The Alpaca Fake Heiress

On my wedding anniversary, my three-year-old son gave me an alpaca as a gift. I turned right around and shipped it off to the circus, where I found it a strapping alpaca husband. All because I'd been reborn. In my last life, that alpaca was sweet and gentle with everyone—except me. Every single day, it spat on me. Determined not to disappoint my son, I tried everything to win it over, but nothing worked. My mind unraveled. I stopped sleeping. I started hearing things that weren't there, and every night I dreamed of that alpaca chasing me down to spit in my face. My husband called me vicious. My son called me petty. And the two of them only grew closer to that alpaca by the day. Worn down and broken, I swallowed an entire bottle of sleeping pills and ended it. Floating above my own body after death, I watched in shock as it stood back up on its own. My son ran sobbing into "my" arms. "Mom, you're finally not an alpaca anymore!" My husband smiled and pulled them both into an embrace. "Nadia, you've been through so much. If it weren't for needing a healthy body to move your soul into, you'd never have had to suffer inside that alpaca for two years." That was when I finally understood. That alpaca had been Nadia Salem all along—the sickly impostor who'd stolen my identity for over twenty years. Chapter 1 It was my wedding anniversary. I was sitting on the couch when my three-year-old son, Leo Graham, led a white alpaca into the room. "Mom!" he called out in his sweet little voice. "This is my present for you—her name is Sugar!" My husband, Julian Graham, walked in behind him, smiling gently. "He picked her out himself. Took him forever. He said this way, you won't be lonely when you're home alone." I looked at the alpaca. It tilted its head and studied me, the way you'd size up a piece of furniture to see if it fit the room. "Thank you, sweetheart." I crouched down and ruffled Leo's hair. "Mommy loves her." The words had barely left my mouth when the alpaca opened its mouth and spat—a wad of yellow-green saliva right across my face, thick and slimy, dripping down the bridge of my nose. I calmly pulled out the tissues I'd already prepared and wiped the spit off. Because I'd been reborn. In my last life, this same alpaca had done the exact same thing the very first time we met. It spat on me, and it never stopped. I thought it was just stress from a new environment, and for my son's sake, I tried everything I could think of to win it over—feeding it by hand, walking it every day, buying it snacks and toys, even dressing it up. None of it mattered. It kept spitting on me anyway. When Julian touched it, it nuzzled into his hand and preened. Leo could ride on its back and race it through the house. Even the housekeeper who came in to cook got a friendly greeting from it. Only me. Every time it saw me, it spat. On my face, on my clothes, in my bowl. There was no escaping it. Whenever I brought up giving it away, Leo would burst into tears. "You must be mean to her! Sugar never spits on me!" And Julian would grow impatient. "How petty do you have to be to hold a grudge against an alpaca? Our son gave her to you as a gift. Can't you just be gracious about it?" I endured it for two years. During the day, I heard the sound of spitting even when nothing was there. At night, I couldn't sleep, and the moment I closed my eyes, I dreamed of that alpaca chasing me down to spit in my face. I went to the hospital, and the doctors told me, again and again, that there was nothing physically wrong with me—it was all in my head. My husband and son grew colder toward me by the day. Even when we visited my parents, they only ever brought the alpaca along and left me at home. In the end, I couldn't take it anymore. I gave up and killed myself. That was when I finally learned the truth: the alpaca was home to the soul of Nadia Salem, the impostor who'd stolen my identity for over twenty years. She'd been sickly since childhood, and the whole family had doted on her like she was made of glass. Meanwhile, once I'd been brought back into that wealthy Salem household, everyone treated me like I was crude and unrefined. Only Julian never seemed to mind. He married me. He gave me a home. I thought he actually loved me. As it turned out, all he'd ever needed was a healthy body for a sickly Nadia to move into. Even the son I'd carried for nine months and loved with my whole heart—Julian had swapped Nadia's egg in for mine. Even my own biological parents had known the whole time. All those years they'd singled me out and made my life hell, it had been deliberate—to push me straight into Julian's arms all the faster. Every time that alpaca spat on me, a little more of Nadia's soul had slipped into my body. The more it spat, the more she took. Two years later, they finally got what they wanted. I opened my eyes again, and I was back on my wedding anniversary. Julian looked a little embarrassed. Leo's small face darkened, and he yanked my hand away from Sugar. "Mom, you scared her!" He wrapped his arms around the alpaca's neck, murmuring reassurances. Sugar nuzzled affectionately against the top of his head, then shot me a sly, provoking glance. I smiled. "Well, since she doesn't seem to like me, I probably won't be able to take care of her properly. Maybe we should just send her back?" Chapter 2 Leo panicked. "No!" he shouted. Julian's expression shifted too, and he rushed to smooth things over. "It's Sugar's first time meeting you. She's probably just not used to you yet. Give it a few days, and you two will get along