A False Heiress's Guide to Love and Power

Chapter 1

At the airport’s arrival hall, a girl stepped out into the bustle, long hair loose around her shoulders, sunglasses and a mask half–concealing her striking features, wireless headphones resting around her neck. In one hand, she easily carried a small suitcase, her long, pale legs drawing more than a few lingering glances as she passed.

People stared, some whispering, half–convinced they’d just spotted a celebrity in the wild.

She halted, pushing her sunglasses up with a careless touch.

“Miss Alessia.” A middle–aged man in a tailored suit appeared before her, head respectfully lowered.

Alessia Tate slid off her sunglasses and tucked them into her collar. The small beauty mark beneath her eye only emphasized her allure.

“Are my parents home?”

“Yes, they’ve returned,” the man replied.

Alessia’s expression didn’t flicker with excitement or even the slightest hint of nerves. It was as if the people waiting for her were complete strangers.

“Butler, don’t forget the rest of my luggage,” she reminded, her tone languid.

“Of course, Miss. I’ll have it brought to your room shortly.”

at a respectful distance. Outwardly, he betrayed nothing, but

that he’d been switched at birth–he’d have been a wreck, scrambling for the next flight home. It was one thing if the other family rivaled the Tates, but in

as he watched Alessia’s back. Poor

of his stare but couldn’t be bothered to respond. In truth, she wasn’t anxious or heartbroken–if anything, she’d almost kept traveling abroad, only booking her return ticket once the Tates were

a black sedan waited with its door already open. Alessia didn’t break

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Chapter 1

car glided away toward

as calm as glass. When she’d first learned she wasn’t the Tates‘ biological

her–financially, she’d been better off than any of her

a backup–a spare, in case the second wasn’t a boy. If the second child had, in fact, been a

with your grades. When the siblings reached the right age, they were shipped off to the most

academics.

The downside? Her parents never paid her

praise, anything to be seen. But she was never acknowledged, never celebrated like her brother and younger sibling. She let her grades slip, but even that failed to

she did could ever

she understood: she was nothing but a pawn, her only value lying in the marriage alliance she’d be expected to forge

whole year. The details had

arrived,” Dawson announced, holding open the