My 'Brother' Is The Real Imposter

After our driver's daughter moved in, Blake-my already resentful adoptive brother-grew to hate me even more.

She looked like him. That, in his mind, was proof enough: I was the impostor, and she was the real heiress.

Frankly, I couldn't be bothered to argue.

Then came my eighteenth birthday. Blake showed up with the driver's daughter to stake her claim.

He turned to our parents, expecting a standing ovation. Mom, Dad, this is your real daughter, my real sister! Avery's the fake."

Then he threw a DNA report in my face. You've stolen my sister's life for eighteen years. Get out of this house!"

Behind him, Sierra's eyes welled up with practiced tears. "I only want...my real family."

A collective gasp tore through the room. Mom and Dad stood frozen.

But as I stared at the report that confirmed they were siblings, a cold, sudden laugh rose in my chest.

"What if... you're the fake son?"

I'm Avery Maxwell, the heiress to the powerful Maxwell family.

Tonight was my eighteenth birthday. My parents had booked the grandest ballroom in the city and filled it with every important person they knew.

I stood at the center of it all, radiant in a custom gown, the undisputed star of the evening.

What I never expected was for my brother, Blake, to try to burn the whole party down.

"Avery is a fraud! She has no right to be here!"

Blake marched into the center of the room, dragging our driver's daughter, Sierra, behind him. He looked at me with pure contempt, as if I were something he'd scraped off his shoe.

Sierra shrank behind him, her eyes already glistening with unshed tears.

My parents stared, completely bewildered. My mother gestured subtly for him to stop. My father's voice was low and stern. Blake, you're late to your sister's birthday, and now you make a spectacle? Explain yourself."

"Blake, sweetheart, my mother tried, her voice pleading. You and Avery quarrel, but tonight is her night. Please, have some respect."

Blake ignored them. He raised a finger and pointed straight at me, his voice hard.

"Avery is not a Maxwell. She was switched at birth. A fake. The real Maxwell daughter is Sierra!"

He pushed Sierra forward, presenting her to our parents like a winning trophy.

"Mom, Dad, this is your real daughter. My real sister. Look at her. She even looks like me. That's all the proof you need."

Blake's words detonated in the room, shredding the polite chatter to pieces.

Eyes darted between the three of us. Whispers spread like a current.

"You know...the Maxwell siblings never did look alike."

"But Blake and that girl... they look like twins."

"Do you think it's true?"

"Well, this party just got interesting."

Mom and Dad exchanged a shocked glance, muttering, "Blake and Sierra do look alike..."

Blake soaked in the whispers and pointed fingers directed at me, his eyes gleaming with hatred and triumph.

I just watched him, my expression unreadable. "Blake, have you been binging too many 'swapped at birth' stories? You say I'm fake, and that makes it true?"

I knew Blake had hated me since we were kids.

Maybe it was because I was the older sister, and I'd stolen half of Mom and Dad's affection. Or maybe because I outshone him in everything, always stealing his thunder...

Whatever the reason, he always looked for ways to put me down, wishing I wasn't his sister.

After he got hooked on those 'fake heiress' web novels, he became absolutely convinced that I was swapped at birth and that Jim's daughter, who looked like him, was the true Maxwell heiress.

So, Blake pulling this stunt today? Honestly, it wasn't much of a surprise.

Blake, seeing I wasn't at all scared of being thrown out, became agitated.

He sneered, "Avery, you've got some nerve! Let me tell you, you're not leeching off my family any longer. If you know what's good for you, just pack your bags and leave!"

Before I could even respond, my parents, who had finally recovered from their shock, spoke up.

Dad sternly reprimanded Blake, his voice harsher than I'd ever heard it. "Blake! Where are your manners? Avery is your sister! How can you say something so incredibly disrespectful?!"

Mom quickly agreed. "That's right, Blake. You and Avery can bicker all you want on a normal day, but this is Avery's big moment. Show some decency!"

But Blake seemed not to hear them. Instead, he yelled back at Mom and Dad.

"Avery isn't my sister! Sierra is my sister! You should be worried about all the suffering Sierra endured these eighteen years, not fussing over Avery, the imposter!"

As Blake finished, Sierra nervously twisted her dress hem, her shoulders trembling with quiet sobs, her voice barely a choked whisper.

