Crippled By The Fake Heiress — And She Regretted It Chapter 08
A week later, news broke online that Gina would face a public trial.
I opened the livestream. Gina’s expression was as arrogant as ever.
“You think these chat logs—which might not even be real—are enough to convict me?”
“If you can’t produce solid evidence, let me go already!”
My lawyer was brilliant—silver-tongued and relentless. Without hard evidence to secure a conviction, he still managed to eviscerate her for two straight hours. He attacked sideways and from every angle, even working in the sham marriage between her and Alessio that had been used to deceive me.
Gina was so furious she was practically smoking at the ears, but she couldn’t outargue him.
“Counsel for the defense—I submit that this behavior is absolutely shameless. Wouldn’t you agree?”
My lawyer actually turned to Gina’s own defense attorney for validation.
Gina’s lawyer buried his face in his case files and refused to make a sound.
He just muttered under his breath: “Christ, money really does talk. If I’d known I’d get publicly humiliated like this, I never would’ve taken this idiot’s case.”
The entire courtroom nearly lost it trying not to laugh.
By the time the hearing ended, Gina’s face had gone from red to purple with rage. Absolutely priceless.
I still felt it was a shame, though. All this could do was destroy her reputation domestically. She was getting off easy.
But I hadn’t anticipated what my parents and Alessio would do to her next.
After that day’s hearing, a pall settled over the household.
Don Scarla hadn’t set foot in the office since the board ousted him.
Donna cried all day, every day. She begged Alessio to find me and bring me home, only to be told I refused to see him.
Then they discovered that I’d already erased every trace of my existence from that house. The gifts my parents had given me. Every memento between Alessio and me.
All of it—burned to ash in the study fireplace. Not a single photograph left behind.
“My Valentina… she must hate me, her own mother. I never should have been soft-hearted and listened to all of you…”
Donna wailed until Don Scarla’s patience snapped.
“Enough with the crying! We made this mistake together. What good does bawling do now?”
“Alessio—you said Valentina had surgery overseas? Find a way to wire her some money. It’s the least we can do to try to make amends…”
At that, Gina shot up from the sofa.
“Dad, you can’t send her money! She’s the one who did this to us—turned us into pariahs, hounded wherever we go. And you’re still taking her side!”
Her sudden outburst startled her son into wailing. Alessio scooped the boy into his arms and snapped at Gina.
“You’re scaring him! You’re the one who wronged Valentina in the first place. Everything we did was to protect you, to atone for what you’d done—how can you turn around and blame us?”
Gina’s eyes grew even darker.
“Don’t think I don’t know how many times you slept with Valentina these past five years. I didn’t even call you disgusting for it, and now you—you rotten piece of trash—dare lecture me?”
“Bullshit!” Alessio was so enraged he set down his son and raised his hand to slap her.
Crack!
Gina beat him to it. The slap left him reeling.
Don Scarla exploded.
“Look at yourself! Look at what you’ve become! We spoiled you rotten!”
Seeing the bloodlust in Gina’s eyes, he roared: “What—you want to hit me too?”
Something flickered behind Gina’s expression. A strange, eerie smile curled her lips.
“Dad, how could I ever bear to hit you?”
“My son is the sole future heir of the Scarla family. Of course I’ll take very good care of you.”
Hearing her finally speak her true mind, Don Scarla’s face flushed crimson with rage.
“In your dreams! Even if Valentina’s gone abroad, she’s still my biological daughter—we haven’t severed ties!”
“I’m calling my lawyer right now to draft a will. When I die, every last cent of the Scarla fortune will have nothing to do with you, Gina!”
“I’m cutting you off!”
Don Scarla pulled out his phone. Before he could dial, Gina slapped it out of his hand and sent it clattering to the floor.
She raised her heel and ground the phone to pieces beneath it.
“Dad. For twenty-five years—you and Mom loved me best. We were the real family. You want to abandon me? Give everything to that useless cripple Valentina? Over my dead body!”
“I served this family all these years. An adopted daughter has inheritance rights too. You can’t strip that from me!”
“Served?! You never served anyone!”
Donna couldn’t hold back any longer.
“From the day you were born, we never let you suffer a moment of hardship. Chauffeurs. Maids. Meanwhile Valentina—she grew up eating bitterness from the very start.”
“You’re jealous of her—but has it ever occurred to you that she’s our real daughter? If she hadn’t been swapped at birth, you’d never have had any of this!”
“Not only are you ungrateful—you’re jealous of her. You nearly killed her with that car! And even after all that, we still chose you. We protected you at her expense. We even lied to our own daughter. And this is how you repay us?”
“Mom! You were against covering for me from the very beginning, and now you’re saying you don’t favor Valentina over me?!”
Gina had never raised her voice at Donna like this. Not once in her life.
Donna clutched her chest. Her face turned purple.
“Mom!”
Alessio leapt up to find her medication.
Don Scarla, shaking with fury, cracked his palm across Gina’s face.
“Look what you’ve done! If anything happens to your mother, I’ll throw you out on the street!”
In all her life, they’d never laid a finger on Gina.
That single slap—it shattered whatever restraint she had left.
“You hit me—for that cripple Valentina?!”
She shoved him, hard. Don Scarla staggered backward.
He lost his footing. The back of his skull struck the marble coffee table.
Seeing him lying motionless on the floor, Gina snorted coldly. “Dad, quit the act. I’m not letting you make that phone call today.”
It wasn’t until she noticed Don Scarla’s eyes wide and staring, dark blood seeping steadily from the back of his head, that she realized something was wrong.
She crouched down trembling and checked his breath.
Her face drained of color. She scrambled backward on all fours.
“It’s not my fault… I didn’t mean to…”
At that moment, Alessio emerged with the medication. He took one look at the scene and let out a strangled scream.
“Gina—what did you do to Dad?!”
Gina scrambled up from the floor and lunged at him, clamping her hand over his mouth.
Donna, still on the ground, dragged herself painfully toward Don Scarla. When she saw he was no longer breathing, she let out a wail and collapsed unconscious.
Alessio bit down hard. Gina yelped and released him.
“Mom!”
He rushed over, trying to force the pills into Donna’s mouth—only to find she was already gone.
Since the scandal broke, Don Scarla had dismissed all the household staff. At this moment, the only people in that house were Alessio and Gina.
And their five-year-old son, sobbing hysterically in the corner.
“Gina—Mom and Dad were so good to you, and you killed them! I’m calling the police—”
Alessio’s eyes were bloodshot. Before he could finish his sentence, Gina grabbed the crystal ashtray from the side table and brought it crashing down on his skull.
She didn’t wait for him to scream. She struck again. And again. And again—until Alessio stopped moving entirely.
“You worthless man. You really thought you belonged to Valentina now? Go to hell.”
She knew there was no escaping a death sentence. And so, perversely, she was no longer afraid.
I received the housekeeper’s call that morning.
He told me Gina had set fire to the villa. Even her five-year-old son hadn’t been spared.
I was stunned for a moment when I heard.
But thinking about Gina’s spoiled, selfish nature—her volatile temper—it wasn’t hard to understand.
My parents and Alessio had lifted a stone only to crush their own feet.
They deserved it.
Three months later, my leg healed completely. I could stand and walk on my own.
I returned to the country and collected my parents’ ashes.
The shares Don Scarla had left behind in the Scarla family empire passed to me as his heir.
My new life was only just beginning.