“Claire, sending you back to the countryside was a family decision. It had nothing to do with Cindy, so why are you taking it out on her?”
"If you want to come back to the James family, you should start treating Cindy better. Maybe try behaving for once..."
Claire cut him off. "Seriously, are you imagining things? When did I ever say I wanted to go back to the James family?"
The teacher, seeing things getting out of hand, stepped in with a serious look. "Cindy's brother, I need you to leave. We're about to start class, and you're distracting everyone."
"Sorry, teacher." Lance managed to keep his cool in front of the teacher.
He left the classroom as he was told, but not before sending Claire a sharp look. The message was clear, even without words.
Claire couldn't care less.
She turned away completely, refusing to even glance at him.
Lance fumed in silence as he left, not knowing what else to do.
"Claire, what's up with your brother? He's way too biased toward Cindy."
"You two never used to be like this. The whole real-versus-fake heiress thing isn't your fault. You're a victim here, too. The way he treats you... it's like he sees you as some kind of enemy."
Claire's deskmate, Sophia, had always been a good friend. She'd been invited to Claire's coming-of-age party, but something came up last minute and she couldn't make it. She'd heard about what happened, though, and she knew how humiliating it must have been for Claire to have her true identity exposed in front of everyone.
No one had stood by Claire's side. Word was, Lance sent her back to the countryside that very night, not even hesitating. Sophia thought the James family had gone way too far.
"We're both victims, but to everyone else, I'm the one who got something out of this," Claire explained.
People nearby had been quietly listening, and Claire's words made a few of them pause. Some even found themselves agreeing with her.
That was it. Because she'd benefited, everyone assumed she'd taken something away from Cindy.
Sophia was quiet for a second, then she tried to comfort Claire. "You might technically be the one who benefited, but it's not like any of this was your choice."
"I still think they're being really unfair to you."
The teacher glanced their way, so the girls fell silent.
Meanwhile, Cindy couldn't stop replaying Claire's words in her mind.
Claire really was the one who'd gained the most. How could she just accept everything from the past eighteen years and not feel guilty? Shouldn't she be ashamed?
If Cindy were in her shoes, she'd probably have dropped out of Silverpeak International College herself. Without the James family, Claire would have grown up in the countryside like she did. There' way she'd have gotten into Silverpeak.
Cindy finally found a reason for her jealousy. She wasn't the one in the wrong, Claire was.
On top of everything, Claire ended up with the agarwood pillow that was supposed to be Cindy's. She even
sold it for twenty million. Cinde
mom had only given her two
hundred thousand as allowance, and hundred thousand a
even though Lance added another million, it was nothing compared to what Claire got.
“Sophia, can I borrow your book? I left mine back in the countryside,” Claire asked.
She didn't care what Cindy was thinking. She just wanted to focus on class.
Books were easy to borrow. The school uniform, though, was another headache.
She'd almost been turned away at the school gates earlier. That little delay was why she'd barely made it to class on time.
Her uniform was still at the James
family's house, and she had zero desire to go back there. If she did, they'd probably think she was beggi to get back into the family
which was the last thing she wanted.
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