"I just want to come home... If you don't like me, I can leave..."

She said, timidly glancing up at Mom and Dad, then quickly dropping her gaze as tears streamed down her face, looking utterly heartbroken and wronged.

Mom couldn't stand it. She tried to comfort her. "Sweetie, we haven't figured things out yet-"

But before Mom could finish, Sierra's tears intensified, and her sobs grew louder.

Seeing Sierra's pitiful, wounded display, Blake's heart twisted with sympathy.

He pulled Sierra behind him, declaring with a fierce protectiveness, "Don't worry, Sierra. I, Blake Maxwell, only recognize you as my sister. You belong to the Maxwell family!"

The crowd erupted again, even more agitated.

They started pitying Sierra, and their gazes, once admiring, now held a flicker of disdain for me.

"That poor girl, her real parents are right there, yet she has to endure this."

"The Maxwells are so biased, how can they favor the swapped child over their own flesh and blood for eighteen years?"

"Avery is truly wicked, enjoying someone else's wealth for eighteen years and now refusing to give it up!"

Mom and Dad's faces flushed from white to red under the weight of these whispered judgments.

And me? Listening to them champion Sierra's supposed injustice, I just found it laughable.

I coolly scanned the room, then let out a sarcastic laugh. "Nothing's been confirmed yet. Don't be so quick to show your true colors!"

Before this 'fake heiress' drama began, they'd all fawned over me, the Maxwell heiress. Now, without a single piece of hard proof, they were already scrambling to cozy up to the real' one.

They were sharp. They heard the ice in my voice. Their smiles tightened, but out of respect for the Maxwell name, they held their tongues.

Then I turned to Blake, my voice sharp. "Blake, you're making a spectacle of the Maxwell name and our parents over nothing but a passing resemblance. Show me the proof. Or you and your friend can leave!"

Blake had been chastised by me countless times growing up, and he already harbored resentment. Now, being lectured in front of so many people, his face turned beet red with fury.

Blake glared at me, then yanked a document from his pocket and slapped it against my cheek with a sharp crack.

"Avery, open your goddamn eyes, you leech!?You're?the one who needs to get out!"

It was a DNA paternity report.

"I was going to let you keep some dignity. Clearly, you don't deserve it."

At the same moment, the report flashed onto the giant LCD screen behind us.

Test result: Sample 1 (Blake Maxwell) and Sample 2 (Sierra Jim) confirmed sibling relationship.

"See for yourselves! Blake waved the report overhead. My DNA test with Sierra proves we're siblings!

He paused, his gaze deliberately finding me before he drove the point home. The evidence is right here. Sierra is the real Maxwell heiress. Avery...she has no blood tie to this family at all"

He was shouting now, as if I were standing across a field.

My parents stood frozen, their eyes wide with shock and disbelief.

Dad's brow furrowed. "This report... Blake and Sierra are truly siblings?!"

Mom's voice trembled. "How can this be...?"

The room erupted. The whispers now were louder than before.

"The results are in! Avery really is the fake!"

"The Maxwells must be sick. Their own daughter suffered for eighteen years while they spoiled a stranger."

"Did you see how high and mighty Avery was acting? Talk about karma."

"Exactly. Prancing around in a stolen life. Let's see her talk her way out of?this."

...

I went from being the pampered heiress of a wealthy family to a fake heiress everyone could scorn.

Blake lifted his chin smugly and gave me my marching orders. "Avery, nothing to say now, huh? Get out, quickly!"

Sierra tugged on Blake's sleeve, timidly saying, "Blake, maybe... maybe we should just let it go. After all, Mom and Dad did raise Avery for eighteen years."

Her 'kind and magnanimous' act only made me seem like a monstrous villain.

I watched their little performance quietly, with no intention of leaving. "Blake, the Maxwell family isn't yours to command!"

Blake scowled, then directly signaled the bodyguards to drag me out.

"You're out of line, Avery Maxwell! Today, I'm going to make you realize who the true owner of this family is! A common nobody doesn't deserve designer clothes-strip her of that dress and throw her out!"

Several bodyguards moved to grab me, but before their hands could even touch me, Dad's cold voice stopped them.

