I Married The Real Billionaire Twin

After the reunion, I became the copycat my mother hated most.

Penny Lowell, the “Golden Girl,” had her Ivy League degree; I had my master’s from Metro U, earned in a blaze of three-month, hyper-focused study.

Penny returned from overseas to launch a startup; I founded a disruptive, industry-leading e-commerce fashion brand within a year.

Penny made the news for her charity work; I donated ten million dollars, securing the front-page headline.

They couldn’t stand me, but they couldn’t stop me.

Until I followed the fake sister’s lead and announced my own engagement a day after hers.

My birth mother, Vivian Holloway, who hadn’t spoken to me in three years, immediately called. She ordered me to delete my engagement photos.

“It’s one thing to constantly steal Penny’s spotlight, but now you’re trying to steal her fiancé, too? What exactly is your game, Scottie?”

In the background, Penny’s choked, tearful voice carried through the phone.

“Mom, don’t say that. I asked Spencer, and he swore he doesn’t even know a Scarlett Rhodes. That picture… she must have deliberately Photoshopped it just to spite me.”

Spencer.

My husband, the man I’d grown up with for eighteen years in the orphanage, had become hers?

But when Penny texted me her own engagement photo, I felt a familiar dread.

The groom was the spitting image of my fiancé.

1

I compared the two faces three times. They were virtually identical.

When I remained silent for too long, Vivian’s voice returned, laced with contempt.

“Scarlett Rhodes, caught red-handed, are we? Nothing to say now, is there?”

“I’m outside your door. Open up and talk this out.”

My mother looked at me like I was a cockroach until her eyes landed on the expensive basket of supplements I was carrying. Only then did she step aside, grudgingly allowing me entrance.

“At least you came to apologize. Maybe there’s hope for you yet.” She lowered her voice, a predatory edge to it. “I’m telling you now, give it up. I know you love competing with Penny, but the Ashworth family is old money, a major institution. They are not in your league, you desperate social climber!”

The Rhodes and the Ashworths were indeed old family friends, with a childhood engagement planned long ago. But the moment I was formally recognized, the Ashworths sent word that they only acknowledged Penelope Lowell as their future daughter-in-law. When they heard I was an influencer, they treated me with open contempt and refused to meet me.

“Well, you’ll be disappointed then.”

I raised my right hand, flashing the five-carat diamond on my ring finger.

“I’m climbing a much higher ladder than the Ashworths. The pompous, stuffy types? I honestly couldn’t be bothered.”

“And I’m not here to apologize. I’m here to drop off an invitation.” I gave a dismissive shrug. “My husband, Ashton Sinclair, is very particular about etiquette. He insisted I come, to avoid any regrets. It’s clear now there’s nothing worth regretting.”

As I turned to leave, Penny lunged forward, grabbing my arm. She held her hand next to mine.

The two diamond rings were terrifyingly, perfectly identical.

“You even copied the ring! You spent a fortune just to spite me, didn’t you?” she wailed. “And the invitation—you purposely made it the same! How long are you going to obsess over and harass me?”

She collapsed into my mother’s embrace, sobbing hysterically. “Is it just because I’m your daughter that I don’t deserve to be happy?”

Seeing Penny’s agony, my mother finally lost control.

The sound of the slap was sharp and deafening. SMACK.

Five stinging, fiery fingerprints bloomed across my cheek.

“If I had known you were such a shameless lunatic, I never would have claimed you!”

I pressed my hand to my burning face, suffocating in the silence, fighting the desperate urge to cry.

I’d started as a streamer, a niche internet personality. Because I looked exactly like a younger version of the famous actress, Vivian Holloway, people online kept jokingly pushing for a DNA test. It was supposed to be a gag, but a curious fan dug deeper. It turned out I really was Vivian’s biological daughter, switched at the hospital at birth.

Riding the massive wave of the public reunion, Vivian successfully re-launched her acting career. Penny, pretending to be my sweet, supportive sister, also ate up the red carpet attention, started her own account, and siphoned off my followers and brand deals. I didn’t mind at the time. I thought I had found real family.

But everything changed the moment I followed Penny’s own encouragement and got accepted to the Metropolitan University Master’s program.

I was immediately rebranded online as the calculating copycat who could only mimic others. Whatever I achieved, there was an instant influx of trolls claiming I was merely playing a bad cover song to Penny’s original hit.

I sank into a long period of quiet stagnation, retreating from the public eye.

Now, Vivian pointed a trembling, accusatory finger at me.

“If you want to still call me Mom, you will delete that post, apologize to Penny, and I will pretend none of this happened.”

I stubbornly lifted my chin.

“I’m your daughter, too.” My voice was barely a whisper. “Did you ever, even for a moment, consider believing me?”

The raw desperation in my voice seemed to momentarily crack my mother’s resolve; her eyes softened.

Penny’s sobs grew louder, immediately pulling Vivian back.

“Don’t pretend! How can two unrelated people look that much alike?”

She had a point. If I hadn’t grown up with Ashton, I might have started to doubt myself, too—wondering if the Ashworths were playing some elaborate prank on me with Penny.

Ashton was always a stickler for tradition. He had been nagging me to meet my future in-laws.

Now was the time.

“Believe me or not.” I finally met Vivian’s eyes, holding her gaze for the first time since I walked in. “Ashton Sinclair will visit in three days. Personally.”

“When he does, will you grant me an apology?”