Chapter 2

Before I could respond, my father looked at me reproachfully. "Evelyn, you grew up in a little farming town. You're rough around the edges, and the dress wouldn't look good on you anyway.

"It's only one dress. Why can't you let your sister have it?"

Then he took Daphne by the arm and led her outside. "Our Daphne is so beautiful. Once she gets into a top university, she'll be the prettiest girl on campus!"

He'd said the same thing in my previous life. Back then, I'd still held some hope for him, so I hadn't understood what he really meant.

I only saw the truth after the national college entrance exam scores were released.

At that moment, Lydia checked her phone and said excitedly, "Mrs. Prescott and the others have already arrived. We should get going too.

"Once the Prescotts hear that the Kaplan family has produced a top scholar, arranging the marriage alliance will be easy.

"But if Evelyn's score exposes her bragging as a lie, she'll humiliate all of us."

I snorted and pushed past her. "You're right. Generations of Kaplans were supposedly brilliant, yet Dad's the one who never even finished trade school. That really is embarrassing."

My father's face turned crimson. Before he could curse at me, I slipped into the rideshare waiting outside. "Drive."

I had no use for a useless, brainless father like him.

The moment I entered Westbridge Academy, people pointed at me and whispered, "Isn't that Evelyn Kaplan, the girl who said a top university was practically guaranteed?"

"That's her. She made such a big show of it. It'll be hilarious when the results slap her in the face."

I shrugged without expression.

I'd already signed my guaranteed-admission papers. I wasn't the one about to be humiliated.

My lack of reaction only irritated them more.

When my father and Lydia entered with Daphne, everyone instantly changed their attitude and crowded around them. "Daphne inherited every good quality in the Kaplan bloodline. Not like certain people who aren't pretty but still love showing off."

"Exactly. Daphne's grades have always been good. She's definitely going to make the Kaplan family proud on the national exam."

"Mr. Kaplan, I'm so jealous. You have such an outstanding daughter."

My father listened to every thinly veiled insult directed at me and smiled as if he were delighted.

He'd behaved the same way in my previous life. I'd even wondered whether I was really his daughter and secretly arranged a DNA test.

When the report confirmed that he was my biological father, I finally understood. He was simply biased.

Daphne walked toward me with her chin raised and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Evelyn, all your previous grades were fake. Do you really think you can get into a top university?

"When you publicly claim that you'll get into one of them, you're risking the entire Kaplan family's reputation.

"The scores will be announced in twenty minutes. Why don't you apologize to the media and everyone online right now? Maybe people will still forgive you."

Several parents shot to their feet. "Her previous grades were fake?"

"What's going on? This school charges a fortune. How can it tolerate cheating?"

They pointed at my face and shouted, "How is that fair to our children?"

Before I could answer, several classmates crowded closer. "I can prove it. She used her status as a Kaplan heiress to threaten the teachers into giving her the questions before every exam."

"Exactly. She suddenly started ranking first in the whole school after returning to the Kaplan family. Isn't that obviously fake?"

Hearing them, I once again realized how foolish I'd been.

I'd worked myself to exhaustion precisely because the Kaplans had brought me home.

I'd even given up the chance to bypass the national exam and accept guaranteed admission because I wanted to prove myself to my father.

Instead, that effort had become the excuse they used to frame me.

The reporters sensed a scandal and quickly surrounded me. "With so many classmates accusing you of falsifying your grades, are you truly confident that you'll get into a top university?"

"Or were you only trying to attract attention?"

"Young lady, vanity can ruin a person. The top universities aren't like a private high school. You can't simply buy your way in."

I gave a quiet laugh, looked at my father, and said mockingly, "My Thornwood acceptance package will arrive today."

"As for Daphne, casually inventing lies like this is certainly a wonderful way to honor the Kaplan name."