Reborn to Ruin the Perfect Fake Heiress novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Brooch
Cadence is reborn the day before her sister frames her, records the skim and sets a camera; at the dinner she asks for the police and plugs her phone into the TV.
I was starving under an interstate overpass when I scrolled past the thread.
The question was, "What's the worst thing you ever did to someone who trusted you?"
The top comment had forty thousand likes.
"My parents found their real daughter last year, but they kept me too. I offered to manage her allowance. Mom wires eight thousand a month. I send the girl eighty."
Someone asked what happened to the real daughter.
"I hid Grandma's emerald brooch in her suitcase and called her a thief. They threw her out. She's probably dead in a ditch by now."
Under it was a photo of a gold bracelet on a thin wrist.
"Bought with the real heiress's money. So pretty."
My phone died, and I closed my eyes.
When I opened them, I was lying on clean sheets in my old bedroom in the Thayer house.
My phone was fully charged, and the date was the day before the dinner where I got thrown out.
Tomorrow night my sister Savannah would cry that Grandma's emerald brooch was missing.
The housekeeper would find it zipped inside my suitcase lining.
My father would shout that trash never changes, and I would be on the sidewalk by ten.
My phone buzzed.
A Zelle payment from Savannah Thayer. Eighty dollars. Memo: "Monthly allowance!"
Eighty dollars was less than three a day.
That was subway fare, toothpaste, and bruised fruit from the discount bin.
Someone knocked softly.
"Cadence? Are you awake?"
Savannah stood in the hall in a silk slip, with a gold bracelet on her wrist.
It was the bracelet from the photo.
I slid my phone into my pajama pocket and started a voice memo.
"I sent your allowance," she said. "Make sure you accept it."
"Is eighty dollars really what Mom and Dad give me?"
Her smile slipped for half a second and came back.
"You just got home, Cadence. I'm holding the rest so you don't blow it. For safekeeping."
"How much is the rest?"
"What does it matter? Mom and Dad raised me for twenty years. Who do you think they'll believe?"
"Eighty isn't enough to eat on."
She laughed. "Then eat less. You managed before."
She patted my shoulder on her way out. "Don't embarrass Mom and Dad tomorrow."
When the door clicked shut, I uploaded the memo to my cloud drive.
Then I emailed the family's wealth manager, who had run the Thayer accounts for ten years.
I wrote that my financial aid office wanted proof of my living expenses.
Half an hour later I had three months of authorization forms.
Authorized by Joan Thayer.
Payee: Savannah Thayer.
Amount: $8,000.00.
Memo: Cadence's living expenses, to be managed and disbursed by Savannah.
I stared at the zeros for a long time.
Mom had signed it. She just didn't know where it went. I held on to that.
I forwarded everything to Luka Kinney, a law student I knew from the campus legal clinic.
In my old life he had texted me the night I was thrown out, and my phone was already shut off.
This time he picked up on the second ring.
I told him all of it, and he went silent for a few seconds.
"Are you sure she'll plant it tomorrow?"
"I'm sure. In my suitcase."
"Then do two things tonight," Luka said. "Don't touch any of her jewelry. And put a camera where it only sees your door and your suitcase. Nothing near the bathroom. Lies don't mind tears, Cadence. They hate timestamps."
I bought two small cameras that afternoon.
When I came home, Mom was in the sunroom arranging white hydrangeas.
She looked at my shopping bag. "More unnecessary spending?"
"It was forty dollars."
"Savannah says you've been complaining about money." She sighed. "Cadence, you have to learn to manage yourself."
"Mom, do you know how much I actually get a month?"
Her face closed. "Savannah handles your allowance. Don't make me regret trusting her."
"And if she isn't giving it to me?"
"Why is your mind always so twisted?"
She snipped a stem and didn't look at me.
"One more thing. Anything with your name on it goes through your father's office until you turn twenty-one. That includes whatever your college sends you. His office has already been told."
At 1:47 a.m., my phone buzzed.
In the gray night-vision picture, Savannah slipped through my door in her nightgown.
I kept my eyes shut.
She stepped to my suitcase, unzipped the lining, and tucked the emerald brooch inside.
The next evening, the dining room was full of relatives.
Colton Stuyvesant sat beside Savannah, peeling a shrimp for her. My grandfather had once promised him to me.
Halfway through the main course, Savannah touched her collarbone.
"Where's my brooch?" Her voice shook. "Grandma's emerald one."
Then she looked straight at me.
The housekeeper went upstairs and came back carrying my suitcase.
She unzipped the lining, and the emerald flashed under the chandelier.
"Cadence," Savannah sobbed. "How could you?"
Dad slammed his fist on the table. "We brought you home to steal from us?"
This was the moment where I used to cry and beg.
So I stood up and wiped my mouth with my napkin.
"Call the police."
"You think I'm a thief, so call them. Let them check the footage in my room."
Savannah rushed in. "Cadence, I don't want to press charges! You blew through your eight thousand dollars, and I couldn't give you more. You could have just asked me!"
Perfect.
She had said the number herself, in front of everyone.
I plugged my phone into the big TV in the next room.
On the screen, a silk nightgown slipped through my bedroom door at 1:47 a.m.
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