Home / Romance / THEY CHOOSE THE FAKE, NOW I OWN EVERYTHING / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of THEY CHOOSE THE FAKE, NOW I OWN EVERYTHING : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

13 Chapters

Chapter 1: The Night I Was Born Twice

Dying hurts less than being forgotten.I learned that at the bottom of a cliff, with my sister's perfume still clinging to my collar and my parents' names dying in my throat. I had screamed for them the entire way down. Nobody came.So when a woman shrieked, "Somebody call a doctor!" I didn't flinch.I stood perfectly still, a bowl of chocolate mousse trembling in my hands, and listened to my own heartbeat. It was loud. It was alive. It shouldn't have been."Lydia! Lydia, baby, look at me!"My mother knelt beside the dining chair, cradling my sister like something priceless. Miriam Halvorsen was making a sound I had begged seventeen years to hear aimed at me. A terrified, tender sound. A mother's sound.Lydia coughed, one slender hand pressed to her throat, her eyes swimming with tears. "It's... shrimp," she whispered. "Mommy, I can't breathe...""She's allergic to shellfish!" someone gasped."Who gave it to her?"Every head in the ballroom turned toward me.I almost laughed. I knew t

Last Updated : 2026-10-16

Chapter 2: The will Nobody Wanted To Read

Chapter 2: The Will Nobody Wanted ReadThe slap never landed, and it wasn't because I stopped it.I was still watching my father's palm come down when a voice rang out behind him, so calm and so deep that his hand froze in the air."I wouldn't, Mr. Halvorsen."Every head in the ballroom turned. A tall man in a dark suit stood in the open doorway, a leather folder tucked under his arm. He was exactly the man from my vision, down to the gray at his temples.I almost let out a breath I had been holding since the cliff.Elias Brandt. My grandfather's lawyer, and the closest thing Grandpa Walter ever had to a brother. When I was a child in the countryside, he would drive down to our village every summer behind my grandfather's old car, with a bag of legal papers in one hand and a bag of oranges in the other, just for me. After my grandfather's funeral, I never saw him again. In my last life, I had assumed he forgot about me.I had been wrong.My father lowered his hand slowly, his jaw tigh

Last Updated : 2026-10-16

Chapter 3: What My Grandfather Wrote

My father didn't ask what the next clause said. He lunged for the pages instead, and that told me everything.Elias stepped back before his fingers could close on the paper. "I would advise against that, Mr. Halvorsen. The original is with the court. What I hold is a copy.""Give it to me.""Gregory." My mother's voice shook. She was still holding Lydia against her shoulder. "Let him read it."I had never seen the expression on my father's face in either of my lives. It wasn't anger. Anger I knew. This was fear, the kind a man tries to hide by standing a little straighter.Elias adjusted his glasses and read in a steady voice."To my son, Gregory Halvorsen, I leave the chairmanship of the Halvorsen Group, for as long as he conducts himself as a father to my granddaughter Tessa. Should he abandon, humiliate, or harm her in any way, in front of witnesses or otherwise, his seat and voting rights shall pass to her."A murmur ran through the guests.Elias turned the page. "I know my son. I

Last Updated : 2026-10-16

Chapter 4: The Car At The Door

Lydia's promise followed me through the chaos of the ballroom like a cold hand resting on the back of my neck, and by the time the paramedics rushed in with their stretcher, I had already understood that whatever she planned to do at the hospital, she had probably started planning it long before tonight. I stayed where I was, listening to the guests whisper behind their hands and watching my mother stroke Lydia's hair as though it were the only thing left in the world worth protecting. I told myself that fear was only dangerous when I let it make my decisions for me.The paramedics lifted Lydia onto the stretcher with careful hands, and she let her head roll to one side, one slender wrist dangling over the edge. She was good at this. Even knowing the truth, I could see how easily anyone would believe she was dying. My mother climbed in beside her without so much as a glance in my direction, and my father followed them to the doors before he stopped and turned around. The look he gave

Last Updated : 2026-10-16

Chapter 5: Handcuff at the hospital

My father swore the car was safe, but he was the only one who looked away when Hollis shone the flashlight underneath it."There must be some mistake," he said, though his voice had lost its edge. "Walton checked this car himself this afternoon."The family driver hurried over from the garage side, wiping his hands on his coat. Mr. Walton was a gray-haired man who had driven our family for twenty years, and when Hollis showed him the cut line, his face went pale. "Sir, I swear on my life, I checked it at four o'clock. The brakes were perfect. Someone must have come after.""Who had access to the garage tonight?" Elias asked."Everyone, sir. The caterers, the staff, the guests' drivers. It was open all evening.""Then nobody touches this car until the police have seen it," Hollis said, lifting his phone to photograph the line."Police?" My father stiffened. "There will be no police at my home tonight. This is a family matter.""A cut brake line is attempted murder, Mr. Halvorsen," Elia

