All Chapters of The Heiress No One Wanted: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

52 Chapters

Ch31 - Real family

Rosalie's POVI told myself not to get involved. I got out of the car anyway.Vanessa watched us like we were both insane as I walked the old man to my car. The light had already turned green. I pulled right and headed to the police station. He sat in the back without saying a word, face still blank — until he noticed the four-leaf clover charm hanging inside the car. That's when something came back into his eyes.I'd taken it off the mirror and rehung it inside before I got back in.He just sat there watching it sway.At the station, the officer at the desk looked up and didn't even need me to explain. "Hey — haven't seen you in a while. You sneak out again?"Apparently this wasn't his first time.The officer got him settled and came back to me. "His youngest son died in an accident on that stretch of road. Hit him hard. He's not really all there anymore — keeps going back and tying those lucky charms on cars passing through."That explained it."We'll call his family to come get hi

Ch32 - She stole the idea

Rosalie's POVWhen I woke up I wasn't in my own room. Then it came back — I'd gone up to Lucian's last night and just never left. First time we'd actually slept through the night together.I stretched out slowly in the bed, and right then he walked out of the closet buttoning his shirt. He glanced at me. "Do you normally sleep holding onto something? Last night you were like a koala."My face went warm. When I was little, Diane was always working, barely home — so I'd gotten used to sleeping with something to hold. A stuffed animal, a pillow. Last night it was him."I'm — sorry.""You say 'it's nothing' and 'sorry' more than anyone I've ever met." Lucian adjusted his cufflinks, tone easy, offhand. "You're really not what I expected."I didn't know what to say to that. I just looked down. "As long as you're not upset.""I don't need apologies. And I don't need you walking on eggshells around me all the time. You're my wife."I looked up. Lucian was right in front of me. He pressed a ki

Ch33 - Bullshit

Mr. Brown came rushing over from the elevator, got to the old man, and helped him up. "How'd you get out again?""He's your uncle?" Vanessa asked again, like she still couldn't make it compute. "Your actual uncle? But he's—"Like this? Wandering around, not talking, dressed like that?"He lost his son in an accident," I said. "It affected him."Mr. Brown turned to me sharply. "How do you know that?""I ran into him a few days ago. He was walking between cars in traffic — I didn't feel right leaving him, so I drove him to the police station.""That was you?" He grabbed my hand with both of his. "You're a good person. Thank god it was you who found him that day. Thank you.""I had no idea he was your uncle. And I'm not sure how he ended up here today."Mr. Brown pulled his assistant aside, listened to the quick rundown, then came back to me. "He must've followed me in. But he remembered you — gave you most of his clovers. He makes every single one of those himself."He glanced at my arm

Ch34 - Who’s real?

Rosalie's POV"So you two aren't actually twins. Which one of you is the real Whitmore?"I stirred my iced coffee with the straw and said nothing. From the moment Nora caught my birthdate, all the way through walking to the café, ordering, and sitting down, I hadn't given her a straight answer on any of it.She pushed again. "I thought it was weird at the gala — this whole person I'd never heard of just appearing out of nowhere. And when I asked Mrs. Whitmore if you and Vanessa were twins, she just smiled. Didn't say yes, didn't say no."Nora looked at me. "You've got that face right now. The uncomfortable one.""It's not what you're thinking—""It's fine, you don't have to tell me." She narrowed her eyes. "I'll figure it out anyway."She went full detective mode. "Okay so… ruling out distant relative… you showed up out of nowhere and got folded into the family…"She stared at me. "You're the real one. Has to be. Otherwise why would the Whitmores bring you back at all—""My mom made i

Ch35 - Having kid

Rosalie's POVI walked back downstairs with my heart hammering, and kept my face completely neutral. When my parents came down and saw me, they smiled. "You're here — stay for dinner."I pulled up a smile and nodded.Just the three of us at the table. Vanessa was nowhere — probably in her room fuming. Which was strange, because wasn't she the one who'd complained to them and gotten me called over in the first place? But through the whole meal, neither of them brought her up once.Helen picked out the most tender cut from the platter and put it on my plate. "Eat up. You've been working so hard lately, I doubt you've been taking care of yourself."I looked at the piece of meat — the kind that usually ended up on Vanessa's plate. "I'm okay, actually. The work environment's good. My colleagues look out for me.""Mr. Brown chose your design in the end — that's something." Christopher looked relaxed, genuinely pleased about it.The three of us ate quietly. Helen barely touched her food. Aft

