The Real Heiress Is Coming Back (Hannah Carter) novel Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Hannah entered the hall in her gown, a small pig resting quietly in her arms.

A ripple of laughter broke out almost immediately.

The crowd shifted aside, forming a path that placed her directly opposite Susie.

To everyone’s surprise, they were wearing the same dress.

Yet the contrast was striking.

On Susie, shorter, softer, and lacking Hannah’s quiet poise, the gown looked borrowed, as if she were a mortal accidentally draped in something celestial.

On Hannah, it seemed innate, as though the dress had been created with her in mind.

Susie felt a flicker of jealousy.

It was a cheap imitation. She knew that better than anyone, but on Hannah it looked polished, almost luminous.

She bit down hard, then forced the irritation aside. The real show was about to begin.

Hannah needed only one glance at Susie’s gown to understand why Susie had bothered to gift her a dress in the first place.

She brushed a hand over Hedy’s head and murmured, “You remember what I told you. Go on.”

She set the pig down.

Hedy landed lightly, then slipped away into the crowd with surprising purpose.

No one paid attention. The guests were far more interested in the unfolding tension than in a pig.

“Hannah, where did you buy that?” Jane asked, looking her over. “The replica is surprisingly convincing.”

Jane was the heiress of the Dross family, another honored guest of the Bakers.

“A replica?” Hannah’s expression barely shifted.

Jane’s laugh was soft and dismissive. “It’s Mon ange. There’s only one original. Susie is wearing it. Whatever you have on can only be a knockoff.”

“Why bother explaining?” someone said lightly. “She’s just the Scott family’s charity case. A girl from the countryside. She wouldn’t know luxury if it walked up to her. If it weren’t for the Scotts, she’d never be invited to something like this.”

“She

may not know luxury,” Jane continued, her tone sharpened by amusement, “but she still turned up in the same dress as Susie at her fiancé’s celebration. Hard to imagine what she intended.”

Her words sent a stir through the crowd.

The Scott family’s adopted daughter appeared in the same gown as the Scott family’s own heiress at the fiancé’s banquet.

At best, it looked like a plea for attention among the wealthy, but at worst, it looked like she was reaching for Susie’s fiancé.

“Jane, don’t be harsh,” Susie said gently. “Hannah doesn’t know much about luxury brands. She probably just wanted to dress appropriately for the evening and ended up being misled into buying a fake.”

She approached Hannah with practiced warmth. “Hannah, you should’ve asked me when you chose your dress. It would’ve saved you from…”

She let the implication trail off. Paired with Hannah’s calm, unreadable expression, it invited the room to see Hannah as ungrateful and self-important.

“You’re certain yours is the original?” Hannah asked, her tone cool, her gaze steady on Susie’s carefully composed face.

Jane gave a short laugh. “You can’t be serious.”

The audience echoed her amusement. Nearly everyone in that circle owned Rhys’ designs. His pieces sold out instantly, and when an item was truly limited like Mon ange, there was simply no obtaining it.

And no one from their families would risk wearing a counterfeit. That would stain not only their own reputation but their family’s as well.

Susie, in particular, had a long history of purchasing Rhys’ work. For her fiancé’s celebration, few believed she would dare wear anything but authentic couture.

“Rhys engraves his logo into every accessory on his couture pieces,” Hannah said evenly.

It was that meticulous craftsmanship that had made Rhys a favorite among the old families.

Before anyone fully registered her movement, Hannah reached forward and gave the fabric at Susie’s waist a firm tug.

A cascade of sequins snapped loose and scattered across the marble floor.

Susie froze. The ease with which they had come off and the way the threads unraveled caught her entirely off guard. Her face blanched as she instinctively covered the ripped section.

“There’s no logo,” someone murmured, kneeling to examine a fallen sequin.

“Same here,” another confirmed.

“No, that’s impossible!” Susie picked up several sequins and small crystal settings, turning them over again and again. Not a single piece bore the engraving.

Her mind went totally blank. Panicking, she yanked at Hannah’s hem and started inspecting the sequins.

Every sequin carried Rhys’ mark.

She couldn’t help but wonder, ‘How? I sent her a replica. How did it turn into the original? Was it swapped?’

“You…” Susic stared at Hannah, unable to piece together a full sentence.

But the crowd no longer needed explanations. Once they confirmed Hannah was wearing the authentic Mon ange, the shift in their expressions was immediate,

The revelation was almost quiet in its cruelty. The fool, it turned out, was Susic.

“Hmm?” Hannah let out a light chuckle. “Wondering why I’m wearing the real deal after you palmed off that knockoff on me?”

Truth was, Hannah couldn’t care less about designer labels. Her wardrobe staples were always the dresses Evelyn tailored for her.

But when she’d brought home that gown from Susie yesterday, Barnaby had happened to see it.

He took one look, tossed it straight into the trash with clear disdain, and showed up this morning with an identical replacement.

A quick online search of the logo had told Hannah everything she needed to know.

Susie stared in disbelief. She’d paid a small fortune and called in favors to get this dress. There was no way it could be fake.

What baffled her even more was how Hannah of all people could afford the authentic version.

“How dare you!” A male voice cut through the crowd.

The spectators parted to reveal a young man in a tailored white suit, no more than nineteen, his face dark with anger as he approached.

“Jasper!” Susie’s eyes immediately welled up with tears. She bit her quivering lip, putting on a perfect picture of vulnerability.

Jasper’s heart melted at the sight.

“Don’t worry, darling. I’m here now,” he reassured her, draping his suit jacket over her shoulders before turning to Hannah.

He paused momentarily, uncertainty flashing across his face. “You’re Hannah?”

She looked nothing like he’d expected.

“And

you are?” Hannah’s casual question sent a ripple of disbelief through the crowd.

She’d shown up at Jasper’s victory party without even recognizing the guest of honor.

“That’s Jasper Baker, Susie’s fiancé!” someone hissed from the crowd.

Hannah gave him a once-over. He was decent-looking, maybe a seven-point-nine, but he didn’t hold a candle to Barnaby’s striking features.

So this was the best Susie could do.

Jasper felt momentarily speechless. Part of him suspected she was pretending, but he never could have imagined Hannah would be this captivating.

Susie had complained about Hannah constantly, yet never once showed him a photograph.

He’d always pictured her as some plain girl with unrealistic ambitions, not this breathtaking vision standing before him.

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