He Thought I Was Poor, I’m the Heiress

The next day was the internship fair. Evan Clarke and Vanessa Whitmore walked into the hall side by side, with Vanessa's hand resting naturally on his arm. The moment Vanessa noticed classmates looking over, she smiled. She looked poised, radiant, and completely at ease, as if she had been waiting for this moment all day. "No need to guess, everyone," Vanessa announced. "Evan and that fish-market girl have broken up. I'm his girlfriend now, and we plan to get engaged after graduation." She lifted her chin slightly and added, "Evan was misled into that relationship. I was the one who helped him see the truth." Every pair of eyes in the room turned toward me. Whispers broke out all around. "So she's the one Vanessa was talking about? A fish-market girl actually dated Evan for two years. Unbelievable." "Look at that old button-down she's wearing. Definitely bargain-bin." "Our department produces future finance elites. How did she get in? Did Fairbridge University give her a special admission slot for professional fish gutting?" Laughter swept through the room, sharp and cruel. From that day on, I no longer had a name. They called me the fish-market princess. I ignored them. The internship fair was about to begin, and I had no interest in wasting time on them. When Vanessa saw that I did not react, her smile deepened. She tilted her head and looked at me with a sweet, mocking smile, her voice light and airy, as if she were teasing some pathetic little animal. "What's wrong? Did I hit a nerve?" she asked. "I suppose that makes sense. Fish-market girls aren't exactly known for being articulate. All they know how to do is scale fish. Right, Boss Sutton?" Evan laughed beside her. When Evan had first pursued me, he had shown me a very different side of himself. Back then, he came looking for me every day. He told me Vanessa was too aggressive, too calculating, and too transactional. He said being around her made him feel like he could barely breathe. He claimed he admired girls like me because I was hardworking, grounded, and real. He said we were the same kind of person. I had always known Vanessa hated me. She had chased Evan for two years, but he had never agreed to be with her. Instead, he had turned around and pursued me. In Vanessa's eyes, a fish-market girl had stolen the man she wanted. That alone was enough to humiliate her. Now, every inch of Vanessa's expression said the same thing. After two years of waiting, she finally thought she had won. It would be a lie to say it did not hurt. Just two days earlier, Evan had promised that after the internship fair, he would take me home to meet his parents. He had even said his mother wanted to meet me. But if one internship fair was all it took to show me who Evan and the people around him truly were before graduation, then perhaps this humiliation was not a disaster after all. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.