Ch36 - Feeling went strange

Rosalie's POV"The floor's cold, ma'am."Mrs. Ford came over and handed me a pair of fuzzy slippers. I looked down — I'd been so rushed I'd come downstairs barefoot."Oh — thank you."She smiled. "Last night at dinner when you weren't here, Mr. Ravenscroft asked where you'd gone. When we told him you'd gone to your parents', he said to let him know when you got back. We forgot to pass it along — I'm sorry about that.""Was he upset?" I asked, already uneasy."Not at all." Mrs. Ford's smile was unusually warm today. She steered me toward the dining room and had one of the housekeepers bring up my breakfast."This morning at breakfast," she continued, "he asked me to move your things to his room later today.""His room?""Yes. He said it's not right for a husband and wife to sleep separately. He wants you to use his bedroom as the main one going forward."I took a sip of water. "He actually said that?""He also said if you're not comfortable there, he's fine moving everything to your ro

Ch37 - You know nothing

Rosalie's POVVanessa watched me, that look on her face that said: go ahead, let's see what someone like you comes up with.I glanced at the small white card below the painting. The Cáceres Stallion — a city in Spain. I looked back at the canvas and actually took my time with it.The man was still waiting."I'm not really an art person," I said slowly, "but the light handling is clean. The brushwork doesn't waste a stroke."Vanessa raised an eyebrow. "You just said basically what I said. That's all you've got?"I didn't look at her. "The painting is alive — genuinely. But on its own, it feels a little incomplete."The man's expression shifted, heavier than before.Vanessa stared at me. "Are you serious right now? You're standing in front of the artist criticizing his work. Do you have any idea how rude that is?"She looked at me like I'd lost my mind.The man stroked his mustache. "That's the first time I've heard a different take on this piece."He glanced between us. "Though I'm not

Ch38 - Keep your mouth shut

Rosalie's POVPearl smiled but subtly put some distance between herself and Vanessa, like the sudden closeness made her uncomfortable. "I think there may be a misunderstanding. Rosalie understood the piece quite well — we had a real conversation about it."Surprise flickered across Vanessa's face. "That can't be right. She doesn't know the first thing about painting."Pearl's smile cooled slightly. "My husband repeated the exchange he had with both of you word for word. I trust my own judgment."Her tone was polite, but it had a wall in it. Vanessa didn't take the hint. "She's never even been abroad. Her perspective is obviously limited — don't let her fool you with pretty words."Pearl looked genuinely puzzled, like she couldn't quite figure out why Vanessa was doing this. "Vanessa, first — I'm glad you appreciated the work."Then her voice shifted, measured and direct. "But Rosalie is clearly the one who understood it. She saw what I put into the frame. And when it comes to art, it

Ch39 - She's so scared

Rosalie's POVI went to the restroom and stood at the sink for a few minutes with the water running. Vanessa's words didn't wash off. My head felt like something was lodged in it that wouldn't move.I got my coat from the cloak room and went to find Eleanor.I had a smile on. She saw right through it. "What's wrong? Are you feeling okay?"It was such a simple thing to say. But the warmth in how she said it hit me somewhere I wasn't ready for, and my nose went tight. I swallowed hard and pushed it back down. "I'm fine. Probably just didn't sleep well last night.""The event's winding down anyway — let's go." She looped her arm through mine the way she always did, landing right on my right arm. The one with the hurt hand underneath the sleeve. I didn't want her to notice anything, so I shifted naturally to her other side.She took my left arm without a word.When the cars came, we kissed each other's cheeks and went our separate ways.I pulled back my sleeve the moment I was in the car.

Ch40 - Service him

Rosalie's POVLucian's lips were at my ear, his chest against my back, and I could feel every breath he took, every degree of heat coming off him.What he wanted was obvious.I thought — if I don't keep him happy, if I upset him, if things between us go sideways and it affects the business deal, my parents will be so disappointed in me.I turned over and pressed into him, tilting my head up to kiss him first.His breath caught immediately. He shifted and pulled me under him. The room was dark, just enough moonlight to make out the lines of his face. He seemed to pause and look at me for a moment — then he kissed me.Lucian kissed the way a wave moves, one after another, and somewhere in it I stopped thinking and just went with it. When we finally broke apart, his thumb brushed my cheek."Something's on your mind." His voice was low.I hesitated. I thought about what Diane had said — the woman who raised me, who knew me better than anyone, had still told me to be patient, to understand

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