fine. Leo picked her out especially for you. Don't let it go to waste." I looked between the two of them. Both were tense, both clearly worried their little plan might fall apart. I nodded. "Mommy loves this present. Her name's Sugar, right? I'll take good care of her." Leo let out a breath of relief, and the tightness in Julian's shoulders eased. I smiled and crouched down, ruffling my son's hair. "Why don't you two go get her a place to stay? She likes you both, so I'm sure she'll be happy with whatever room you set up. Let me spend some time alone with Sugar first—just the two of us, to get to know each other." I herded father and son into the study, then led the alpaca out to the yard. We'd barely taken two steps before it opened its mouth to spit again. I sidestepped it easily. The saliva hit the ground and hissed, bubbling where it landed. That was no ordinary alpaca spit. That was pure resentment—Nadia's resentment. Julian lingered at the door a moment longer before finally shutting it, satisfied. Alone in the yard with the alpaca, it tilted its head at me, eyes full of open defiance, and opened its mouth to spit again. I was ready for it. I pulled a long pole out from behind my back, a U-shaped fork fastened to the end, and pinned its neck to the ground with one precise motion. Its legs kicked wildly, but it couldn't break free. I leaned in close and lowered my voice. "From now on, I'm the one who spends the most time with you every single day. Cross me, and you won't like what happens. I could run this fork straight through you right now. Don't think I won't." Fear flickered in the alpaca's eyes, and it let out one last, desperate shriek. The two of them came running out at the sound. When they saw me holding the alpaca down with the fork, their faces twisted with anger. Julian's face went ashen. "Evelyn, what do you think you're doing?!" Leo barreled into me like a little cannonball, shoving me back. "You mean lady! Don't you hurt Sugar!" I stood my ground and pulled the fork back. The alpaca scrambled up at once and ran a few steps toward father and son, staring me down. I put on my most innocent face. "Why are you two overreacting like this? Sugar and I were just playing around. Here, feel it—it's stuffed with cotton. It wouldn't have hurt her at all." Both of them froze, mouths opening and closing, at a loss for words. I smiled. "Like I said, I'm just trying to bond with her." It took Julian a moment to recover before he patted his son on the back. "Go apologize to your mother. You shouldn't have said that to her just now." Leo apologized, clearly reluctant. I turned and walked back into the living room, hiding the chill in my eyes. Not this life. This time, I'd make her pay back every single thing she owed me—one mouthful at a time. Chapter 3 That night before bed, Leo didn't beg me for a bedtime story the way he usually did. "Mom, I want Sugar to sleep with me." With that, he climbed onto the alpaca's back and rode her, giddy with excitement, back to his room. Julian watched them go, his eyes holding a tenderness I'd never once seen him look at me with. Watching my son wrap his arms tightly around that alpaca's neck felt like something twisting inside my chest. Of course. No matter what I did, a child that wasn't really mine would never truly bond with me. Half an hour later, once Leo had fallen asleep, the alpaca strolled out of his room as if it owned the place. I moved to lead it to the study. It dodged my hand with a quick hop and spat on me instead. Julian walked over to it and looked at me. "Evie, maybe Sugar doesn't want to sleep alone in the study. Why don't we just let her sleep with us?" He stroked the alpaca's head affectionately. "Come on, Sugar, give Mommy some love." The alpaca tilted its head and let out another wet "phht." I pulled two tissues from my pocket, wiped the spit off my skin, and turned toward the bedroom. "My sleep's already bad enough. If she spits on me in the middle of the night, it'll wake me up. Let's just let her stay in the study." My expression must have been less than pleasant, because Julian didn't push back. He let the matter drop and shut the alpaca in the study. "Fine. Sugar will just have to make do tonight." Before the door closed, the alpaca turned and fixed me with a stare full of pure malice. In the middle of the night, I was drifting in and out of sleep when I felt warm breath gust across my face. A second later, something cold brushed my skin. My eyes snapped open. The alpaca was standing right beside the bed, staring straight at my face, mouth opening for another spit. I had no idea how it had gotten in. But I'd been ready for this. The first thing I'd done after being reborn was travel to the outskirts of the city, to Cloudpeak Hermitage, and ask the old hermit there, Master Alaric, for a protective charm. I reached under my pillow and closed my fist around it. The alpaca went rigid, as if an invisible hand had closed around its throat. It tried to cry out and couldn't. Its legs buckled beneath it, and it collapsed to the floor, the light in its eyes dimming by half. I pulled out a wet wipe and calmly cleaned my face. Then I looked down at it. "Feeling good?" It couldn't speak. It could only tremble. The next morning, the first thing Leo did after waking up was run to check on the alpaca. He found it slumped weakly on the floor, its coat dull, its eyes half-shut. "What happened to Sugar?!" he cried out. Julian came over at the sound. The alpaca lifted its head with visible effort, its eyes pitiful. He turned to me, brow furrowed. "Did you