The Fake Heiress & Her Billionaire Ex

I'm a fake heiress. The real heir came home and spent day one, coldfaced, pushing our parents to throw me out.

But when we ran into each other in the living room, the whole richfamily showdown went sideways.

He tipped his head back and cried like a boiling kettle. "Baby, I finally found you!" My whole family stared at each other. My entire body did one big, dramatic shudder.

Why did this real heir and the exboyfriend I dumped… have the exact same face!

Chapter 1 When Grandpa called to tell me I wasn't a Montgomery by blood, I had just dropped one million dollars on a diamond brooch and was headed home to show it off to Mom and Dad.

By the time he finished talking, my brain had bluescreened. "So… the real heir is already sitting in our living room?" Grandpa sighed, pity thick in his voice. "I've met the kid.

A twofaced little schemer, and a skilled one. With your brain, sweetheart, you can't win." Leave it to Grandpa to stab me right in the ego. I hung up and floored it home. Mrs.

Higgins opened the door, saw it was me, and blocked the doorway, torn. "Miss, why are you back so early?" From the living room came warm, happy chatter.

Mixed in with it, Mom's pleased laughter. My heart sank. We're an oldmoney legacy family. Bloodline is everything in this house. For twenty years, I was the only daughter.

The heir. Mom and Dad groomed me to take over everything. They even arranged an engagement for me, to shore the family up. But now… Ding. A text lit up my phone. [Preston: Vivienne.

Meet me tomorrow. We need to talk about calling off the engagement.] Preston Worthington. My arranged fiancé, the man who almost never texted. I sighed and typed back one word.

Fine. I hadn't even made it through the front door, and the breakup beat me to it. I stepped forward to walk in.

The real heir's voice drifted out. "Blood is thicker than water, after all." "By every measure, she should go back to her birth parents. Don't you agree, Mom?

Dad?" His voice was low and even, with a coldness that left no room for argument. And it sounded strangely familiar.

My parents hesitated. "But Vivi has been ours for more than twenty years…" The real heir spoke again. "You'll get used to it." "She has to leave sooner or later, doesn't she?" "Or would you rather keep lying to her until she ends up hating you?" Grandpa was right.

This real heir was a twofaced schemer with a knife made of silk. A few soft sentences, and my parents' defenses caved. "As for her room, why not turn it into a storage room?

Out of sight, out of mind." That did it. I couldn't stand out there one more second. I pushed past the staff and walked in, jaw tight. "Mom, Dad.

Do we have company?" They saw me and traded a guilty look. In the end, Mom steeled herself.

She stood and took my hand. "Vivi, sweetheart… the truth is, you're not our biological daughter." Dad rushed to pull the real heir to his feet.

Chapter 2 "This is your brother, Lucian Sterling. You two should get acquainted. Bond a little." Lucian Sterling? My eyelid twitched. Something in my gut said run.

The real heir turned around, slow. And showed me the one handsome face I couldn't scrub out of my head if I died trying. I froze like I'd been struck by lightning.

This was the man from my years abroad. The man who hounded me, begged me, would not take no on marriage. The tenfigure exboyfriend I dumped.

The second he saw me, everything in Lucian's eyes changed. Shock first. Then pure, unhinged delight. His eyes lit up with something almost feral.

Lucian and I started because I fell for his face first. The year I went abroad on a study program, he was the rising star of Dubai's business world. Famously immune to women.

To get close to him, I interviewed my way into his company. I became his assistant. That's when I learned the truth. Lucian wasn't immune to women.

He was just a cold, boring work machine with no life at all! I wore bodycon minis. I pulled out every trick I had. His eyes stayed glued to his files.

Finally, one night, driving him home, I couldn't hold it in. "Boss, besides work, don't you ever want a nightlife?" Lucian finally spared me a glance. "Such as?" I lit up, and the words came tumbling out. "Street racing!

There's a race on the west side. Want to go?" The "no" never made it out of his mouth. I floored it. The strip was chaos.

Cars tearing forward, engines screaming, everyone chasing the adrenaline high.

I stepped out in a pink bodycon dress and skyhigh stilettos and met his eyes through the windshield. "Well, Boss?

How does it feel?" Lucian stepped out with all his dignity intact and draped his jacket over my shoulders. "Not bad." Cold as ever, out loud. But his eyes were burning.

After that, everything fell into place. Weekend races. Kisses in front of the rose fields. It was all perfect.

Until the day he knelt in front of me holding a ring and a transfer agreement for his entire company. That's when I realized I'd played myself. The damn man was hopelessly lovesick!

This was supposed to be casual. Who told him to get serious? It scared me so bad I left him exactly one word. "Bored." And bought a redeye back to the States that same night.

Back in the present, I stared at Lucian, my face doing something complicated. If I'd known he was my parents' actual son, I would never have flirted with him.

Not if you killed me first. Lucian stared straight at me, eyes blazing. My mouth twitched. I stepped back on instinct. Honestly?

Compared to living under one roof with my ex, I'd rather take my chances with a stranger.

Decision made, I put on my most understanding face. "Mom, Dad, my brother is right." "I should move out for a while!

Give you all some time to bond." Chapter 3 Mom and Lucian answered at the same time. "No!" Lucian grabbed my hand, urgent. "Baby, hotels these days are filthy.

