The Billionaire's True Heiress: From Fake Jewel to Real Crown novel Chapter 39

What the heck was happening?

Jennifer glanced over at Claire, confused. Wasn’t this Pandora’s granddaughter? Since when did she become the “fake heiress” everyone was talking about?

Nobody bothered to fill Jennifer in. Claire just smiled and shrugged. “You know, you actually make a good point. Maybe the engagement should go to you instead…”

She caught the way Shirley’s eyes suddenly sparkled and shot her a sly look, half amused, half teasing.

“But I think Cindy has a stronger claim, doesn’t she?”

Shirley’s face fell. She turned that disappointment into pure annoyance, glaring at Claire. “Who cares? Whoever it is, it has nothing to do with a fake like you!”

“Listen, Claire, York is way out of your league now. Don’t even think about trying anything with him!”

“And this isn’t some place for country girls to just wander in. Why don’t you just run along back to wherever you crawled out from?”

“If you’re really that desperate for food, here, take this.” Shirley pulled out her wallet and stuffed a thick stack of bills into Claire’s hand. “This should keep you going for a bit.”

Claire glanced at the cash. There had to be at least a thousand, maybe two, in there. For Shirley, that was nothing. She blew through twenty grand a month without blinking.

“Alright, you’ve got your money. Now get out of here,” Shirley said, acting like she was doing some grand favor.

Someone else piped up, pretending to be the voice of reason. “Shirley, don’t you think that’s a bit much? Why not let Claire stay and eat with us?”

“We’ve all known each other for so long. It’s the least we could do.”

“Besides, now that she’s out of the James family, she’ll probably never get to eat at Hearth & Kettle again.”

That was Rose talking. She used to call herself Claire’s best friend. Now that Claire had been kicked out, it looked like Rose couldn’t wait to cozy up to Shirley.

“How about this? When the food comes, we can give Claire a little bit of everything and let her eat out in the pavilion.”

This group was the worst—spoiled, mean, and clueless. The more they used to fawn all over Claire, the more they wanted to trample her now.

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