find her in the bedroom last night and hit her out of anger?" Leo glared at me too, his face full of fury. "Mom, you're mean! You're the one who made Sugar sick!" I crouched down and looked at my son calmly. "Leo, Mommy was asleep the whole night. I didn't do anything. Maybe Sugar's just not adjusting well to the new room. "And doesn't it strike either of you as strange that an alpaca opened two separate doors to get from the study into our bedroom?" Both their expressions tightened at that. Right then, the alpaca strained to lift its head and spat weakly onto my knee. Leo threw his arms around it, crying. "Look, she's like this, and she still spat on you! You must have hurt her yesterday!" Julian's voice went grim. "Evelyn, since when have you gotten this petty, picking fights with a little pet? If she only spits on you, that means she can sense your hostility toward her. Maybe you should be the one doing some soul-searching." Whatever warmth I'd had left in my heart went cold for good. It had been exactly like this in my last life too. Whether it was the alpaca or Nadia herself, whenever there was a conflict, I was always the one in the wrong. Even though she was the one who'd stolen my identity for over twenty years. While she'd lived in luxury with the Salems, I'd been scavenging trash to pay for school. While the whole family doted on her, my foster parents had nearly sold me off to some mountain village in exchange for money. She'd even used my womb to bring her child into the world. And still, in their eyes, Nadia remained the victim—even hiding inside an alpaca, even as she tried to steal my life out from under me. I wiped the spit off my knee and walked away. Not this life. I wouldn't give anyone another chance. Chapter 4 I went back inside, shut the bedroom door, and pulled a bottle of potion out of a drawer. If the alpaca drank it, the backlash would hit her hard. Every time she spat, a piece of Nadia's soul dissolved—and the more she spat, the faster it would happen. But the alpaca was smart. Anything I tried to feed her, she kicked over without fail. She only ate obediently once Julian and Leo were around. When they weren't home, she'd rather go hungry and thirsty than touch anything I offered. My son accused me, "You're obviously not being patient with Sugar. That's why she doesn't like you!" Julian backed him up. "Spend more time bonding with her instead of scowling all the time. If she doesn't like you, then figure out how to win her over. This is the anniversary gift our son picked out for you. If you two can't get along, think how upset that'll make Leo." I sneered inwardly while outwardly playing the picture of humble compliance. "I understand. I'll be gentler with her." I crouched down and held some feed up to the alpaca's mouth. "Good girl, Sugar, just take one bite for me." She didn't so much as glance at it. Instead, she reared back and kicked me hard enough to knock me to my knees, spitting on me in the same motion. Rather than checking on me, Leo yanked the feed straight out of my hands and held it up to her mouth himself. She shot me a scornful, superior glance before taking her time chewing it down. Leo glared at me with disgust. "You awful woman. Sugar's the most sensitive animal in the world. She only won't eat it because you mean her harm." I watched her finish every last bit of the feed and fought to keep the corner of my mouth from curling up. Of course, I'd known she wouldn't take it from me. I'd wanted Leo to get impatient and feed her himself, all along—because that feed had been soaked in the potion. That night at dinner, Julian brought something up. "By the way, the kindergarten's arranged a week-long study trip abroad next week. I'll take Leo this time." Leo cheered. I set down my spoon and looked at the two of them. In my last life, I'd always been the one to take our son on these trips. This time, Julian had volunteered on his own—all so he could leave me alone at home with the alpaca, giving Nadia the perfect opportunity to speed up her takeover of my body. I smiled and nodded, then helped them pack. "Good, you two have fun. I'll take good care of Sugar while you're gone." Julian nodded, satisfied. Leo gave me a smile I hadn't seen from him in far too long. The next morning, I saw them off. The alpaca lingered nearby, clearly reluctant to see them go, nuzzling Julian's hand and pressing a kiss to Leo's cheek. The moment the car pulled out of the driveway, my expression turned cold. Sensing danger, the alpaca spat at me again. I sidestepped it without effort, grabbed the long fork, clamped it around her neck, and tied her to a post by the door. Then I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I'd already saved. "Hello, is this Silver Star Circus? I heard you recently brought in a new male alpaca?" The voice on the other end laughed. "That's right, just imported from South America. Strong as an ox—only problem is he's in rut nonstop and hard to manage. We've been at our wits' end with him." By the door, the alpaca lifted her head, eyes wary. "I happen to have a female alpaca," I said. "She'd be perfect to pair with yours for breeding." The voice paused for two seconds before agreeing eagerly. "That'd be perfect! When can you bring her by?" "Today works." I hung up and looked down at the alpaca crouched on the ground. She'd understood every word—her whole body was shaking uncontrollably now. I smiled at her and pulled the rope tighter. "Don't worry. The good days are just getting started for you. Just don't complain if your new husband spits more than you do."