1 The moment I stepped through the wrought-iron gates of the university after years living abroad, a wall of bodies blocked my path. The girl leading the pack held herself with a razor-thin, aggressive arrogance, surrounded by a court of sycophants who addressed her with sickening deference as "Miss Hayes." Her eyes locked onto the limited-edition leather handbag on my arm, her lip curling into a sneer. "So you're the cheap little thing using your face to seduce my brother? You really had the nerve to intercept the bag I ordered?" The ring of lackeys instantly took their cue, closing in like vultures. "Gold-diggers these days—they’ll do anything for cash!" "Trying to claw your way into the Hayes family is one thing, but stealing from Nina? Do you have any idea who she is? She’s the Hayes heiress!" "Hand over the bag and get on your knees to apologize, or we’ll make sure you’re expelled before the semester even starts!" Listening to them shower the girl at the center with relentless, rehearsed flattery, a cold laugh bubbled up in my chest. She’s the Hayes heiress? Then who on earth am I? I pulled out my phone, my fingers flying across the screen as I shot a message to my brother, Harrison. When did Mom and Dad have a third child? How come I didn't know I had a little sister? Harrison’s reply came back almost instantly. Did jet lag completely fry your brain? Mom and Dad only have the two of us. Where the hell would a third kid come from? I glanced up from the screen, surveying the girl in front of me. Her makeup was meticulously applied, designed to project an aura of unapproachable wealth, yet there wasn't a single shred of family resemblance in her features or her posture. A vague suspicion began to take shape in my mind, but I typed out another text to Harrison anyway. Well, if there isn't a third child, why am I currently cornered at the campus gate by a 'Miss Hayes' and her personal mob? The chat bubble bounced with "Harrison is typing..." for a long, agonizing moment before a wall of frantic text flooded my screen. Miss Hayes? You didn't run into Nina Frost, did you? Jesus Christ, I am so sick of her! She's doing the heiress act again? Just because Mom and Dad took pity on her and paid her tuition for a few years, she actually convinced herself she’s a Hayes! It’s all because Mom has a soft heart. Every time Nina pulls out the waterworks and plays the tragic orphan, Mom melts and lets her get away with using our family name to strut around town. Audrey, ignore her. If she steps out of line or tries to get in your face, just put her in her place! That's what I always do. I had known about the underprivileged student my parents were sponsoring. Back then, I was living in London, taking care of our aging grandparents, while Harrison was constantly traveling for work. We were both worried our parents would feel lonely in an empty house, so we encouraged the idea, thinking it would be nice for them to have a young person around to keep them company. I had assumed the girl would be quiet, modest, and at least somewhat grateful. I certainly hadn't expected her to use the Hayes reputation to terrorize people on campus. Reading Harrison’s breathless tirade, it was clear his patience with Nina Frost had run out long ago. The image of my usually untouchable brother being exasperated by a fake heiress was almost absurd enough to be funny. Seeing me staring down at my phone instead of cowering, Nina’s eyes flashed with anger. She snapped her fingers at one of her followers. The girl caught the signal immediately, lunging forward with her hand raised, aiming a hard slap at my face. I took a sharp step back, dodging the blow effortlessly, and raised an eyebrow at Nina. "What's the rush? Don't you want to check your phone first?" Before Nina could snap back, the cell phone in her coat pocket broke into a sharp, loud ring. Her gaze dropped to the screen, and for a fraction of a second, her face froze. But she recovered quickly, smoothing her expression into a triumphant, self-assured smirk. She tapped the screen and brought the phone to her ear, taking the offensive before the caller could utter a word. "Harrison! You won't believe how rude that new girlfriend of yours is being to me! She’s acting like this already, so imagine how unbearable she'll be once she thinks she’s established! Are you calling because she ran to you with some fake sob story?" Her calculated performance was cut short by my brother's furious voice booming through the speaker, loud enough for half the crowd to hear. "Nina, what kind of delusional garbage is coming out of your mouth?! Do you have any idea who Audrey is?! Apologize to her right now!" Nina hadn't anticipated that her carefully constructed narrative would be met with total rage. Her face turned pale, her tone instantly shifting to a pathetic, wounded whine. "Harrison, I’m saying this for your own good! She’s just a gold-digger! Why can't you see through her? Just because our family has money doesn't mean we should let a woman like her throw it around! You should be making her apologize to me and hand over that bag! If you don't, I'm calling Mom right now to tell her everything, and I'm never speaking to you again!" 