True Heiress vs. Fake Queen Bee Episode 3

📖 The Story Continues

True Heiress vs. Fake Queen Bee — Episode 3

Candice entered Western High surrounded by admirers she had not known five minutes earlier. Gail carried one of her bags while another girl cleared a path through the hallway, both competing to prove their usefulness. Students glanced up from their lockers and immediately joined the whispering. By the time Candice reached her first classroom, the invented news had become accepted fact.

Hailey followed with her damaged helmet held against her side. No one offered to help her find the classroom, though several students stepped aside to avoid brushing against her clothes. She had expected anonymity to make her ordinary; she had not expected it to make her contemptible. Western High seemed determined to measure every person by price tags alone.

Candice stopped at the classroom door and looked back. The girl who had accused her of stealing an identity was still there, watching with an expression far too calm for a defeated nobody. Candice had enjoyed the crowd’s laughter, but the warning in Hailey’s eyes unsettled her. A lie this large could not tolerate even one stubborn witness.

“And who’s this?” Candice asked loudly enough to draw everyone’s attention. Her gaze swept over Hailey’s plain clothes before she suggested she must be the janitor’s unfortunate offspring. Gail laughed and told Candice to ignore her, insisting the loser would not recognize a real Kaplan even if struck by her Rolls-Royce. The casual cruelty earned approving smiles from the gathering students.

Hailey’s stomach tightened, not from embarrassment but disgust. Candice did not know who she was insulting, yet that ignorance should not have mattered. A decent person would not have humiliated the janitor’s child any more than a billionaire’s daughter. Every word exposed the ugliness beneath the rented glamour.

Candice stepped closer and pinched the edge of Hailey’s T-shirt between two manicured fingers. She announced that she would not be caught dead wearing a potato sack like that, then released the fabric as if it had contaminated her. Hailey resisted the urge to reveal the watch beneath her sleeve. One genuine heirloom would outweigh Candice’s entire costume, but proving wealth was not the same as proving character.

The warning bell rang before the confrontation could sharpen. Gail declared that the loser had been saved, while Candice promised she would find Hailey again at recess. She ordered the girls to walk with her and make themselves useful. They obeyed happily, never questioning why an heiress needed classmates to carry possessions she had supposedly handled all her life.

Hailey took a seat near the back and watched Candice perform for the room. Every gesture was slightly exaggerated, from the way she placed her handbag on the desk to the bored expression she wore when students asked about wealth. It was an imitation built from magazines and social media, not experience. Hailey recognized the strain because genuine privilege never required this much effort.

She could expose Candice before attendance ended. Her driver’s license carried her full name, her father could answer a call, and half the school board had attended Kaplan Foundation events. Principal Adams had accepted the family’s donation at their home. The facts were so overwhelming that Hailey almost stood.

Then Gail leaned toward Candice and whispered an invitation to sit with her at lunch. The girl who had threatened Hailey now glowed with artificial warmth, desperate to be chosen. Others offered party invitations, favors, and access to social circles without knowing anything about Candice beyond the fortune they believed she possessed. Hailey saw exactly what would happen if she reclaimed her name.

They would abandon Candice and flood toward her. Gail would apologize without remorse, teachers would pretend they had always sensed her refinement, and every student would invent a reason to become her friend. Hailey would return to the same gilded isolation she had tried to escape. The truth would win, but her chance to find anything real would vanish with it.

She lowered her eyes to the notebook on her desk and chose silence. The decision did not excuse Candice’s theft, nor did it mean Hailey intended to endure abuse forever. It merely gave the lie enough room to reveal everyone who embraced it. If Western High wanted to show her its true face, she would watch carefully.

Across the room, Candice caught Hailey looking and mistook contemplation for envy. Her shoulders relaxed as the last of her fear receded. Perhaps the shabby girl had made a wild accusation because she wanted attention; perhaps she was simply jealous. Either explanation was easier to accept than the possibility that the real heiress sat fifteen feet away.

Candice began embellishing her story. She hinted at private jets, exclusive vacations, and a home large enough to get lost inside. Some details were taken from gossip about the Kaplan family, while others came from the fantasy life she had always believed she deserved. Each impressed reaction encouraged a grander claim.

Hailey heard inaccuracies multiplying with every sentence. Candice confused places the family owned with buildings they had only invested in, mispronounced the name of a designer she claimed to know, and described household customs that did not exist. None of the students noticed. They were listening for luxury, not truth.

Amusement finally cut through Hailey’s anger. Candice had chosen a role with endless traps: family history, staff members, charitable foundations, homes, security codes, and people who had known Hailey since birth. One careless question could bring the entire performance down. Maintaining the fraud would demand far more than an expensive outfit.

Still, Hailey understood the danger of letting it continue. Candice was already using the Kaplan name to command others and legitimize her cruelty. If she crossed a line that could harm the family or an innocent student, Hailey would end the experiment immediately. Until then, she would refuse to become the easy victim Candice expected.

At recess, Gail glanced toward Hailey and muttered something that made the group laugh. Candice lifted her chin, clearly waiting for Hailey to shrink away. Instead, Hailey met her gaze and smiled. The confidence in that small expression caused Candice’s laughter to falter.

“Fine, Candice Kaplan,” Hailey murmured under her breath. The false surname tasted bitter, but the challenge behind it steadied her. Candice wanted the Kaplan life badly enough to steal it, and Hailey wondered whether she understood the burden attached to the privilege. A costume could open the first door; it could not answer every question beyond it.

As the teacher called the class to order, Hailey settled back in her chair. She would not expose Candice today, and she would not surrender either. She would let the impostor build the lie as high as she dared, then watch for the first crack. Judging by Candice’s reckless confidence, Hailey suspected she would not have to wait long.