"Stop! Who dares lay a hand on my daughter?!"

Dad's voice carried an unquestionable authority, and Mom quickly stepped forward, shielding me.

The bodyguards froze instantly, exchanging nervous glances, not daring to advance.

Seeing this, Blake's eyes turned red. He couldn't believe that even with the DNA report right in front of them, Mom and Dad were still protecting me, an outsider.

He lost control, roaring at Mom and Dad.

"Dad! Mom! Have you gone senile?!"

"Sierra and I are the real Maxwells! How can you ignore your own flesh and blood and pour your hearts out to Avery, this imposter?!"

Mom and Dad's expressions were complex. After a long moment, they simply said, "Avery is a Maxwell."

Their voices weren't loud, but they carried an unshakeable resolve.

In that moment, a warmth spread through my chest.

No matter what happened, Mom and Dad would always be my shield.

Blake, however, was like a lit firecracker, his face contorted with resentment and fury.

Sierra, too, began to sob dramatically, her cries heartbreaking, as if she'd suffered the greatest injustice.

"It's all my fault... If I hadn't shown up, I wouldn't have made Mom and Dad so difficult, wouldn't have made Blake so miserable... I really shouldn't have come back..."

She spoke, then stumbled, as if about to run out, embodying a martyr. Blake immediately grabbed her, comforting her. "Sierra, don't run! This is your home, Avery is the one who should leave!"

Sierra looked at Blake through tear-filled eyes, then timidly gazed at Mom and Dad.

"I truly don't want to cause you trouble. I just want to return to my real mom and dad. Why is it so hard?!"

Just then, Jim, the driver, pushed through the outer edges of the crowd.

As soon as he entered, he knelt down with a thud before Mom and Dad.

"Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell, both children... we truly wronged you! That year at the hospital, my wife, in a moment of confusion, swapped the two babies!"

Jim wept, his old eyes flooding with tears, his remorse complete.

"Now I have only one wish: for Sierra to come back to her real family. Avery has taken eighteen years of her life. Our conscience can't bear it any longer. Sierra is a good girl. Please, I beg you, give her the chance to come home. As for Avery...she will come home with me."

Hearing this, Mom and Dad looked at each other. Their faces grew even more solemn.

"Jim, is what you're telling us about that year the complete truth?"

Jim nodded vigorously. "Every word of it, Mrs. Maxwell! My wife...she's lived with the guilt every single day. We never would have had the courage to come forward if Sierra hadn't started looking so much like Blake. It's all on us-please, blame me. Just don't take it out on Sierra."

Jim's words corroborated Sierra's claim, making Blake even more arrogant.

He stepped forward, pointing at my nose, his spit almost flying onto my face.

"Did you hear that, Avery?! Even Jim admitted it himself! You were maliciously swapped at birth!"

"With witnesses and evidence right here, you imposter, get out of the Maxwell mansion, now!"

Jim stood up, reaching for me, but I swiftly dodged his hand.

Sierra, fearing I wouldn't leave, frantically urged me.

"Avery, I know this is sudden for you, but our intertwined lives are a fact. Don't worry, I'll take good care of Mom and Dad in the Maxwell house. You can come back anytime you want. The Maxwell mansion will always be your second home."

Her voice was still choked with tears, but a hint of barely perceptible triumph laced it.

I shot her a cold glance, my malice undisguised. "Who do you think you are, to talk about taking care of my parents for me? My parents have me, they don't need you telling them what to do!"

My obstinate attitude once again drew a fresh wave of condemnation from the guests.

"How ill-mannered! Her biological father comes to pick her up, and she refuses to go."

"Eighteen years of someone else's wealth isn't enough for her? Her skin is thicker than a fortress wall!"

"The Maxwells wasted eighteen years raising such an ungrateful wretch!"

Then Blake slapped me hard across the face. "Avery, you shameless bitch! Who gave you the right to talk to my sister Sierra like that? A fake heiress should know her place! Don't push your luck."

My head snapped to the side, my cheek burning.

Mom and Dad moved to step forward, but I gently pressed their arms and stopped them.

I bent down, picked up the scattered DNA report from the floor, and found the line confirming their sibling relationship. I smiled.

"What if, Blake, you're the fake son? What if you are the one who needs to get out?"