The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 02
The entire room went silent.
Claire’s rapidly heaving chest actually stopped for a fraction of a second.
Then she immediately began breathing even harder, fresh tears streaming down her face.
“Elena… I’m not faking it…”
She sagged weakly against Victoria, her voice fragile enough to shatter.
“If you don’t believe me, you can look at my medical records. I really… I really am sick…”
Victoria looked devastated.
She lifted her head.
Her eyes, so similar to mine, were filled with undisguised disappointment.
“Elena, what happened to you out there that made you so hostile toward everyone?”
She didn’t shout.
Instead, she sighed with exhausted sadness.
“Claire has needed doctors since she was a little girl. You have no idea how much she’s suffered.”
“You don’t have a shred of affection for your sister, and now you’re accusing her of something this cruel.”
“Would it only feel fair to you if she died right in front of you?”
I stood beneath the glittering crystal chandelier and listened to my biological mother pass moral judgment on me.
I felt nothing.
I’d already experienced what true favoritism looked like in the Harrington and Whitmore families.
Mrs. Harrington had been so worried I might be mistreated that she transferred twelve percent of the family foundation’s voting rights to me.
The head of the Whitmore family had worried I might get bored, so he gave me joint control over one of their investment funds.
Compared with that, the Sterlings’ cheap emotional blackmail felt like children playing house.
“You’re right, Mother.”
I nodded sincerely.
“I don’t feel any sisterly affection toward her.”
“I grew up in foster care. Nobody taught me how to love someone who spent more than twenty years living in the place that should’ve been mine.”
“If seeing me bothers you that much, call me a car and send me back.”
“I’m not picky about what kind.”
Alexander’s expression darkened completely.
He probably had never met anyone like me before.
In their version of this reunion, I was supposed to bend over backward trying to win their approval.
Or throw tantrums because I was jealous of Claire.
Instead, I stood there like an outsider watching their family drama for entertainment.
“Elena, you don’t need to keep weaponizing your childhood to hurt our parents.”
Alexander walked to the couch and sat down, crossing one leg elegantly over the other.
“Now that you’re back with the Sterling family, you need to follow Sterling rules.”
He pulled a thick document from beneath the coffee table and pushed it toward me.
“This is a settlement agreement concerning the family trust.”
“To prove that you didn’t come back for Sterling assets, and to give Claire peace of mind while she focuses on her health, you’ll sign away your beneficiary rights.”
“As long as you behave, the Sterling family will provide for you.”
“I can even try to preserve your engagement to the Prescotts.”
He delivered outright robbery in the calmest, most reasonable tone imaginable.
As though forcing me to surrender what was rightfully mine was some extraordinary act of generosity.
Julian stood nearby with a mocking curve to his lips.
“Miss Sterling, I suggest you take what you can get.”
“Without the Sterling name behind you, you wouldn’t even be qualified to stand here and speak to me.”
I stared at the beautifully bound agreement on the table.
Then I laughed softly.
The first time, Mrs. Harrington had pretended to be sick in bed for two weeks just to pressure me into accepting trust rights.
The second time, the Whitmores had sent documents granting me control of an investment fund directly to the front desk of my favorite restaurant because I kept refusing to sign them.
And now my own biological brother was testing my limits by asking me to sign away a trust.
“Elena, don’t blame Alexander…”
With Victoria supporting her, Claire sat down on the couch and looked at me with red-rimmed eyes.
“Those assets belong to you anyway. I don’t want a cent.”
“Alexander’s just afraid money will create problems between us as a family…”
She started gasping again.
I picked up the Montblanc pen on the table.
Without even reading the agreement, I flipped to the last page and signed my name.
Quickly.
Without hesitation.
Alexander froze.
Apparently, he hadn’t expected me to agree so easily.
Julian frowned too, studying me more closely.
“Done.”
I tossed the pen onto the table with a crisp clack.
“But Mr. Sterling…”
I looked at Alexander with a faint smile.
“Now that I’ve surrendered my rights as a beneficiary of the Sterling family trust…”
“If the Sterling family ever runs into cash-flow problems, make sure you don’t come asking me for a loan.”