All Chapters of Checkmate, Heiress: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

"I'm looking for the Marquis, or Lady Griffith. Please let them know—I'm their birth daughter. I was switched as a baby at the hospital sixteen years ago."The day Ivy Griffith, the real heiress, came to find her family, the rain fell harder than usual.She stood square in the doorway, drenched. Her thin, coarse dress clung to a frame gone gaunt with hunger, every angle of her showing through the fabric. Rainwater ran in dark ropes from her matted hair, and her face had gone blue-white with cold.Only her eyes stayed startlingly bright.Tucker, the gatekeeper, summed her up in his own words."This girl's missing a screw somewhere, running to a stranger's house in rain like this."And I sure can't bring her in soaked to the bone like this to see the Marquis and the Marchioness. What if she catches a chill and gets everybody else sick too?"Tucker eyed the girl standing there dripping onto the front steps, clearly torn. Ever since the manor had picked up several new heiresses, som

Chapter 2

The sage said nine was the number of extremes, and by some quirk of fate, the Maquis and Marchioness's real heiress had split into nine.As for why nine—The sage stroked his beard.Not meant to be spoken of, he said.More "real daughters" kept turning up, and plenty of impostors tried to pass themselves off as one of them too. That only made me—the fake daughter who'd grown up under my parents' roof since infancy—all the more precious by comparison. Add in the fact that I had a honeyed tongue and knew exactly what to say, and it made perfect sense that I'd end up their favorite.While all this was happening, Marigold came back carrying the bowl.Sure enough, Ivy and my mother hadn't even laid eyes on each other yet. Blood testing had become practically an assembly line at Griffith Manor by this point.My mother watched the two drops of blood swirl together in the bowl and dissolve into one, and tears of relief spilled down her cheeks."Quick! Get a courtyard ready for our nint

Chapter 3

"You knew I was coming back, so you found all these frauds to stand against me, didn't you?!" Ivy yelled.I was standing at my mother's side, a half-shelled pine nut still in my hand, my face carefully arranged into shock and helplessness.My mother's expression turned to stone. She pulled me behind her."Ivy! Have you lost your mind? What do you mean 'coming back,' what 'frauds'? If they're frauds despite sharing my blood, then what does that make you?"Marigold, take Ivy back to her courtyard. She's not to leave without my say-so. And fetch a physician. I want her head examined properly.""I won't go! There's nothing wrong with me! Mother, believe me! Please believe me!"Ivy was hauled off by two matrons, one on each arm, thrashing and fighting the whole way, her hair coming loose."Celeste! You'll come to a bad end! Just you wait! I won't let this go! I'm the real heiress! I'm the real—"There was a lot buried in what Ivy had just screamed. My mother hadn't caught it, but I—

Chapter 4

That was the night the original character was supposed to die, thrown out into the rain.From the moment I'd transmigrated in, I'd made a point of keeping my distance from Nathaniel, my nominal brother.I'd been dripping poison in my parents' ears since I was small, too—telling them a real man ought to make his mark protecting the realm, that a house like ours needed real accomplishments to keep its title secure, that Grandfather had won his rank on horseback and it was a shame to let his old sword gather dust.Apparently, my father dreamed that very night of his own father chasing him around with a stick.The next day, Nathaniel was shipped off to the border. He didn't come home once in three years.Even for this presentation ball, all he sent was a servant bearing ten pairs of frontier-carved emerald bracelets.I was curious what Ivy could possibly improvise without Nathaniel around to use.Turned out, people can be reborn, but their wits don't come back with them.…Ivy had

Chapter 5

Ivy's eyes went wide, wider, until she looked like she'd seen a ghost.Even her voice, weak and fading a moment ago, came back with startling force."You… You're the Crown Prince?!"Julian Ashford raised an eyebrow, clearly caught off guard himself."If not me, then who?"Nothing was unfolding the way Ivy had planned—not even the Crown Prince was who she'd expected.She froze, utterly at a loss.At Julian's signal, one of the guards at his side took the cursed poppet from Ivy's hands—the one marked with the Crown Prince's name and birth chart."Damien Ashford. Isn't that my brother?"Why does Lady Ivy keep insisting this is my poppet?"Unless, in her heart, she believes someone else is the Crown Prince?"Julian turned the doll over in his fingers, something between a smile and a smirk on his face."Your Highness, please don't be angry!"Half the room dropped to their knees at once.My mother had fully regained her composure by then. As the lady of the house, how could she

