The Real Heiress Is Coming Back (Hannah Carter) novel Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Hannah paused mid-code and glanced at Yvette with some surprise. “You believe me?” she asked.

‘Even Scott family members related by blood don’t trust me, yet this classmate I just met says she believes me, Hannah thought.

Yvette’s cheeks flushed red under Hannah’s gaze. Nervously, she stammered, “Yes. You’re so beautiful. You definitely wouldn’t cheat. There must be some kind of misunderstanding, right?”

Hannah thought, ‘What an innocent kid.

“Thank you,” Hannah replied with a faint smile.

Yvette’s blush deepened, and she felt a little dizzy. “Wow, the cold goddess just smiled at me. She’s so beautiful,’ she thought.

Unaware of Yvette’s admiration, Hannah’s attention returned to the school forum.

She had just run a code sweep searching the entire internet and found no videos of the incident leaked online; someone had already taken care of it.

‘Was it him?’ Hannah wondered.

She thought of Barnaby, who had promised to help keep her return a secret from the Thole family.

After dinner, they had added each other on WhatsApp, and she was debating whether to thank him.

She opened WhatsApp and saw a message from Barnaby:

Barnaby: [Why’d you leave so fast? Jealous? I swear, it’s not what you think.]

Hannah recalled Susie’s flirtatious way of calling him Barnaby.

‘I’m not jealous, Hannah thought.

She closed the chat window.

*****

The Cavalor School forum required a student account to log in.

Hannah glanced at the homepage; half the posts were cursing her, mostly anonymous and filled with vile insults she couldn’t bear to look at.

“They insult me but hide behind anonymity, cowards and childish,’ she thought.

Her long fingers flew over the keyboard, lines of code scrolling rapidly across the screen.

Within a minute, all anonymous posts turned to real-name display.

Every user who had cursed her was now fully exposed with their real names, and the whole forum exploded with activity.

*****

In Sophomore Class 1, Susie was furious, secretly typing insults about Hannah on the forum under the desk.

Suddenly, a girl nudged her. “Susie, stop posting. The forum’s anonymous function has been canceled. All your posts are now under your real name.”

“What?” Susie looked and saw that every post she had made was clearly tagged with her name.

Not only that, half the homepage’s posts attacking Hannah had Susie as the original poster, completely exposed.

‘How is this possible? The forum’s anonymity worked fine before. Why did it suddenly switch to real names? My innocent school beauty image is ruined,’ Susie thought.

Panicked, she still hoped a few people had noticed and quickly tried to delete her posts.

But she was too late; someone had already screenshotted and shared them:

[Am I blind? Half the posts trashing Hannah were all posted by Susie?]

[Man, you’re not blind. I saw it too. My worldview is shattered.]

[Turns out our sweet angel is actually a total snake. Damn, who have I been crushing on these past two years?]

[Adopted daughter cheats, father’s shady moves, and daughter’s scheming. They really are a family.]

[Oh my god, look what I just found. That thread about Hannah skipping the exam? Turns out it was posted by the school belle herself, ugh, Susie.]

[Show us the screenshots. Pics or it didn’t happen.]

[Susie’s got a dark heart. Not only insulting Hannah, but her own father, too.]

[Am I the only one who feels sorry for Hannah? Taken in by such a messed-up family. Maybe she was forced to cheat?]

[Conspiracy theory. Susie might not be the Scott family heiress after all. Hannah is. She even looks more like Mrs. Scott than Susie does.]

Susie stared dumbfounded at the top post insulting her.

What really shook her was seeing how people were even speculating about the real heiress’s identity. Panic washed over her.

“No, that’s not me posting. Someone hacked my account. Why would they do this to me?” she screamed.

Hannah watched her, suspicion growing, thinking Susie sounded like a cornered cat.

“Stop yelling. If it’s true, then log in and clear your name,” the girl next to her said calmly.

Susie hurried to unlock her phone, but quickly hesitated when she caught the girl’s sharp gaze fixed on her.

She almost fell for it.

“My account’s hacked. I can’t log in,” she said with reddened eyes. “I’ll talk to the IT teacher after school.”

But it was just an excuse. She had no intention of seeing the teacher.

She hoped that if she stopped engaging in the forum drama, the storm would quietly die down.

She hoped her fiancé, Jasper, was busy overseas competing, unlikely to check the forum. And her father didn’t have a Cavalor account, so he wouldn’t see any of this.

Susie clung to hope, pretending nothing had happened.

What she forgot was that besides her and Hannah, there was someone else from the Scott family at Cavalor.

Just as Susie slipped her phone into her pocket, a message popped up.

Lucian: [Hey Susie, are those screenshots on the forum real?]

He followed it up with a screenshot from the forum.

‘Why does that spoiled little brat, thanks to Grandma, always have to stick his nose in my business?’ Susie grumbled to herself.

Susie ignored him.

Then another came.

Lucian: [Transfer me 15 grand, and I’ll keep this whole thing a secret. Otherwise, I’m telling Grandma and Dad.]

Susie froze, shocked that Lucian was blackmailing her.

‘And he’s asking for 15 grand right off the bat? she thought, her jaw dropping. ‘My monthly allowance is only 10 grand.’

But when she weighed the possible fallout if her father saw the screenshots against the bribe, she gritted her teeth and decided to pay up, borrowing money to send him the fifteen thousand.

Once Lucian saw the transfer, he immediately purchased the latest gaming console he’d added to his cart days ago.

Then he forwarded the screenshots to Hannah, using the same blackmail tactic.

[I’ve got screenshots of Susie trashing you. Transfer me 15 grand, and I’ll send these to Dad for you. Let him handle her for you.]

Five minutes passed without a reply.

Lucian wondered if his price was too high.

Hannah probably didn’t have that kind of money.

Remembering how Hannah had scared him with that snake the night before, he sent another message:

[Whatever, even if I sold you, you wouldn’t be worth 15 grand. Just say sorry and give me my room back, and I’ll send the screenshots to Dad for you.]

Hannah: [I’ll give you 100 grand. Send the screenshots to Dad.]

Lucian stared at the payment notification just sitting there, waiting for him to hit confirm. His jaw nearly hit the floor; he could’ve stuffed a whole egg in there.

Lucian: [Where did you even get all that cash?]

Hannah: [Boy, got a million questions now?]

Lucian refused to believe a girl from the slums could have so much cash. ‘Mom must be spoiling her secretly,’ he thought.

Lucian’s own allowance from his dad was ten thousand a month, plus an extra five thousand from grandma, only fifteen thousand total.

‘Mom’s giving her thirty thousand? Talk about favoritism, Lucian thought bitterly.

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