You've Got To Be Kidding Me

Chapter 4 : You've Got To Be Kidding Me

PRESENT

I had taken a taxi all the way to Piper’s lodge.

This lodge was my supposed safe haven. My real home, if life hadn’t flipped upside down and branded me as the Black family’s long-lost daughter.

By the time the cab pulled away, I realized how tight my chest had been the entire ride. Like I had been underwater for a week and finally surfaced.

God, I missed the luxury of comfort and the certainty that nobody was lurking behind gilded doors to watch my every move, like in the Black Mansion.

There would be no one trying to put me in my place by being rude, I wouldn't need to be meticulous and ‘cultured’ in everything I do.

I raised my fist and pounded on the door harder than I meant to.

Piper opened it ajar, and I was startled at the abruptness.

“Oh… I thought you may be asleep?” I said as soon as I saw her.

She stood barefoot, drowning in oversized sweatpants and a hoodie three sizes too big, her eyes widened so far I thought they might actually fall out of her skull.

“Hannah?!” she squeaked.

Her gaze darted from my rumpled dress to my bare foot and finally back to my face. “What the hell are you doing here…dressed like this? Jesus Christ, where are your shoes?”

I forced a thin smile. “Aren’t you going to at least welcome me in? Or are you planning to keep me in the hallway like some unwanted delivery package?”

Piper didn’t laugh, her voice sharpened, cut with disbelief. “Don’t play cute. What are you even…no, scratch that.” She grabbed my wrist and yanked me inside before I could answer, slamming the door behind us with more force than necessary.

“Explain. Immediately.”

I exhaled and collapsed onto her sagging couch, clutching one of her throw pillows as if the faded cotton could shield me from the world I had just escaped.

She was seeing a K-Drama as always and I wondered if her life revolved around unrealistic drama, this is probably why her grade keeps dropping every semester.

“Apparently,” I said flatly, “surprise!!!” I waved my hand to express excitement and rolled my eyes just almost immediately.

Piper gawked at me like I had just walked in carrying a dead body. “I’ve been dying to hear from you, Hannah. Do you know how many times I’ve stalked gossip blogs just to get crumbs about what it’s like inside the Black mansion? And then you show up here, looking like you just crawled out of a soap opera catfight?”

“Because it sucks.” My voice cracked before I steadied it. “Being their daughter sucks.”

Her mouth fell open and her brows knitted so tightly it was almost comical.

Just in cue, a sound burst from her, it was like half a laugh, half a choke, sharp and ugly.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I rolled my eyes again in disbelief, my best friend is mocking my predicament.

“No, seriously,” she pressed, sitting on the edge of the coffee table as though proximity would confirm the truth. “You….you’re actually her, right? Like, the missing heiress? Hannah Black? It wasn’t a mistake, right? DNA confirmed?”

“Yeah, I am the fvcking daughter of the Black Family” I said a little bit distracted by the ongoing K-Drama, I was already intrigued by just a few scenes I saw.

Her eyes sparkled with disbelief and glee. “Oh my god.”

I groaned and buried my face deeper into the pillow. “Don’t do that” I cringed a bit, “You make it sound like some stupid headline from the media.”

“Because it is ridiculous!” she shot back, smacking my leg with one of her throw blankets. “You went from orphanage princess to billionaire’s daughter in a week? That’s not life, that’s N*****x bait. My K-Drama life”

I peeked at her over the pillow, unamused. “Trust me, it’s less N*****x and more low-budget horror flick.”

She plopped down beside me, curling her legs underneath her, eyes bright with mischief. “I don’t care. This is insane. You need to tell me everything…every single detail. And don’t you dare skip the juicy parts.”

I glanced at the TV again, and then she followed my eyes, she immediately picked the remote control and turned it off, “You can watch it in your mansion with a bigger screen later, right now…. You speak to me!”

I laughed sitting up, the weight of the week pressing against my chest like a stone. “Fine. You asked for it.”

The words spilled out of me faster than I expected, like a dam had broken.

I told her about the mansion’s suffocating grandeur, about Lily’s careful smiles and polite words that always seemed to hide something weird underneath.

