU CRAZY? That’s your FIANCE!]

[Elowen WANTS you to push him away!]

I ignored it. Silas recovered quickly, his voice warm again.

“That was my mistake. There’s a charity gala in a few days. Let me escort you? You’ll need to meet people.”

I was about to refuse when Elowen spoke.

“I’m going too.”

Silas looked at her.

Elowen’s face was calm. “Lila just got here. Some people don’t know when to keep their mouths shut. I don’t want her getting ganged up on.”

Something in my chest flickered.

Silas smiled.

“Fine by me.”

He probably thought the two of us showing up on his turf would be spectacular.

The night of the charity gala, I wore an emerald gown.

Not the flashiest one, but it suited my coloring and let me move freely.

Elowen had picked it.

The crimson lines cursed from the fitting room all the way to the car.

[That color makes you look OLD! She’s trying to upstage you!]

[She’s probably wearing something angelic herself!]

Elowen showed up in a black tailored dress.

The car pulled up to the hotel entrance.

We’d barely walked in when a cluster of people surrounded us.

“That’s the Voss family’s long-lost one, right?”

“Heard she spent eighteen years in an impoverished rural community. Brave, honestly.”

“Miss Voss, do you even understand how tonight’s auction works? Want us to walk you through it?”

The last one had a laugh in it.

A few girls tittered around her.

The crimson lines were thrilled.

[HIT BACK! Tell them Elowen’s the fake!]

[Drag her down with you!]

I opened my mouth, but Elowen had already stepped forward.

She looked at the girl. Her tone wasn’t loud, but it was ice.

“Miss Fairchild, last auction you bid the starting price as if it were the final bid, and Caspian had to smooth it over for you. Are you sure you want to teach Lila the rules?”

The girl flushed bright red.

The laughter died.

Elowen kept going. “She scored top twenty in the whole state from a severely underfunded public school. If you want to compete on brains, I’d think twice.”

I glanced at her.

She wasn’t looking at me.

Like she’d just done something completely ordinary.

Silas walked over from a few feet away, still smiling, but something cold had settled behind his eyes.

“Elowen, that’s a bit harsh. They were just joking.”

Elowen said flatly, “Making jokes out of someone’s suffering isn’t humor. It’s bad breeding.”

Silas’s smile finally slipped.

Later in the evening, he deliberately took me out to the terrace.

The night air was cold.

He handed me a glass of champagne.

“Lila, Elowen’s always been like that. She looks like she’s defending you, but really she just makes everyone think she’s the reasonable one.”

I watched the bubbles rise in my glass.

“And?”

“So don’t trust her too fast.” He said, “You’re August’s blood daughter. What’s yours, you take back.”