The Billionaire's True Heiress From Fake Jewel to Real Crown novel Chapter 159

"I'm sorry, Claire. It's all my fault. Please don't be mad," Cindy said, her voice trembling as if she might cry any second.

Molly jumped in like she was defending some helpless victim. She pointed right at Claire and said, "Why are you always picking on Cindy? Just because she's nice doesn't mean you can walk all over her. She's the real daughter of the James family, you know."

"And you," Molly continued, "you're just pretending to belong here, and yet you act like you own the place."

Claire could barely stop herself from rolling her eyes. "Trust me, I'd have this attitude no matter who I was."

A few classmates tried to hide their laughter. No one wanted to get on Cindy's bad side, but they couldn't deny that Claire had a point.

"Alright, if you have something to say, just say it. I need to go," Claire said, clearly done with the drama.

Cindy finally dropped the innocent act and got to the point. "Claire, my parents invited York and his family over for dinner tomorrow. They want to call off your engagement with him. They want you to come home too."

"They really miss you. You haven't visited in a while, and they're worried you might be upset, so they asked me to talk to you."

"I don't want to steal your fiancé, but Mom and Dad are insisting I get engaged to York. I don't have a choice," Cindy added, trying to sound helpless.

Claire could practically feel the fake sympathy radiating off Cindy. It was almost impressive how two-faced she could be.

"Okay, anything else? I'll show up at the James house tomorrow and watch your happy family celebration," Claire replied, her voice calm.

"If you still like York, I can talk to Mom and Dad and let you have him," Cindy suddenly said.

Claire couldn't help but laugh a little. "You know, Molly has a point. This engagement was always yours. You should keep it."

"And don't worry, I won't hold anything against your parents. Otherwise, I'd be exactly the kind of ungrateful person Molly just described, right?"

Cindy had no idea what Claire was really thinking. All she wanted was for the engagement to transfer to her with zero problems. Claire and York had grown up together, and for all Cindy knew, there might be real feelings between them. If Claire actually liked York and refused to let go, things could get messy. Cindy just wanted everything to go smoothly.

Claire understood. She didn't have any feelings for York anyway, so breaking off the engagement was actually a relief. Besides, it wasn't like there weren't better guys around her now. Dane, for example, was so much more impressive than York.

She'd never admit her standards had changed. She just told herself that York simply wasn't good enough.