True Heiress vs. Fake Queen Bee — Episode 22
Candice realized her mistake as soon as the words left her mouth. She had called Hailey the real owner within hearing distance of half the school. Gail blinked in confusion, but the music and surrounding whispers had swallowed enough of the sentence to leave room for retreat. Candice immediately corrected herself, claiming she meant the owner of an uninvited attitude.
The explanation was weak, yet Gail seized it gratefully. She demanded that Hailey and CeCe leave before they contaminated the party. Other students formed a loose circle, eager to see whether the outcasts would finally be removed from the castle. Luke began moving toward them.
Hailey remained calm. She asked Candice whether guests were normally expelled from a Kaplan event by another guest. The wording made Candice’s expression tighten. Hailey had not openly claimed control, but every sentence placed ownership back where it belonged.
Candice announced that she was the only Kaplan in the room and ordered Dedra to call security. The command exposed the older woman beside the service entrance. Gail assumed she was a member of staff and repeated the order more harshly. Dedra looked from her daughter to Hailey, unable to move.
Hailey addressed her by name and asked whether there was a problem. The familiarity surprised the students. Candice rushed to explain that even a charity case might learn a servant’s name after hanging around the property. Her contempt made Dedra flinch.
“She isn’t a servant,” Hailey said. “She’s an employee, and she deserves respect.” The correction sounded natural because Hailey had been taught it since childhood. Candice, who claimed to have grown up in the same household, rolled her eyes. Luke noticed the contradiction even if the others did not.
Dedra finally said Hailey and CeCe could remain. She claimed their presence had been included in the permission she received, avoiding any statement about identity. Candice glared at her mother, but challenging the decision would invite questions about why a supposed heiress required a maid’s authorization. She accepted the compromise through clenched teeth.
Gail demanded to see invitations anyway. Hailey replied that she had never needed one to enter the building. CeCe nearly smiled, now understanding every layer of the answer. The other students interpreted it as arrogance, yet uncertainty moved through the room.
Luke reached Hailey and asked whether she was all right. He complimented her dress, then added that he preferred meeting her with clothes on, echoing their first conversation. Hailey laughed despite the tension. Candice watched the warmth between them and felt another piece of the evening slipping from her control.
She reclaimed attention by announcing a guided tour. The guests cheered, phones rising again. Candice intended to keep everyone inside the rooms Dedra had described and prevent Hailey from speaking privately with anyone. If she controlled the route, she could control what the castle revealed.
The tour began in the ballroom, where Candice claimed she had learned to dance before she could walk. Hailey remembered her own mother teaching her there at nine, both of them laughing after every missed step. Hearing Candice steal the memory’s setting without knowing its history made grief tighten behind her ribs.
In the music room, Candice pointed to a grand piano and said she practiced on it every morning. Hailey asked her to play. The guests responded with delighted encouragement, while Candice stared at the keys as though they were another locked door.
She excused herself by claiming a recent wrist injury. Hailey looked pointedly at the Cartier watch on that supposedly injured wrist. Luke followed her gaze and recognized the same watch Candice had accused Hailey of stealing at school. His suspicion deepened.
To redirect the crowd, Candice challenged Hailey to play instead. She expected the poor girl to refuse and prove she had no place among such expensive instruments. Hailey sat at the bench without hesitation. The piano had been tuned that morning, as it was every Friday.
Her fingers found a melody her mother once loved. Conversation faded as the first notes filled the room, controlled and intimate rather than showy. Hailey had not played publicly since the funeral, and each familiar phrase carried an ache she could barely contain. CeCe saw the emotion Candice could not imitate.
When the final chord dissolved, silence held the guests before applause erupted. Luke’s expression contained admiration and concern. Gail asked how Hailey had learned to play like that. Candice answered too quickly, claiming the tune was basic and anyone could memorize it.
Hailey closed the keyboard cover. She explained that the piece had been her mother’s favorite and that this particular piano possessed a key repaired after Hailey damaged it as a child. She touched the nearly invisible seam in the ivory. The detail was too precise to dismiss easily.
Candice laughed and said Dedra must have fed her household gossip. The accusation forced the maid deeper into the lie. Dedra denied sharing private information, which left Candice without an explanation for Hailey’s knowledge. Murmurs spread among the students.
Desperate to move on, Candice announced that the tour would continue upstairs. Hailey reminded her that the private family wing remained locked. Candice claimed she had changed the access settings for the party, then placed her hand on the biometric panel with false confidence.
The scanner flashed red and denied her. A mechanical voice requested authorization from Hailey Kaplan. Every face turned toward the two girls as the system repeated the name. Candice stepped away from the panel, and Hailey approached the door that had just identified its true owner.
