The Real Heiress Is Coming Back (Hannah Carter) novel Chapter 49

Chapter 49

“Jasper, maybe we should just let this go,” Susie pleaded. “The bracelet’s been found. There’s no need to make this more unpleasant than it already is.”

If that footage was shown, the carefully constructed persona she’d maintained would shatter, and with it, everything she’d worked for.

“Susie, you’re too kind for your own good.” Jasper’s tone was reassuring. “Don’t worry. I’m here. I won’t let her bully you anymore.”

Before she could protest further, Jasper gave the signal.

Henry swiftly retrieved the surveillance recording and projected it for all to see, complete with audio.

The footage played out in damning clarity, Susie forcibly pulling Evelyn into the garden, her condescending tone, and then the revelation that shook the foundation of the Scott family’s public narrative.

Hannah was not the adopted daughter they claimed her to be, but their own flesh and blood.

The video also clearly showed the diamond bracelet accidentally dislodging during the struggle, catching unnoticed on the strap of Evelyn’s canvas bag.

A wave of gasps and murmurs swept through the crowd.

“Susie!” Dorian’s voice cut through the noise, trembling with fury.

He had initially stayed behind, assuming Hannah was at the center of another scandal.

Instead, it was his own pride and joy, the daughter he’d always praised for her grace and obedience, who had publicly exposed their darkest secret.

The Scott family was finished. In the world of business, reputation was everything.

Regardless of their reasons for concealing Hannah’s true identity, the deception had now been laid bare for all

to see.

“Dad…” Susie stammered, cold sweat beading on her forehead as she met Dorian’s searing glare.

Even Gemma’s eyes held a sharp, unforgiving intensity.

In a moment of reckless anger, Susie had ruined everything, exposing not only the Scott family’s lie but also alienating both the Bakers and the Scotts in one fell swoop.

Desperate, she turned to Jasper as her last hope, only to find his expression shifting from shock to bitter disappointment.

“Was any of it true?” he asked, his voice low and strained.

It wasn’t her lineage he cared about. It was the fact that she had kept him in the dark.

He had publicly shamed Hannah over her status, only to realize now that he’d been made a fool all along.

“Jasper, I…” Susie’s face flushed with shame and panic.

Overwhelmed with embarrassment, she deliberately let her eyelids flutter closed and feigned unconsciousness.

A ripple of confusion spread through the crowd. Just as guests assumed the evening was concluding prematurely, the real drama began to unfold.

The projected footage abruptly cut to black, then resolved into a different recording.

“Please, Mrs. Baker… we didn’t tell anyone anything, I swear…”

The surveillance footage showed a bound mother and daughter pleading with Gemma in the backyard, evidently captured earlier from the same camera angle as the previous video.

The banquet hall erupted in fresh waves of shocked murmurs.

Gemma’s composure was shattered. She surged forward and tore the projector’s power cord from the wall.

“Who authorized this footage?” she demanded through clenched teeth, whirling on Henry.

“I had Alan pull the surveillance,” Henry stammered, panic dawning on his face. ‘I thought we’d permanently deleted that recording. How did it resurface?’ he thought.

Their confrontation was interrupted as journalists began flooding the banquet hall.

“Mrs. Baker, what were these women being punished for?”

“Are you aware unlawful restraint carries criminal charges?”

“Can you tell us their current whereabouts?”

Chaos consumed the venue. Guests who had initially enjoyed the spectacle now hurried for the exits, unwilling to become entangled in the scandal.

Gemma’s meticulously planned celebration for her son had not only collapsed into disgrace but would dominate tomorrow’s headlines.

The Baker family scandal was quickly followed by the Scott family’s public humiliation.

For Dorian, worse than becoming the city’s laughingstock was the Baker family severing their final business partnership, a death blow that bankrupted the Scott family enterprises.

He remembered the promise he’d made to his father while taking over the family legacy, to uphold the company’s reputation and maintain the Scott standing in Brynlock.

Now he had presided over its complete ruin.

The news brought Arthur, Dorian’s eldest son, rushing back from abroad. He immediately transferred funds

from his personal company to secure Scott Villa, saving them from homelessness.

“Arthur, please, I never meant for any of this,” Susie wept, collapsing at his feet. “I was just so furious with Hannah, I didn’t know what I was saying. Don’t send me away!”

Her theatrical faint had served its purpose, but she knew better than to push the charade too far.

The moment word of Arthur’s return reached her, she’d scrambled to stage this desperate appeal, banking on his sense of family loyalty to secure her place.

After all, even the most uncertain future here outweighed the bleak prospect of returning to provincial obscurity with Evelyn.

Arthur’s gaze drifted over her, coming to rest instead on Hannah.

She sat composed in a tailored beige dress, her fingers curled around a coffee cup as she observed the scene with detached calm.

There was an innate elegance in her posture that defied any rustic origins, a quiet authority that made Susie’s performative grief appear particularly grating.

“Dad.” Arthur’s voice cut through the tension. “Have you reflected on where you went wrong?”

For a patriarch to be publicly questioned by his son represented the ultimate humiliation.

Under normal circumstances, Dorian would have erupted at such impertinence, regardless of Arthur’s standing as the family’s golden child.

Yet now he merely slumped deeper into the sofa cushions, still paralyzed by the reality of the Scott empire crumbling under his stewardship.

“Your gravest error,” Arthur continued with judicial precision, “was fabricating that story about Hannah’s adoption.”

Hannah’s cup hesitated midway to her lips. Her eyes lifted briefly to study Arthur, a flicker of reassessment in their depths.

It appeared not every member of this household was content to embrace willful ignorance.

“Arthur, we’ve shared our whole lives,” Susie implored, clutching at his trousers. “Don’t cast me out now.”

She understood perfectly well that Arthur’s lecture, while directed at Dorian, was ultimately meant for her.

“Is it our company you’ll miss,” Lucian interjected with sardonic clarity, “or access to Arthur’s accounts? I must admit, your performance has been masterful.”

The irony stung. He’d once been gullible enough to harass Hannah on her behalf.

When Arthur remained unmoved, Susie shifted tactics, crawling toward Dorian. “Dad, please reason with him. I’ll do anything. Just don’t let him discard me like this.”

“Get out!” Dorian growled, shaking her off with uncharacteristic violence, “You’re no daughter of mine?

Every glimpse of Susie now fueled his rage. Were it not for her careless tongue at Baker Villa, he wouldn’t be facing complete ruin.

“Mom, please! You always say a family in harmony prospers. Can’t you talk to Arthur for met Don’t let him send me away!” Susie scrambled toward Felicity, counting on her soft heart.

Felicity’s heart constricted at the sight of the girl she’d raised for seventeen years reduced to such desperation

But she understood with painful clarity. To show mercy to Susie now would be to betray Hannah all over again.