It's not safe out there." "And your skin flares up at everything! If something happened to you, what would I do?!" He rattled off a whole list of dangers.

My parents just stared, dazed. I glared at him. Hard. Lucian finally got a grip. He gave a dignified little cough and gestured for Mom to go ahead.

Mom opened her mouth and discovered he'd already said everything for her. After a long pause, she squeezed out one line. "Right!

Home is more comfortable anyway." I couldn't resist poking. "But wait. I can't exactly sleep in the storage room, can I?" Lucian's pupils shrank. His face went white.

He looked about two seconds from shattering. "Baby, that's not what I meant, I…" "I meant I want the storage room. It's small. Very secure. I love it in there." Mom and Dad: ???

Why was this child suddenly talking nonsense? While the standoff hung in the air, Mrs. Higgins made an executive decision.

She scooped up Lucian's bags and bolted for the stairs. "I'll go set up the storage room for the young master right now!" I pinched the bridge of my nose, sighed, and called after her. "Just make up the third bedroom upstairs." Bright, sunny, facing the morning light.

Lucian had always liked rooms like that. Sure enough, the second he heard the order came from me, he snatched his luggage back from Mrs.

Higgins and jogged upstairs to unpack, glowing. My parents exhaled at the same time. They pulled me down onto the couch.

Mom told me she'd given birth the same day as my birth mother. Afterward they'd shared the same recovery room. A nurse mixed the babies up.

She also said my birth parents hadn't been well off. "Vivi, Luc grew up poor. He hasn't seen much of the world. Be patient with him." I stared at her, stunned. Hold on. Who's poor?

His fortune abroad hit ten figures! Then it clicked. Lucian wore that iceberg face yearround, but in high society, he played every room exactly the way it needed playing.

For a while, I used to trash him behind his back as a twofaced ice prince.

Clearly he'd been playing the sympathy card, spinning my parents a sob story to shove the fake heiress out the door faster. Except surprise. I was the fake heiress.

That night I lay in bed, and my whole head was that face. Then my door cracked open.

Lucian crept in clutching a bag of dry rice, spread it on the floor by my bed, and dropped to his knees on it with a thud. My mouth twitched.

I got up to pull him off the floor. "What are you doing?" The cold, severe man cried like a twohundredpound child. "Baby, I have sinned.

I repent." "Baby, don't leave me again." "I don't want the inheritance. For you, I'll do anything!" I sighed. A whole year, and he was still the same disaster?

I clapped a hand over that boilingkettle wail.

Chapter 4 "Are you really my parents' son?" Lucian took the opening and folded his hand around mine. "Yes." But when I asked about my own birth parents, his eyes slid away.

In the end he gave me exactly one sentence. "Baby, your parents were street vendors. But they weren't as simple as they looked." I pushed. He wouldn't say another word.

It itched at me, so I shoved him out the door then and there. A man and a woman alone in a bedroom at this hour? Scandalous.

Lucian shuffled off, looking back at me every other step. He left. I didn't sleep all night. The next day, I drove to the restaurant to meet Preston.

The first thing out of his mouth was canceling the engagement. I agreed on the spot. It was an arranged match. There were never any feelings in it. My easy yes seemed to bother him.

He put on a pitying face. "Vivienne, don't be too heartbroken. A man of my status is simply out of your league now." I couldn't be bothered. I stood to leave.

Preston added, "But my mom says she doesn't mind you being the mistress." The hell! My knee cracked against the table.

I rubbed it. "Your mom, your mom, your mom… so openminded?" Preston flicked his hair and shot me a greasy, tryhard smirk. He opened his mouth to keep going.

Then his eyes caught on something behind me. Before I could turn, a hand snatched the water glass off the table and threw it in Preston's face.

Lucian stood at my side, face like ice, fury rolling off him. "Get lost!" The curse had barely landed before he crouched down to rub my sore knee, cooing Baby, Baby under his breath.

Preston lost it. He started screaming. "Vivienne Montgomery!

Engaged to me, and you've got a side piece!" "Believe me, I will tell your parents!" "And I hear the Montgomerys' real heir has wanted you gone since the day he walked in!" Lucian's eyes went wide.

He grabbed the whole pitcher off the table and dumped it over Preston's head. "Every word out of your mouth is garbage!" Then he spun to me, panicked, words tumbling out. "I'm not!

I didn't! He's making it up!" Preston's face turned green. He pointed at the two of us, shaking. "Side piece… just you wait!" "Baby, your exfiancé's brain has shortcircuited.

Pick me instead!" The whole drive home, Lucian ran comparisons between himself and Preston. I leaned back with my eyes closed and gave him the occasional lazy mmhm.

Because minutes earlier, my phone had blown up with dozens of messages. [Miss Montgomery, quick interview: what's it like being a fake heiress?] [No way.

The fake heiress keeps a side piece too?] Preston's handiwork, obviously. The Montgomerys and the Worthingtons ran in the same circles. Same friends, same parties.

One whiff of scandal, and everyone knew by dinner. I was sick of it. I shut my phone off and turned to Lucian. "Your welcomehome gala. Is it this Friday?" He said yes.

Then he winked at me. "I have a surprise planned for my Baby at that gala." Chapter 5