Reborn to Ruin the Perfect Fake Heiress novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Footage Night

The relatives watch Savannah plant the brooch and hear the $80 memo; Cadence walks out with her suitcase, then learns her cloud files were deleted from the family iPad.

The relatives crowded into the doorway of the living room to watch.

On the big screen, Savannah crept through my bedroom in her silk nightgown.

She glanced at my bed, and then she knelt by my suitcase.

She unzipped the lining, slid the emerald brooch inside, and zipped it shut.

The timestamp in the corner read 1:47 a.m.

Nobody said a word.

One of my aunts put her fork down on a plate she was still carrying.

Savannah's face went white, and then red.

"That's fake," she said. "She edited it. She's a thief, and she made that."

"Sav," Colton said slowly. "Is that your nightgown?"

"It's an AI thing, Colton. They can make anything now."

"Is it?" He stared at the screen. "Because that's the one from Aspen."

I tapped my phone again.

My own voice came out of the TV speakers, clear and small.

"Is eighty dollars really what Mom and Dad give me?"

Then Savannah's voice, cool and bright.

"I'm holding the rest so you don't blow it. Then eat less. You managed before."

The room made a sound leaving all at once.

"Eighty?" my aunt said. "Phillip, you told us she gets eight thousand."

Dad stood at the head of the table with his napkin crushed in his fist.

"Turn that off," he said. "Now."

"The authorization forms are in my email." I held up the phone. "Mom signed every one of them. Eight thousand a month, payee Savannah, three months running."

Mom said, "Cadence."

It was very quiet. She wasn't looking at the TV. She was looking at the carpet.

"It was a household arrangement," she said. "Savannah understands our budget better than you do. It's a misunderstanding, and we are not discussing it in front of the family."

"I'm not asking you to discuss it. I asked for the police."

"Nobody is calling the police." Dad's voice had dropped. "This is a family matter."

"A minute ago it was grand larceny."

A cousin snorted and covered it with a cough.

Savannah grabbed Colton's sleeve.

"You can't believe her. I'm the one who held this family together while she was gone. She's been waiting a year to do this to me."

Colton looked at her wrist.

"Where'd you get the bracelet?" he said.

"It was a gift."

"From who?"

"From Mom."

"I didn't give you a bracelet," Mom said, too fast. Then she shut her mouth.

My aunt turned all the way around.

"Joan," she said. "What did you give her?"

Dad slammed his palm flat on the table, and the glasses jumped.

"Savannah, upstairs. We'll deal with this tonight, in private. Everyone else, finish your dinner."

Nobody picked up a fork.

I walked past the long table and put the emerald brooch down next to Dad's wineglass.

"That's Grandma's," I said. "You might want to ask her who she gave it to."

Then I went upstairs, and nobody followed.

My suitcase was in the hall where the housekeeper had left it.

I zipped the lining shut. There was nothing in it but my three sweaters and my laptop.

When I came down, the front hall was full of people trying to look like they weren't listening.

Mom stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"Where do you think you're going?" she said.

"Somewhere I get more than eighty dollars."

"You can't just leave."

"You can't send your daughter eighty dollars a month and call it a household arrangement," I said. "I'm twenty. I can leave."

She said, quietly, so only I heard it, "Think about that. Think hard. You have nowhere to go."

I almost laughed.

In my last life she had been right.

"I have somewhere," I said, and opened the door.

A gray hatchback was idling at the curb with its hazards on.

Luka got out and took my suitcase without asking.

"Let's go," he said. "You look like you haven't had dinner."

"I had a shrimp," I said. "Colton peeled it for someone else."

He laughed, and it came out surprised.

I sat in the passenger seat with my phone in both hands, and for the first time in two lives I let out a long shaky breath.

The phone buzzed on my knee.

A notification from my cloud drive.

Three files deleted. Device: Family iPad, Kitchen.

The voice memo, the camera clips, and the forms.

I had not touched any of them.

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