The Real Heiress Is Coming Back (Hannah Carter) novel Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Chapter 72

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Hannah’s support surged overnight, catapulting her far ahead of Claudia and securing the top spot among all female

students.

Watching the widening gap, now over a thousand votes, Claudia felt a simmering resentment. She observed Jane still campaigning for Hannah long after school hours, which only deepened her frustration.

While she acknowledged Hannah’s striking appearance, Claudia remained convinced of her own superior capabilities. Even if Jane’s efforts had pushed Hannah into the top ten, no one could deliver the final campaign speech on her behalf.

‘Let her be the pretty face she is,’ Claudia thought, her determination solidifying. ‘When it comes to the actual competition, she won’t stand a chance. The representative role will be mine.’

That evening, Zoe scanned the forum and gasped. Hannah’s name topped the rankings.

“No way,” she muttered. “This has to be rigged.”

She immediately launched a counter-campaign, flooding the forum with posts urging students not to vote for Hannah.

Her bold headlines stood out conspicuously among the promotional content.

The strategy backfired. Curious voters who clicked on Hannah’s photos found themselves captivated by her beauty, many ultimately casting their votes for her despite Zoe’s warnings.

When Zoe checked the rankings the next morning, dark circles shadowing her eyes, she found Hannah not only maintaining her lead but extending it.

Zoe sighed in resignation. ‘Sometimes, beauty really is power.’

*****

Jasper strode into his classroom and went straight to the school forum.

He never usually bothered with these popularity polls. For years, it had always been either him or Owen claiming the top spot.

From junior high through senior year, their rankings had perpetually oscillated, with the final outcome often hinging on whoever gained one extra admirer’s vote during the critical closing hours.

Their friendship had always transcended such trivial competitions, so the title itself meant little to him.

But today felt different. All through the corridors, he’d caught fragments of conversation about the voting, with Hannah’s name surfacing repeatedly.

Curiosity piqued, he navigated to the campus crush rankings.

There she was, Hannah, sitting firmly atop the girls’ leaderboard,

The photo appeared to be a candid shot: Hannah perched on a desk, chin resting in her palm as she scrolled through her phone, her delicate features and elegant profile creating an almost ethereal image.

As Jasper looked at Hannah’s photo, it occurred to him that she must have entered the beauty pageant specifically to share the stage with him during the anniversary celebrations.

He understood all too well how difficult it was to extinguish romantic feelings.

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Chapter 72

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His own complicated history with Susie proved that despite his anger over her deception, she still occasionally occupied his thoughts.

Thus, he concluded that even though Hannah had moved on with Ronin, part of her heart must still belong to him.

The thought brought a faint, smug smile to his lips.

He even entertained the possibility that her involvement with Ronin was merely a ploy to regain his attention.

His eyes shifted to the voting leaderboard, where Owen topped the male contestants. A wave of disbelief washed over him as he found himself trailing by fifty votes.

‘Since when does someone like Hannah get to be number one?’ he thought. ‘I’m the Piano Prince, for heaven’s sake, talented and well-mannered, the complete package. How did I end up as second best?’

In a fit of pique, he cast a vote for himself.

The voting rules were clear. Each person had exactly one vote to cast.

After submitting his own vote, Jasper turned to Owen, who was seated behind him. “Hey Owen, have you voted in the campus queen and king poll yet?”

Owen didn’t even look up from his test papers. “No. I’d rather spend my time solving more problems than waste it on something like that.”

“Then let me have your vote,” Jasper pressed.

Owen finally paused his writing and glanced up. “I thought you said these popularity contests were stupid.”

“Well, that was before I saw Hannah in first place while I’m stuck in second,” Jasper retorted. “I can’t accept that.”

“Hannah’s running?” Owen immediately set down his pencil and opened the forum on his phone.

There she was, Hannah, leading the women’s division by a wide margin.

In the men’s rankings, Owen held first place, with Jasper trailing by just 49 votes.

Suddenly, Owen had a change of heart. If Hannah was participating, he wanted to be part of it too. He wanted to share that stage with her.

Without hesitation, he cast his vote for himself.

“Wait.” Jasper tried to protest, but the confirmation message had already flashed across Owen’s screen.

After voting for himself, Owen promptly shared the voting page in their class group chat and posted it across his social media feeds.

“I thought you said this was a waste of time?” Jasper stared in disbelief.

“This is an official school event,” Owen stated matter-of-factly. “As a member of this community and given my family’s long connection to the institution, it’s only right that I participate actively.”

Jasper was left speechless, thinking, “That’s not what you said five minutes ago!’

He watched as Owen returned to the voting page and cast his ballot for Hannah.

“Why are you voting for her…” Jasper started.

“Have you used your

women’s division vote yet?” Owen cut him off. “You should vote for Hannah.”

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Chapter 72

“No way,” Jasper refused flatly. “That provincial girl doesn’t deserve my vote.”

Owen’s expression tightened at the description. “Don’t call her that, Jasper.”

Seeing how defensive Owen was of Hannah, Jasper felt an odd twinge of irritation.

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He said, “What? It’s true. She’s from the middle of nowhere. Even if she wins this round, she’ll never make it through the speech competition. Why should she take up the spotlight?”

“She’ll do just fine,” Owen said with unwavering certainty.

The plagiarism incident from Hannah’s entrance exam had never been properly addressed. Back then, Owen had merely posted a brief clarification on the school forum, calling it a misunderstanding, and the administration had let the matter drop without any formal resolution.

Most students assumed the school had simply shown mercy, leaving them with the impression that Hannah was nothing more than a backwater girl who’d exploited connections to get ahead.

The truth, however, was quite different. Hannah was genuinely exceptional. Had Owen and the influential Croft family not intervened, and had Wolfram not personally asked her to let it go, she wouldn’t have been unfairly labeled this way.

The memory stirred a pang of guilt in Owen. He silently vowed to make it up to her and to take his own studies more seriously.

“You’ll see how capable she is during the speech round,” he said simply.

Jasper studied Owen’s unwavering expression, a suspicion forming in his mind. ‘Has Hannah been working her charms on Owen too?’

‘That girl might look innocent on the outside, Jasper fumed inwardly, ‘but there’s something calculating beneath the surface. I won’t let Owen be fooled by her. When the speech competition comes, I’ll make sure everyone sees her for what she really

is.’

*****

The campus queen and king elections had been heating up all week, with the top ten finalists for each category scheduled to be announced Friday evening.

Hannah, meanwhile, remained completely absorbed in her laboratory work, meticulously isolating the Obsidian Pearl for her pharmaceutical research. The popularity contest was the furthest thing from her mind.

During lunch in the cafeteria that Friday, she found herself checking her phone repeatedly.

It had been a full week since the auction, and there was still no word from Barnaby.

‘Has he given up on treatment?’ she wondered. ‘Or did he hear the Obsidian Pearl went to another bidder and decided to abandon all hope?”

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