"Do you really think I'd take fifty thousand a month to look after a screaming infant around the clock while watching my back for men in the household with wandering hands?"
I said that last part on purpose—to make sure Effie understood exactly how little her nanny job was worth to me.
A man like Samuel Weiss, who lied as easily as he breathed? Only someone born rich and raised brainless would actually believe him.
Sure enough, Effie's eyes softened the moment she saw my two certificates.
Stupid as she was, even she had to understand what a Westbridge State doctorate was worth.
Her sharp gaze was swinging back toward Samuel when a woman burst through the crowd, slapped me three times across the face in rapid succession, and shrieked:
"June Delgado, have you lost your mind? Forging documents to con a tycoon's daughter!"
"When they catch you out, you'll drag our whole family straight to hell—do you even care?"
My cheek swelled instantly from the blows.
Five clear fingerprints stood out against the skin.
I looked hard at the woman in front of me and realized I had never seen her before in my life.
Holding my injured cheek, I kept my expression cold and gave her one warning.
"I don't know you. Apologize and compensate me right now, or my legal team will sue you into the ground."
The woman threw herself into hysterics.
"Heaven strike me down! How did I give birth to a wretch like you?"
"She'll lie to anyone! She won't even acknowledge her own mother!"
"Effie, Samuel—I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't raise her right, this is my fault."
"However you want to punish her, go right ahead. I won't stop you. Better that than letting her keep running scams everywhere she goes!"
The room erupted. Sharp intakes of breath cut through the crowd on every side.
"She's a professional con artist?"
"Her own mother just said so. That settles it!"
"Good thing she showed up in time. We almost fell for it!"
Effie's jaw clenched so hard I could see the muscles work. She turned to me.
"Having fun playing me for a fool?"
"Lock her in with Brutus. Let her have all the fun she wants."
The instant I caught the flash of triumph in the woman's eyes—and in Samuel's—I raised my voice.
"I'm not lying! This woman is not my mother! And my name isn't June Delgado."
"My name is Juliana Perry. She doesn't even know my real name. How could she possibly be my mother?"
That was when Effie noticed: the name printed on the diploma and degree certificate in my hands was, in fact, Juliana Perry.
The moment doubt flickered in her eyes, Samuel stepped forward to close the gap.
"What mother doesn't know her own daughter? She's June Delgado!"
"She'll forge documents if that's what it takes to con you."
"One name? Who knows if she just made it up because she's run too many scams and needed to cover her tracks."
I told Effie to send someone to the police records office and check for herself.
My name was Juliana Perry, and the parents listed on my household registration were absolutely not this woman.
Half-believing, half-doubting, Effie called the records office. The answer came back quickly.
My name was indeed Juliana Perry, and the woman standing before us was not my mother.
But even under Effie's razor-sharp stare, the woman insisted she was my birth mother.
"Sweetheart, I divorced your abusive, cheating father when you were three. I raised you all by myself."
"You can't change your surname just because that bastard promised to buy you a car and a house—you can't just throw your own mother away!"
"He's lying to you! Nobody in this world loves you more than your mother does!"
