The Real Heiress Returns: Burn It All Down

1: 1

I'm the real daughter who escaped the compound.

I'd barely landed when I heard the fake daughter was already sniffling, getting ready to clear a space for me.

Mom and Dad, terrified I'd bully her, stayed up all night drafting three pages of house rules to keep me in line.

My own brother went even further. When we were kids, I was the one who gave him the chance to escape.

And now he'd disowned me completely, announcing to anyone who'd listen that Edna Rowe was the only sister he'd ever love.

So I smiled, and got ahead of it by posting a few messages in the family group chat.

【Mom, Dad, thank you for not turning your backs on me even though I have a terminal illness, and for bringing me home.】

【Edie doesn't need to clear any space for me. I won't be around much longer anyway……】

Off to the side, Brian Mason, the fake young master who'd gone through hell to buy me out of the compound, stared at me, dumbfounded.

【Sis? If you go around calling yourself terminally ill, how are you supposed to inherit Grandma's fortune……】

But the moment I walked in the door,

the house rules in my parents' hands had turned into a fruit platter.

My brother apologized too, eyes red. 【I failed to protect you back then. It was all my fault.】

Now it was the real daughter's turn to be dumbfounded.

I turned my head and lowered my voice to Brian.

【Couldn't help it. In there, if you couldn't lie, you got the stun baton……】

1

When Edna saw that nobody in the family had any intention of turning on me, her face couldn't hold its composure.

So she gritted her teeth and started faking an illness of her own.

【Mom, my stomach suddenly hurts so much.】

But the one who reached out to catch her wasn't Mom. It was me.

【Dad, Mom, call an ambulance, quick.】

【It's not like the compound here. Even with two broken ribs, I'd be back on my feet and working in three days.】

【But Edie's different. She's been pampered at home. What if it really is bad enough to kill her?】

At that, the whole family froze where they stood.

Mom shot Edna a reproachful look and left her with a single line. 【Go get the antacid tablets from the cabinet yourself.】

Then, eyes brimming with tears, she took my hand and led me to sit down on the sofa.

【Agnes Mason, I never imagined you suffered so much out there.】

【You said you have a terminal illness. What is it?】

My own eyes reddened, and I faked a couple of coughs.

【It's not exactly terminal. I just don't have long left……】

【Over there, beatings were an everyday thing. Stun batons, whips, setting the dogs on you, all of it normal.】

【One time I tried to run and they broke four of my ribs.】

【In a way it was a blessing in disguise, though. A while back they said they wanted to harvest something from me, and only after the tests did they find all my organs were ruined. That's the only reason they let me live.】

【Otherwise, I'd never have gotten to see you……】

I paused, then sank weakly into Mom's arms.

【Mom, I haven't slept in days. I'm so tired.】

Mom wiped away a tear, then turned and spoke to Edna.

【Didn't you say you wanted to move out? You've got everything packed, right?】

【Perfect timing. Let your sister move in first so she can rest.】

Edna dropped her head, tears coming the instant she wanted them.

【Mom, now that my sister's back, does that mean you don't want Edie anymore……】

But no one answered her.

By the time she lifted her head,

my brother Thaddeus Mason was busy making up the bed for me.

Dad had already switched on the water heater and was testing the shower.

Mom had plunged into the kitchen, and soon the sound of soup simmering in the pot drifted out.

Even Brian, who'd been adopted into the family alongside her, never once glanced her way through any of it.

The grievance she'd faked blew away like a gust of wind.

After Brian showed me into the room,

his face was still drawn, the pity in his eyes impossible to hide.

【I figured you'd have had it rough, but I never thought it'd be this brutal……】

With that, he hesitated again and again, then pressed his paycheck card into my hand.

【Sis, I know we've only known each other a couple of days, but if the Masons ever give you a hard time too, just spend my money.】

【I've been making delivery runs lately. I clear eight thousand a month. That's enough to keep you.】

I looked at that pitiful, generous face of his,

and couldn't hold it in. A laugh burst out of me.

【I was lying to them just now. I've been the top earner in my group for ages. Nothing over there fazes me anymore.】

【Don't worry. The money I promised you, you'll get every cent of it.】

Brian lit up, but there was still a guarded edge as he asked, 【Really? You're not putting me on?】

I nodded and gave the paycheck card in my hand a little wave.

【Of course. You're the only one who actually hands over money when you've got it.】

【Not like that crowd downstairs. Every one of them puts on the performance of a lifetime.】

True, the first thing Brian did after getting me out was make me sign an IOU.

But he'd had no choice.

Thirteen years ago, when my brother, the real young master, was rescued and returned to the Masons,

Brian, the adopted fake young master, naturally lost his place.

So when Brian learned that Grandma's will named me as the first in line to inherit,

he sold his one and only sports car without a word, scraped together 1.08 million, and bought me back.

He was gambling. Gambling that I'd come home and inherit the fortune without a hitch.

That way he wouldn't have to work, could coast off me, and go on being a carefree rich boy.

But at least I knew that what Brian wanted was only money.

The people of the Mason family wanted my life.

Because from the moment I stepped through that door, not one of them came forward to explain to me

why, after my brother was rescued all those years ago, he never brought anyone back to save me.

Nor did anyone explain why, when 1.08 million was all it took to buy me out, they left me in that hell for eighteen years.