All Chapters of The Real Heir Just Wants to Live: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The contempt around me felt almost solid enough to pierce straight through my body as I knelt on the floor, still holding the tail end of my mocking little bow.I had been in this world for less than a minute, yet I already understood exactly where I stood.I was the thing everyone here wanted scraped off their shoe.Every person in the room wanted me gone before my existence offended them any further.My biological sister, Vanessa Grayson, wrenched me to my feet, face dark with rage. She took a thick bundle of cash from Gerald Pike, the house manager, and hurled it directly at me.Bills burst through the air, their stiff edges scratching thin red lines across my cheek.Her red lips curled. "Micah, money is all you want, isn't it? Is this enough? You're greedy, calculating, and disgusting."I knew the ten thousand dollars in cash was nothing more than a rich family's idea of humiliation.The tiny diamond set into Tristan Grayson's cuff probably cost more than that.And the tai

Sagewater wasn't a conventional psychiatric hospital.The Graysons seemed to think sending Micah here and ignoring him would humiliate him into repentance.Because I had agreed to the placement voluntarily, no one supervised me beyond the ordinary rules of the residential campus.They were waiting for me to break down, confess everything, and beg to be taken back to Grayson Manor.They had no idea this place felt like paradise to me.Over the next few days, I absorbed Micah's memories and occasionally chatted with the System."Host, why don't you work a little harder, make them adore you, drain the Grayson fortune, and take me somewhere fun?"I rejected the System's brilliant plan immediately. "No."I was not the original Micah. I did not carry all his longing, and I wanted no deeper connection to the Graysons.If I wanted to stand on my own in this world, I needed to rely on myself.I reluctantly used the ten thousand dollars I had brought from the estate to buy a secondhand

Tristan's reddened eyes and pleading tone instantly won him even more sympathy and anger from the crowd.Insults and disgust rained down on me from every direction.Elaine Grayson finally lost patience, stepped forward, and slapped my face hard enough to turn my head."You ungrateful monster. If we'd known you were this vicious and incapable of tolerating anyone else, we should have left you where we found you instead of bringing you home."Search him properly. Don't leave anything unchecked."On the day the original Micah learned he had been switched at birth, an abusive employer had withheld nearly a year's unpaid wages and thrown him out of work.He had a fever of more than 104 degrees, no money for treatment, and was afraid to return to his room because a woman there had been sexually harassing him.Half-conscious on the street, he saw a newspaper photograph and recognized a woman whose face looked almost exactly like his.Overwhelmed with hope, Micah used the last of his s

"S-sorry."I acted as though I had no temper at all. My only goal was to get away, so I answered almost casually."It's fine. This is better than when you drove your heel into the back of my knee."Vanessa went silent, remembering exactly what she had done. For the first time, guilt and regret filled her eyes.I didn't want any of them showing up later to demand something from me, so I explained myself carefully."I'm not competing with anyone for anything. I promise I won't interfere in your lives. I only want to live my own."Then I ignored the Graysons standing behind me, shouldered my canvas bag, and limped toward the door.This time, no one stopped me. I climbed onto my battered scooter and left.How the birthday disaster ended was none of my concern.After that night, people throughout Cedarhaven talked about what Tristan had done.Plenty of them said the Graysons had been blind enough to let Tristan occupy Micah's place and then help push the biological son out.But T

I finally studied the young woman standing in front of me.After Micah's identity was confirmed, Richard had arranged an engagement between him and Ivy Sinclair as part of what he called compensation.At first, the two of them had gotten along reasonably well. Ivy had shown interest in Micah, and Micah gradually came to care about her and treated her well.Whenever she asked for something, the original Micah tried to find a way to give it to her.Somewhere along the way, however, Ivy's attention began following Tristan everywhere until she became one more devoted member of the crowd protecting him.For Micah, she had only impatience and contempt.In Ivy's mind, every time Tristan suffered, Micah's jealousy had to be responsible.More than once, she had played with Micah's feelings simply to amuse Tristan and mocked him, calling him her lovesick lapdog.Remembering that, I forced down my disgust and clarified the situation again."Ms. Sinclair, I genuinely have no feelings for