Chapter 6: The Viral Sensation
By Friday, the house had devolved into a state of manic desperation.
With my phone disconnected and my social media accounts deleted, I was a ghost. My mother had driven to St. Vincent’s hospital to demand answers, only to be informed by the head nurse that Lauren Parker had formally resigned her position on Monday afternoon and had left no forwarding address.
Mia was sitting on the living room sofa, aggressively scrolling through her phone, trying to distract herself from the fact that her college career was over.
Suddenly, she stopped.
She stared at a trending article on her newsfeed. It was from a major financial news outlet.
"The Hidden Heir: How a Secret Daughter Inherited the $2 Billion Vanguard Tech Empire."
Mia clicked the article. Her heart stopped.
Right there, under the headline, was a high-definition photograph of me stepping out of the matte-black Bugatti Mistral at the gates of a sprawling mega-estate. I wasn't wearing coffee-stained scrubs anymore. I was wearing a sharp, tailored white blazer, looking like absolute royalty.
"Mom!" Mia shrieked, her voice cracking in pure hysteria. "MOM, GET IN HERE!"
My mother rushed in from the kitchen. "What? Did she call?!"
Mia shoved the phone into her mother’s hands. "Read it! Read the article!"
My mother’s eyes darted across the screen. She read about the late tech billionaire, Richard Vance. She read about how his entire fortune, his estates, and his corporate empire were left to his only biological daughter, Lauren Vance—formerly Parker.
"Richard..." my mother whispered, all the blood draining from her face. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the coffee table.
"You told me her dad was a deadbeat!" Mia screamed, tears of rage springing to her eyes. "You said he was a broke alcoholic! He was a billionaire?! And she got all of it?!"
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My mother couldn't speak. Her lifelong lie had just been detonated on a national scale. She had driven away the billionaire father out of her own selfishness twenty-eight years ago, and now, she had literally thrown his billionaire heiress out onto the street.
They hadn't just lost their meal ticket. They had thrown away the winning lottery numbers while mocking the ticket.
