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All Chapters of The Fake Heiress Stole My Scores: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

On the day the entrance exam scores came out, I stood in the marble lobby of Bennett Group headquarters.The place was packed. Executives, shareholders, business partners — half of New York's corporate elite had turned up for the spectacle.Lily Bennett stood across from me with a smile that never reached her eyes."Claire, I didn't want to compete with you," she said sweetly. "But Bennett Group needs a successor people can actually respect."You've only been in New York two months. You grew up in a small town, you've never dealt with corporate politics. I'm only thinking about the family."Whispers broke out around us."I heard Claire was one of the top students back home. Her scores shouldn't be bad.""Back home? Please. A town like that can't compare with New York. Look how confident Lily is.""Hard to say. Lily barely showed up to school. Richard complained about her partying all the time."I ignored them, my eyes on Lily's fake smile.In my last life, the Bennetts found

Chapter 2

Lily gave a dismissive laugh."Next is Math. Your best subject."Seven and a half million."The lobby went silent.Then everyone surged toward the monitor at once.A few of them practically pressed their faces to the screen, desperate to see how a wager like that landed.Lily dragged over a chair and started filing her nails."Claire, you can still quit."Even as the Bennett successor, I can't pull seven and a half million out of the air."In my last life, I lost seventy-five million to her in this same game.Then the Bennetts threw me out.I lost my shot at college. I lost every decent job I applied for.What was left of that life was a damp basement room."If you admit you're not as capable as I am," Lily went on, "I might still find you something at Bennett Group."Our cleaners make three thousand a month. Work hard for five years and you'll be ready to start on the interest."She got a laugh out of me, and the look I gave her could have cut glass."You? You think yo

Chapter 3

The third section was Reading.Lily spoke lazily."The Bennetts have never been short of money. If we're betting, let's bet something interesting."I said nothing. I only watched her."Third round. The loser gives up all claim to Bennett Group."Exactly what I expected.Lily had never cared about proving she had better grades.What she wanted was to clear away anyone who could threaten her.In my last life, the moment I lost to her, everyone decided I'd overreached.Lily worked her contacts until no school in the city would take me back for another year.Collection agencies came to my door every day, and I lived inside that fear.My fingers curled into a fist.My nails dug into my palm and I felt nothing at all.If she was done pretending, so was I."In that case," I said coldly, "let's raise it."The loser doesn't just give up the inheritance. The loser gives up the Bennett name."She cuts every tie with this family and never touches Bennett Group business again."Lil

Chapter 4

Gasps went through the crowd."They've lost their minds. Both of them. All this over one exam?""Claire's rattled, that's what it is. If she has to admit that publicly, the rest of her life is finished."Ever since word got out that the Bennetts had recovered their biological daughter, the press had been watching every move the family made.Whichever of us took the succession, the company's rivals would go straight at the question of who the heir really was.And Bennett Group badly needed an heir nobody could argue with.Standing up now and calling yourself a fraud wasn't losing a bet. It was burying your own future.This wasn't a wager anymore. Whoever lost wasn't walking away from it.Richard frowned."Lily, that's too far."Lily's eyes filled at once."An heir who only has the position because someone handed it to her — that shames the whole company."And if a fool ends up running Bennett Group, it isn't only her who goes down. It's all of us."I want a clean contest wi

Chapter 5

Lily went blank. Then it reached her.At the same moment, Richard's voice went off beside her like a thunderclap."You little fool! You handed in a blank sheet?"Lily came back to herself, shoved through the crowd in three strides, and stared at the screen.In front of the flashing zero was her own name."That's not possible! How could she score a zero?"She whipped around to me, shock all over her face."Claire — did you know from the start that I'd be taking your scores at the exam?"I gave her a small nod that answered nothing.The shock in her eyes went deeper. Then she caught herself."So what? We weren't only betting section by section."My total is 353. Yours is 207. You're a hundred and forty-six points behind. What are you going to make that up with?"I made a face and walked over to the monitor.The moment the last score opened, the color went out of Lily's face."173! Claire got a 173!""No wonder she kept betting. She had the kill shot the whole time.""She

Chapter 6

Lily's whole face lifted.She held the phone over her head and put it on speaker."Claire, I told you the scores were rigged."Tampering with exam records is a criminal offense. You can spend the rest of your life explaining it from a cell."Then Ms. Whitaker's voice came through the speaker like a thunderclap."The board says your elective sheet was blank. Your name and your exam ID number, and nothing else."The volume was high enough that the whole lobby heard it."God. Somebody really did hand in a blank sheet.""The heir to Bennett Group turning in a blank paper to win a family argument? That'll be everywhere by tonight."Every eye in the room went to Lily.She didn't know whether to lower the phone or keep holding it up. Her face ran through half a dozen expressions.Ms. Whitaker was still going, and the lobby heard all of it."Lily, I have to say it. If you'd simply answered the questions at your usual level, you'd have gotten into a perfectly respectable four-year s

Chapter 7

People around us started talking."Claire doesn't need the Bennett name now. Seven hundred and fifty million makes her her own dynasty.""And in cash. If Bennett Group actually pays that out, they're bankrupt by tomorrow.""Richard, stop trying to get something for nothing. Go and ask the girl nicely while you still can."Richard stood with the appointment papers held out in midair, his expression cycling through everything but a decision.The second Lily saw I'd turned down the succession, she was at his side."Dad, if Claire doesn't want it, you still have me."That's seven hundred and fifty million. Are you going to stand there and watch it kill me?"Give me one more chance. One. I swear I won't put a foot wrong again."Watching Lily grovel was more satisfying than I can put into words.On her own ability, if she'd simply sat the exam honestly, a place at a good school was hers for the taking. Instead she spent everything she had looking for a shortcut, calculating and cal

Chapter 8

A few days later, Bennett Group held a press conference.Lily appeared in front of the cameras, worn thin, all the life gone out of her face.She took the microphone out of a reporter's hand slowly, and said it one word at a time."I'm sorry. I'm the person at the center of the dispute over the Bennett succession."I saw that I looked something like the family's real daughter, and I let myself think I could get away with it. I wanted the inheritance."I've taken up the public's attention, and I'll accept whatever criticism comes."As expected, the hostile coverage owned every trending list that night.Exactly as it went the first time, the public settled on the impostor as a shameless climber, and the rumors and the abuse were out of control within hours.Only this time, the one at the center of it was Lily.By my count, she should have been out of the Bennett house by then.Maybe that damp basement would make her a nice new home....Not long after, Richard and Diane turne

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