2 In the past, whenever Nina and Harrison bumped heads, she would run straight to our mother, weeping and playing the helpless victim until my mother forced Harrison to apologize. Because it had worked every single time, Nina was utterly convinced that invoking our mother’s name was her ultimate trump card. Hearing her bring up our mother again lit a fuse inside Harrison. "Nina, have you completely lost your mind?" he spat into the receiver. "Go ahead. Call Mom. I’d love to see if she takes your side this time!" The line went dead with a harsh click. The silence that followed was suffocating. Seeing Harrison’s furious reaction, the followers standing around Nina began to shift uncomfortably. Harrison Hayes was the publicly acknowledged heir to the Hayes empire. Even if Nina was the prized daughter of the family, none of them wanted to risk standing on the wrong side of the future CEO. Nina’s eyes brimmed with tears of humiliation and rage. Looking at her hesitant, cowering lackeys, she gritted her teeth and stomped her heel against the pavement. Realizing she had lost her leverage for the moment, she glared at me with pure venom and turned on her heel to leave. "Wait," I called out, my voice cutting through the quiet. "Your name is Nina Frost, right?" I paused, letting my gaze drift over her. "If you're the great Hayes heiress... why isn't your last name Hayes?" A flicker of panic crossed her face, but she forced her chin up, adopting a sneer of supreme superiority. "What would someone like you know about high society? I took my mother's maiden name!" "My parents are deeply in love," she added smoothly, regaining her footing. "They decided long ago that one child would take my father's surname, and the other would take my mother's." It took everything in me not to laugh out loud. My parents were deeply in love, but they certainly never made an agreement like that. My father’s name was Richard Hayes, and my mother’s name was Eleanor Hayes. Whether a child took the father's name or the mother's, the result was precisely the same. Nina was clearly banking on the fact that my mother preferred to stay out of the public eye, assuming almost no one on campus knew her full maiden name, allowing her to spin whatever ridiculous narrative she pleased. I forced down the amusement threatening to break through and tilted my head in mock confusion. "Is that so? That’s funny—I could have sworn the matriarch of the Hayes family wasn't named Frost. Did I remember it wrong?" Hearing me reference her benefactor's real background, Nina’s composure cracked for a split second. But then she seemed to remind herself that a girl like me—someone she had already categorized as a middle-class climber—couldn't possibly have access to the inner circles of the elite. She bolstered her courage, leaning in close with a harsh glare. "I am the daughter of the Hayes family. Do you really think you know my mother's name better than I do? Who are you to question me?" "Let me tell you something," she hissed. "As long as I say no, you will never, ever step foot through the doors of the Hayes estate!" Fearful that I might call Harrison back and expose her further, she spat out her warning and swept away, her followers trailing nervously behind her. I didn't bother stopping her. At the end of the day, Nina Frost was nothing more than a student my family funded out of charity. Once I got home and laid out the afternoon's antics in front of my mother, Nina’s true colors would be laid bare. Once the funding was cut, she would fade back into obscurity, never crossing paths with my family again. When I returned to the family estate after my afternoon classes, our long-time housekeeper, Martha, informed me that my mother was surprisingly tied up at the corporate headquarters, managing a rare late-night board meeting. My father, on the other hand, had returned early. The moment he saw me walk into the foyer, he beamed and hustled me straight into his study. "Audrey! Harrison told me everything. You’re back for good this time, right?" He pulled out the leather armchair behind his massive oak desk, ushering me into it with frantic enthusiasm. "This is fantastic. Now that you're finishing your degree locally, you can start taking over the company operations step by step! Once you can handle the board on your own, I can finally retire and take it easy." He patted my shoulder briskly. "Sit, sit! Look over these quarterlies, sweetheart. Dad’s going to fetch you some fresh fruit." I looked down at the mountain of financial audits and corporate filings stacked neatly on the desk, feeling an affectionate, exasperated sigh build in my throat. He was practically vibrating with excitement at the prospect of dumping his entire workload onto his daughter. Resigned, I sat down and began leafing through the balance sheets. When my father returned carrying a crystal bowl of freshly cut fruit, his smile widened into a warm, doting grin at the sight of me immersed in the files. 3 He set the bowl down beside my elbow, immediately stepping behind my chair to work out the knots in my shoulders before dropping down to rub my calves. "Oh, my hard-working Audrey," he coaxed gently. "Reviewing financial statements is exhausting. Come on, let Dad feed you a bite of melon." I leaned back, turning my head to take the piece of fruit he was holding out, when a faint, metallic click echoed from the doorway. Snap. My head jerked toward the noise just in time to see a flash of a phone camera and a dark silhouette sprinting away down the corridor. It was Nina. I frowned, watching the empty doorway, before turning to my father. "Is Nina Frost living here?" My father nodded, completely unbothered as he picked up another slice of fruit. "The girl mentioned that staying here made her commute to the university easier. Your mother was feeling a bit lonely with the house so quiet, so she agreed to let her use the guest wing." I gave a silent nod, letting the matter rest for the moment. The decision to support Nina had been my mother's; it was only right that I discuss her behavior with my mother directly. When my mother finally returned late that evening, she wrapped me in a suffocating embrace the second she walked through the door. She spent the next two hours fussing over my health, asking about my flight, and plying me with tea, completely overwhelming me with maternal fussing until the topic of Nina slid right out of my mind. It wasn't until the following afternoon, when I ran into Nina on campus, that the situation flared back up. I had assumed that after Harrison’s sharp rebuke the day before, Nina would have the sense to keep her distance. Instead, she cornered me right outside the lecture hall, creating a scene in front of dozens of gathering students. "You shameless little parasite!" she shrieked, her voice echoing down the corridor. "I knew you were after my family's money! How can anyone be so disgusting? It wasn't enough for you to crawl around my brother—now you're going after my father?!" She pointed a trembling, manic finger at my face. "I thought if Harrison really fell for you, I’d swallow my pride and tolerate you! But you actually had the nerve to lay a trap for my dad! If I don't put you in your place today on behalf of my mother, I wouldn't be able to live with myself!" Her outburst caused an instant stir. Even the classmates standing beside her exchanged bewildered glances. "Nina, are you serious?" one of her friends whispered loudly. "It’s one thing to go after Harrison, but Mr. Richard Hayes? He’s old enough to be her father! Why would she..." A dark, vicious spark glinted in Nina’s eyes. She let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "Why wouldn't she? You don't know what these gold-diggers are capable of when there's a fortune on the line! They have zero shame!" "You think I'm making this up?" she bellowed, her voice reaching a crescendo as she ripped an envelope from her bag and slung a stack of glossy photographs into the air. "I saw it with my own eyes! I have proof!" The photo prints scattered across the floor. I glanced down at the one that landed near my shoe. It was the shot she had snuck from the doorway of my father’s study. Taken from a low, angled perspective through the cracked door, the framing was maliciously deceptive: it made it look as though I was lounging in my father's lap while he tenderly fed me fruit. The surrounding students scrambled to pick up the pictures, and as they took in the images, the looks thrown in my direction shifted from curiosity to sharp, disgust-laden judgment. "Gross... she must be completely desperate for money." "She’s got a pretty face, but she’s using it to pull something this vile? Seducing the son wasn't enough, so she moved on to the father?" "Does she think Mrs. Hayes is dead or something? She’s not going to wind up rich; she’s going to wind up in prison." Listening to the whispers spiral into increasingly absurd accusations, my jaw tightened. I opened my mouth, intent on ending the delusion by declaring my actual identity. Before I could speak, a blur of motion lunged from my side. PAK! A sharp, stinging blow cracked across my left cheek, forcing my head to the side. I froze, the sting radiating across my skin. In my entire life, protected and cherished by a family that adored me, no one had ever laid a finger on me. The shock lasted half a second before raw, blinding rage swept through my veins. Abandoning any thought of diplomatic explanations, I surged forward, grabbing Nina by the collar of her jacket and shoving her back with enough force to send her crashing against the row of lockers. Her lackeys snapped out of their stupor and rushed forward, their hands grabbing at my arms, trying to pin me down. But having spent my formative years riding horses and training with private instructors in Europe, I wasn't about to be manhandled by a group of entitled college bullies. Ignoring the stray scratches and blows landing on my shoulders, I twisted out of their grip, reached over, grabbed Nina by the hair, and landed a hard, solid right hook square across her face. The hallway dissolved into chaos. Screams, gasps, and the scraping of metal lockers echoed off the walls. The professor standing at the podium tried to yell over the din, but seeing that the fight was rapidly escalating out of control, he scrambled for his phone and dialed the Academic Dean. The Dean arrived within minutes, shouting for everyone to stop, but the crowd was too dense and chaotic for his voice to carry weight. Panicked, he pulled out his phone and dialed the emergency contact listed on Nina’s primary file—my mother. The moment the call connected, Nina, her face bruised and her hair a tangled mess, threw herself toward the phone and let out a blood-curdling wail. "Mom! You have to come right now! I caught Dad's mistress on campus, and she's trying to kill me!" 4 My mother, of course, didn't believe for a second that my father was having an affair. But hearing the Dean’s panicked, vague summary that Nina had gotten into