Last Updated : 2026-10-17

Chapter 6: Not Allergic to Anything

The man who stopped the handcuffs was holding a single sheet of paper, and his hand was shaking so badly that it rattled.He stood in the middle of the lobby, out of breath, a white coat flapping open over green scrubs. He looked about forty, with tired eyes and a stethoscope hanging crooked around his neck, and he stared at the officers as though he couldn't believe they had actually put cuffs on a girl in an evening gown."Who are you?" the stern officer asked."Dr. Julian Okoro. I'm the emergency physician who admitted Miss Lydia Halvorsen." He drew in a breath and held up the paper. "You can't arrest this young woman. Not for this.""Doctor," my father said, taking a step forward, "this is a police matter. My daughter was poisoned by shellfish at her own family's party.""No, Mr. Halvorsen, she wasn't." The doctor's voice was quiet but steady. "I've been treating allergic reactions for fifteen years, and when your daughter was brought in, something was wrong. She was breathing nor

Last Updated : 2026-10-17

Chapter 7: The Choice At The Roof

I already knew who my parents would choose, and that was exactly why I followed them up to the roof.The stairwell smelled of cold concrete and disinfectant, and all the way up I could hear my mother sobbing Lydia's name while my father's heavy footsteps pounded beside her. Hollis stayed one step behind me, silent as a shadow, and Elias spoke quietly into his phone. When the roof door finally banged open, the wind hit us all at once, cold enough to make my eyes water.Lydia stood on the narrow ledge at the far edge of the roof, barefoot in a thin hospital gown, her hair whipping around her face. One hand gripped the metal railing behind her, and below her the city lights stretched out like scattered glass. From where I stood, she looked so small and fragile that even I might have believed it, if I hadn't heard her thoughts."Lydia!" my mother cried. "Sweetheart, please, come down!""Don't come any closer!" Lydia's voice cracked beautifully. "Everyone hates me now. The doctor said I li

Last Updated : 2026-10-23

Chapter 8: The Night I Was Born

Elias told Hollis to drive anywhere but the mansion, and he refused to tell me why until we were safely behind a locked door.The place he chose was a narrow townhouse in an old part of the city, with ivy on the walls and a brass lamp burning in the front window. Elias unlocked it with a key from his pocket and switched on the hall light, and I stood on the doorstep staring at the worn rug and the wooden coat stand. It smelled faintly of cedar and old books, and I knew at once whose home it was."Your grandfather lived here for the last year of his life," Elias said. "Your father never visited. He thought the neighborhood beneath him.""Is it safe?""The mansion isn't, not tonight. This is the one place in the city that belongs only to you." He pressed the key into my palm. "It has been yours since nine o'clock."Hollis checked every room, every window, and the back door before he allowed me to sit down. The study was small and warm, lined with books, with a worn leather chair that st

Last Updated : 2026-10-23

Chapter 9: The Man Who Cut The Brakes

I had my grandfather's coat pressed against Mr. Walton's side before I understood that I was kneeling beside the man who had tried to kill me."Harder, my lady," Hollis said, dropping beside me with a small black case he had pulled from somewhere in his jacket. "Keep the pressure steady. It's a shallow cut, and the knife slid along the ribs. He has lost blood, but he will live.""Should we call an ambulance?" I asked."If we do, whoever followed him will know exactly where we are," Elias said. He had gone to the window and drawn the curtain a finger's width, and his face was tight and gray in the lamplight. "The car at the corner is still there. It hasn't moved since he came in."I looked down at the old driver, at the rain still dripping from his hair onto my grandfather's rug, and a hard knot formed in my throat. He had driven me to the mansion on my first day home. He had carried my suitcase up the steps without a word, and when my mother had walked straight past me, he was the onl

Last Updated : 2026-10-25

Chapter 10: My Jade Pendant

Nell's scream was still echoing in my head when I realized I had no idea what a second ledger was, and that the answer might be hanging around my neck."A second ledger?" I looked at Elias. "Did you know there was one?""No." His voice was hoarse. "Your grandfather told me the originals were with the court and that the safe held the only backup. If there is a third copy, he never mentioned it to me.""Moreau seems certain of it." Hollis kept his eyes on the window as he spoke. "Men like him don't ask for things that don't exist. He must have heard it somewhere, perhaps from your father, perhaps from someone who worked for Mr. Walter years ago."I pressed my palm against my collar, and the jade pendant felt cold against my skin. Be patient, little river. Eighteen. Just reach eighteen. All evening I had treated those words as a sentimental goodbye, but my grandfather had never said anything by accident in his life."He gave me this the last time I saw him," I said, drawing the pendant o

Last Updated : 2026-10-25

1 2

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP