All Chapters of I TRANSMIGRATED INTO A NOVEL AS THE DOOMED HEIRESS: Chapter 1 - Chapter 4

The last thing I remember is falling asleep with a book on my chest, hating its ending.I was a fraud investigator with a tiny apartment, a broken heater, and a bad habit of reading novels at two in the morning. At work nobody could lie to me for more than five minutes. My boss used to shake his head and say, "Nora Bennett never misses." That night I read a billionaire romance about a cruel rich family and a fake heiress who dies alone. I gave it one star and went to sleep angry.Now I opened my eyes, and the ceiling was wrong.It was cream colored with gold edges, and it was far too high. My ceiling had a water stain shaped like a rabbit. This one had a crystal light hanging from the middle like a frozen waterfall."Did I fall asleep in a hotel?" I whispered.The bed was huge. The sheets were silk. Pale morning light came through tall windows, and outside I could see a garden full of roses. My head felt heavy, as if I had slept for a hundred years. I rubbed my eyes and sat up,

I walked up the stairs like a woman who had not just been threatened by her family's favorite uncle.I kept my back straight. I kept my hands loose. When I reached my room, I closed the door, counted to three, and dropped to my knees beside the bed.The bag was gone.I checked under the bed twice. I checked the wardrobe, the dressing room, and the space behind the curtains. Nothing. Not the cash, not the passport, not even the plain clothes. Every trace of my escape plan had been wiped away like it never existed.On the pillow lay one small piece of black carved wood.A chess pawn.My skin went cold. Someone had walked into my room, taken my bag, and left a message. There was no name on it and no note. But a pawn is the first piece you give up in a game, and the only person in this house who thought in chess was Vincent Blackwood."Okay," I whispered. "You want to play."I dropped it into the pocket of my dress. I could not go to the guards, and I could not tell my parents. In