a violent physical altercation with another female student, she immediately dropped everything and rushed to the campus. By the time she arrived, the faculty had managed to pull us apart. The Dean stood between us, his brow furrowed deep with frustration as he tried to piece together the situation. Nina, tears streaming down her bruised cheeks, launched into her grievance with tragic theatricality. "Dean Campbell! I didn't start this fight—she drove me to it!" she sobbed, clutching her chest. "Any daughter who sees a home-wrecker flaunting herself in front of her family would lose control!" She snatched one of the scattered photographs off the floor and thrust it under the Dean’s nose. "Look at this! Look at what she was doing with my father!" Dean Campbell took the photo, glancing down at the image. His brows pulled together tighter, a look of profound discomfort crossing his features. He turned to me, his breath drawing in as if preparing to deliver a stern reprimand. "Dean Campbell," I interrupted, my tone icy cold as I met his eyes. "Before you say anything, I suggest you pull up my university enrollment profile." The Dean hesitated, catching the absolute authority in my voice. Dubious, he pulled his tablet from under his arm, logged into the administrative portal, and brought up my student file. He skimmed the first few lines. Then his eyes widened. He looked at the digital file—listing my full legal name, Audrey Hayes, and my parents, Richard and Eleanor Hayes—and then looked back up at Nina, his face instantly draining of color. His posture shifted from irritation to absolute fury as he turned on Nina. "What is the meaning of this spectacle?! You know nothing, yet you're standing in a university hallway publicly fabricating filthy lies about another student! Do you realize this is defamation? Do you realize you can be prosecuted?!" Nina staggered back, stunned by the sudden turn of hostility from the administration. "Dean Campbell! What are you talking about?! Have you lost your mind?!" "She is destroying my family!" Nina screamed, her voice cracking with desperation. "How can you stand there and accuse me of lying?! I saw her with my own eyes! Is she paying you off?! Did she bribe you, or are you just too terrified of my father to punish his little side-piece?!" Dean Campbell, having just confirmed my identity, knew with absolute certainty that I was no mistress—I was the legitimate, blood heiress of the Hayes family. In the past, whenever Nina paraded around campus calling herself "Miss Hayes," the administration had assumed it was a private family matter regarding a distant relative or an unacknowledged branch, choosing not to pry into the personal lives of their primary benefactors. Now, looking at the real heiress standing bruised in front of him, the hideous truth was painfully obvious. The fake heiress had walked right up to the real one and attacked her in broad daylight. Yet Nina remained entirely blind to the reality crashing down around her, her arrogance driving her deeper into the trap. "Don't you know who I am?!" Nina shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at the Dean. "I am the daughter of Richard Hayes! You're just a dean! Do you really think my father is going to break up our family for a woman like her?" "I’m telling you, the second my father throws her out, your career at this university is over! Just wait until my mother gets here—let's see how bold you are then!" Dean Campbell actually let out a short, incredulous laugh. The sheer audacity was so absurd he didn't even know where to begin dressing her down. To Nina, however, his sudden silence looked like terrified submission. Feeling emboldened, she turned back to her group of followers, motioning for them to close in on me once more. "What are you waiting for? Teach this trash a lesson!" Before the girls could move, and before the Dean could intervene, the heavy double doors at the end of the hallway burst open. My mother, accompanied by two personal aides, hurried down the corridor. Nina’s face lit up with immediate relief. Casting aside any lingering fear of the Dean, she sprinted forward and threw herself into my mother’s arms, weeping hysterically. "Mom! You came!" "Look at her, Mom!" Nina sobbed, gesturing wildly over her shoulder. "She seduced Harrison, she stole my bag, she made Harrison scream at me yesterday, and now she’s trying to steal Dad! You have to stop her!" My mother’s eyes followed Nina’s shaking finger, landing on me—standing in the center of the crowd, my hair disheveled, my jacket torn, and a visible bruise blooming across my left cheekbone. A look of total, paralyzed shock washed over my mother's face. Nina, completely oblivious to the sudden chill in the air, reached into her pocket, pulled out one of the photos, and slapped it into my mother’s palm like a trophy. "Look, Mom! I caught them! I saw her sitting in Dad's lap, letting him feed her fruit in his study! You have to punish her! You can't let a parasite like this ruin our family!" The utter madness of her words broke through my mother’s usually gentle demeanor. A sharp, violent fury flushed through my mother's features. She grabbed Nina by the shoulders and shoved her back with shocking force. "Nina Frost, what insane nonsense are you spewing?!" my mother roared, her voice trembling with rage. "She is my daughter!"
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