How Lily had insisted I take her room, only for Ray to storm in later, furious about the switch.

“How does he ‘storm in’ exactly?” Piper asked, her eyebrows lifting.

“Oh God, Piper! How am I supposed to describe that?” I rubbed my temples. “Well, he has this way of making me feel like I’m trespassing in the house.”

I listed the small incidents, I started with the books I had left in the library that mysteriously went missing until Ray oh-so-helpfully pointed out they were ‘out of order’ and returned them.

I also explained to her about the way he corrected my table manners with clipped words, as though I hadn’t eaten at a table my whole life.

I told her about the ice in his gaze every time my parents reminded him I was their daughter.

Piper snorted. “So he’s basically auditioning for the role of Most Annoying Brother Alive?”

“More like executioner,” I muttered. “Every move I make, he’s there to criticize it, and Lily is just….” I trailed off, my throat tightening.

“What about Lily?” Piper asked, leaning closer.

“I feel like… she hasn’t… she hasn’t really accepted me. She smiles, but it feels fake, and sometimes I catch her watching me in an uncomfortable way, like I’m an imposter walking through her life.”

Piper frowned. “Sounds like she thinks you stole her spotlight.”

“Maybe I did,” I whispered.

Silence stretched between us, filled only by the muffled hum of traffic outside her window.

Then Piper nudged my arm. “Is that all?” she asked looking at my dress, that’s definitely not all”

I winced. “Three days ago, they told me I had to attend a banquet with them, which happened to be tonight.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Wait. You mean like… the banquet? Black family’s rich-people-gala thing?”

“Yeah.” I gave a weak laugh. “They decided it would be fun to announce to the world that I actually exist.”

“Oh my god.” She grabbed a pillow and hugged it like a life raft. “This is…Hannah, this is getting interesting.”

“Tell me about it.” I pulled my knees to my chest. “It turns out something happened”

Piper’s brows shot up. “What?”

I nodded, the memory still raw. “Lily gave me this necklace that Ray had given to her, she practically gave me everything I wore. Ray saw the necklace on me, accused me of stealing it and….” I paused thinking of how to explain it, “Well, it turns out Lily claimed I took it and she didn’t want to tell me no because she felt she has taken so much from me already”

Piper’s jaw dropped. “Oh... I know that kind of evil, she is a bitch, she is a wolf in sheep clothing, she is …. Oh Fuck!”

“They all believed I ‘stole’ it even after I tried to defend myself” I sighed “As if that wasn’t enough, I decided to go get some air and one hell of a guy thought I was seeking for his attention”

Piper bursted out laughing.

“I spilled wine on him”

“No, you didn’t! You have such a temper, Hannah.”

I sighed, “Everything altogether upset me so much I had to come over here.”

Before Piper could comment, her phone buzzed violently against the coffee table. She grabbed it, glanced at the screen, and gasped so loudly I nearly jumped.

“Oh my god.”

“What?” I asked, my heart skipping.

She turned the screen toward me. A news alert blared across it with a five-second video of me spilling wine on that annoying guy I saw at the balcony.

“The heir to the Bristo family was splashed with red wine at the Black family banquet tonight.”

My stomach dropped.

“No way,” Piper whispered, eyes wide. “No freaking way. Hannah…. You splashed Lucas Bristo. You’re done for.”

“Who the hell is Lucas Bristo?” I blurted curiously.

Her jaw practically hit the floor. “Don’t tell me you don’t know who he is. How do you not know who he is? It seems your brain is only filled with… textbooks.”

I crossed my arms. “Yeah, that’s why I have a 4.0 GPA. Unlike you, who’ll be retaking makeup exams next semester.”

“Touché.” She rolled her eyes but shoved her phone at me again. “But seriously, Hannah. Check this.”

My fingers trembled as I tapped the attached Wikipedia.

A web page opened, filled with polished photos of a man with the same face I had seen in the balcony tonight.

Lucas Bristo.

Son of the richest man in the city.

Charismatic, untouchable, terrifyingly powerful, has an engagement with the Black Family.

My breath hitched. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”