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11:57 Sat, Oct 18 M…
<
:
In the days that followed, the atmosphere in the Blackwood house became eerily
strange.
Serena became the center of attention.
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My mom, Eleanor, took her to all the luxury boutiques, and my dad, Richard, hired the best nutritionist to improve her health.
Julian even personally drove her to and from school, tutoring her hands–on for her final
competition sprint.
The three of them – chatting, laughing, looking like a truly happy family.
And I? I became an outsider in this house.
Their overly polite behavior seemed designed to make me understand my place.
The paperwork for studying abroad was processed incredibly fast. My dad didn’t even ask which country I wanted to go to, simply had his assistant apply for a prep program in
the UK.
He handed me a sleek black card, the kind reserved for VIPs, but his eyes never met
mine.
“Aspen, Dad knows we’ve wronged you. The password is Serena’s birthday. You… don’t
suffer once you’re over there.”
I stared at the cold card, barely suppressing a laugh.
A bank card with your biological daughter’s birthday as the password, given to your adoptive daughter…
This was truly unprecedented shamelessness.
I took it with a straight face and thanked him politely.
–
11:57 Sat, Oct 18 …
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“Thank you, Dad.”
Meanwhile, Serena, having officially gained her “rightful” status, grew increasingly
smug.
She began to brazenly move into my room, using my things.
She even wore one of my favorite custom–made designer dresses, parading back and forth in front of me.
“Sister, can I have this dress? Mom says it looks better on me than on you.”
She stood before me, her arrogant demeanor brimming with boastfulness.
I leaned back on the sofa, flipping through my physics textbook, couldn’t even be bothered to lift an eyelid.
“It’s an old dress I’ve worn before. You can have it.”
Her face instantly froze, the smile congealed on her lips.
“You!”
“Me what?”
I raised my eyelids, my gaze sweeping over the dress she was wearing.
“Oh, right, a reminder: the questions in the national finals are much harder than that one you solved at the birthday party. Don’t embarrass yourself by not even being able to hold a
pen when you get on stage.”
With that, I turned and left.
“You just wait!”
I heard Serena stomp her foot behind me, furious.
11:57 Sat, Oct 18 M…
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“I’ll win the gold medal! I’ll prove I’m a hundred times better than you!”
A hundred times better?
I smirked inwardly.
Someone who can even copy an answer incorrectly has the nerve to claim they’ll win an
award?
That problem at the birthday party, she solved it quickly, but there was a fatal logical flaw in her process.
Everyone present was fooled by her “genius from poverty” persona, too stunned to
notice it.
But I did.
A true genius would never make such a basic mistake.
Unless… the answer wasn’t her own doing at all.
What exactly had she been through these eighteen years?
How did Brenda Hayes, an ordinary working–class woman, manage to cultivate a “fake
genius“?
How did someone with no money and no background discover her daughter was a
prodigy?
There had to be other secrets.
The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
Back in my room, I opened my laptop, my fingers flying across the keyboard, typing
lines of code.
11:57 Sat, Oct 18 M
…
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The mind Fate had granted me didn’t just make me a bookworm.
Masking my IP, I silently infiltrated the city’s education system database.
The first thing I found was Serena’s file.
The file was unnervingly clean.
Average grades from childhood, no competition awards whatsoever.
Her “genius” seemed to have been conjured out of thin air on my birthday.
The trail seemed to end there.
Unwilling to give up, I started tracking Brenda Hayes.
What secrets could an ordinary woman possibly have?
I hacked into her bank account, watching rows of transaction records scroll by.
But they were all trivial–utility bills, shopping expenses.
Just as I was losing heart and preparing to give up, a transfer record from three months
ago pierced my eyes.
A massive sum: five hundred thousand dollars!
It came from an unfamiliar company account, deposited into Brenda’s personal
account.
And the name of that company was all too familiar.
It was my dad’s biggest rival–the Davis Group.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
11:57 Sat, Oct 18 …
This whole thing was far more complicated than I’d imagined.
This was absolutely not a simple family reunion drama.
What were they trying to do?
Have Serena replace me, snatch the scholarship, then publicly spread a scandalous “true and fake heiress” story to make the Blackwood family the laughingstock of the
entire business world!
All to attack my dad’s company in the media, then seize the Southside development project we were currently bidding for!
What a brilliant move to undermine us at our core!
As I was thinking, my phone vibrated on the table.
It was a text from an unknown number, just a brief message.
“Ten tonight, coffee shop behind the school. Don’t let anyone know.”
The sender was Julian.
I stared at the text, my heart pounding uncontrollably.
A moment later, another text arrived.
“Don’t let anyone but me know about your investigation.“”
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