Chapter 6

I watched Julian walk off, then glanced around at my sisters, all of them wiggling their eyebrows at me. I couldn't have been in a better mood.My father, who'd been out front entertaining guests, got word of what had happened only after Ivy had already been hauled off to the royal dungeon."I always thought the Crown Prince had a point—this new ninth daughter of ours has to be some kind of impostor! Otherwise, how could a couple as even-tempered as my wife and I have birthed such a lunatic?"My father clapped a hand to his chest in relief once my mother had walked him through everything."A cursed poppet! Of all things! She wasn't even afraid of getting the whole family killed alongside her! Thank heavens the Crown Prince turned out to be my son-in-law."He punctuated the thought by dropping a large helping of beef into the simmering fondue pot."Celeste's tomato fondue really is something else! Next time, make more of that sweet-and-sour tomato broth. I can't get enough of it!"

Chapter 7

"That girl really doesn't have a decent bone in her body! Turning on her own sisters like that!" Mother said, furious.I patted my mother's back soothingly."Don't worry, Mother. She won't amount to anything."The next day, I sent word into the palace requesting an audience with the Queen.The Queen and I had always gotten along well. She was sharp enough to know exactly how much my support had done to secure Julian's position as Crown Prince.By His Majesty's original inclination, the son of his first wife—the Second Prince—should have been the one named heir.While we were talking in her chambers, I brought it up as if in passing."Mother happened to mention something amusing recently. Apparently, there was a strange old book tucked into the blankets I was wrapped in when I was brought to Griffith Manor as a baby."That book's sat untouched in my room all these years. I only thought to look through it recently, out of curiosity."And wouldn't you know it—it lines up almost e

Chapter 8

But as luck would have it, an urgent report arrived from the northern border—the raiders were massing again, possibly preparing to strike.The border settlements were on edge, and the whole situation felt like it could tip over at any moment.The court buzzed with debate. Everyone agreed that at a moment like this, someone needed to go to the border in person to steady the troops and put the fear of the crown into the raiders.Julian was the obvious choice.The day he left the capital, banners snapped in the wind, and hooves thundered against the road. I stood on the city wall and watched his dark silhouette shrink into the distance until it disappeared past the horizon.Not long after he left, I traveled with the royal procession out to the estate for the Rite of First Planting.The ceremony honoring the Harvest Spirits proceeded exactly as it always did, right up until its final day.Damien showed up at the gates of the royal estate in full battle armor.Behind him stood row

Chapter 9

"Who exactly do you think you're forcing to kill herself?"Right then, a wave of battle cries rolled across the distance—and with them, a voice that finally let me breathe.He'd come.Damien spun around so fast he nearly stumbled.There, where he should have been a thousand miles away at the border, stood Julian—clad head to toe in silver armor, spear in hand, leading a column of the King's elite guard, dropping onto the battlefield like soldiers falling from the sky, surrounding him completely."No! It's not possible!"Damien's eyes looked ready to split with rage."How are you here?! I saw you leave for the northern border with my own eyes!"Realization hit him a beat later, and his eyes went bloodshot."It was fake? You—you were putting on a show. You were playing me!"Julian rode forward at an unhurried pace, his soldiers parting to clear a path."If I hadn't staged it, how else would I have lured a fool like you straight into a trap?"Julian sat easy in the saddle, the

Chapter 10

The King held on for three more years before finally abdicating the throne to Julian.Julian was crowned King.I, Celeste Griffith, became Queen as a matter of course.The coronation and the wedding ceremony were held on the very same day.The rites were solemn, the music grand, and the full court came to pay homage.I wore the elaborate ceremonial robes of a Queen, standing shoulder to shoulder with Julian atop the highest steps of the palace, receiving the reverence of ten thousand subjects."Nervous?" he asked quietly, his hand gripping mine tight beneath his wide sleeves.I shook my head."Not at all."This was the path I'd chosen for myself. Ever since the moment I'd transmigrated in, ever since I'd decided to change my own fate.Every step I'd taken had been for this—so I could stand, rightfully and without apology, at the very top, master of my own destiny.My sisters had all found their own places in the world by then, too.Diana had become every bit the noble matri

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