Chapter 3

The young lady stood under the lights, lifting her chin to meet my stare. "Elodie, if you're Mr. Chapman's daughter, what does that make me?"

There was something so familiar about her face that it caught me off guard. Wasn't this the young lady who'd taken pictures with Dad and strongly resembled him? How could she be so certain and bold as to challenge me in front of the whole school?

My gaze snagged on the collar of the shirt peeking out under her uniform. It was a pale pink shirt with a small tangerine embroidered on the collar.

I remembered treasuring that shirt more than anything else before I lost it!

My heart tightened with anger. What in the world was going on?

"Who are you? Where did you come from?"

My voice passed through the microphone and filled every corner of the assembly hall. The students below the stage hurled abuse at me when they heard my questions.

"Annabel is an honor student at this school. Everyone knows how much her father loves her, yet you come in here impersonating her!

"No wonder she's asked us to gather in the hall! This impostor is too shameless for Annabel to take down alone!"

Annabel flashed me a smug smile. She made her way onto the stage. "Everyone knows my dad donated a library to the school in my honor. He loves me too much to break my heart.

"I don't know where you came from, young lady, but you'd best put a stop to this nonsense. Be better and stop envying others for their happiness."

Upon hearing this, the audience who'd rallied behind Annabel immediately snapped at me like sharks in bloody water, "Maybe she's an orphan who came here looking for her new parents! Some people have no shame!"

"Did she say she was the Chapman family's heiress? Annabel obviously takes after Mr. Chapman, but not this impostor! She looks nothing like him!"

"Annabel did mention that Elodie is only half a year younger than her. Even if Mr. Chapman had cheated, Elodie would be an illegitimate daughter, at best! She's not the real deal!"

They were warping the facts. Dad and I were blood-related—that much I was certain. He and Mom were definitely husband and wife, their marriage licensed and certified.

"Is there any proof that what you said was true? Gregory Chapman is my biological father, and I'm his legitimate, biological daughter." I pulled up all the pictures I'd taken with Dad on my phone and showed them to the crowd.

They all grimaced at the pictures. "Given how advanced photo-editing technology has become, I could claim to be Mr. Chapman's son and fabricate as many pictures as I want without breaking a sweat."

"Come on, genetics don't lie. Annabel is practically wearing Mr. Chapman's face at this point. What do you have to back up your claims? A DNA test? I doubt you'd get a meeting with Mr. Chapman even if you tried!"

Smirking, Annabel drawled sarcastically, "Who do you think you are? Did you believe you could claim any relation with my dad just because you have a few edited pictures?"

My head spun. I had no idea what trump card Annabel had up her sleeve that encouraged her to make a scene here and risk a major defeat.

Frustrated by how well-prepared she seemed, I retorted, "You impersonated me, then kicked up a huge drama over this. What are you trying to accomplish?"

Annabel shoved me aggressively and bit out, "Taking back my identity, of course!"

…

Pictures of Annabel and Gregory began to play on the large screen on stage.

There were shots of her in sparkly, poofy dresses as a little girl, then shots of her in her current school uniform. It was a montage of their shared father-daughter moments.

A well-dressed woman appeared on the other end of the stage. She held up a marriage certificate before the audience. "This is my marriage certificate to prove I'm Gregory's wife. Annabel is my daughter, and the three of us are a family!"

That was impossible! Why would this woman have proof of her marriage to Dad?

I wanted to snatch the marriage certificate from her to take a good look at it, but she had an image of it projected on the large screen. The certificate even bore an official stamp!

Panic seized me at once. I thought about how I'd never seen my mom and dad's marriage certificate in all these years.