The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 09
I opened the glass balcony door and walked toward the railing.
The cold wind lifted my long hair.
I looked down at the three of them like the defeated strays they had become.
A faint smile touched my lips.
“Julian.”
My voice wasn’t loud.
But everyone below heard it clearly.
“Did you just say you wanted to marry me?”
Julian’s eyes lit up instantly.
It was like I’d thrown him a rope while he was drowning.
He nodded frantically and shuffled forward on his knees.
“Yes!”
“Just say the word and we’ll go to City Hall right now!”
“I swear I’ll never look at another woman again.”
“I’ll treat you well. I promise!”
I laughed.
“But Julian, did you forget what you said a few days ago?”
I slowly repeated his own words.
“You said that unless I apologized to Claire immediately, the Prescott family would publicly terminate our engagement the next day.”
I tilted my head.
“What happened?”
His face stiffened.
My expression turned colder.
“Did the Prescotts lose their spine the moment their stock tanked?”
“I don’t even respect the Sterlings’ idea of class.”
“What makes you think I’d want a spineless piece of trash like you?”
Julian’s face turned paper-white.
His mouth opened.
But the second he met my eyes, he couldn’t force out another word.
He finally understood.
The moment he had taken Claire’s side and looked down on me, he had permanently destroyed his only chance of entering the true upper echelon.
“Elena…”
Alexander stared up at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Does it really have to go this far?”
“The Sterling family is your family too!”
“Even if you hate me, are you really going to destroy everything your biological father spent his life building?”
He was still trying to crush me beneath his version of “reason” and “the greater good.”
I stared at him coldly.
“Alexander, you’re still lecturing me about the bigger picture?”
“What did you tell me when you made me sign away my rights to the family trust?”
“You said that as long as I behaved, the Sterling family would make sure I had food to eat.”
“I’m simply returning the favor.”
I turned my back on them.
“After Sterling Holdings finishes bankruptcy proceedings, the Harrington Foundation will buy you a roughly six-hundred-and-fifty-square-foot apartment in Queens.”
“As long as you behave, I’ll give you five hundred dollars a month.”
“You won’t starve.”
“Consider that the last courtesy I’ll extend to you because we share the same blood.”
Victoria let out a broken wail.
Then she fainted.
Alexander collapsed onto the pavement.
His eyes went empty.
It looked as though someone had drained the soul from his body.
I walked back inside and shut the balcony door.
The glass sealed away the wind and their cries.
At that moment, Damian called.
“Princess, good news.”
He made no effort to hide the excitement in his voice.
“We traced every transaction connected to Claire’s offshore account.”
“She didn’t just siphon money out of the Sterling family.”
“She’s also tied to an international medical-device fraud scheme.”
“We’ve handed the evidence to the FBI.”
I leaned back against the couch and looked through the windows at the sky.
Then I exhaled softly.
“I told you.”
“She was never very good at this.”
“She couldn’t even move money without leaving obvious evidence.”
“Tell the FBI not to go easy on her.”
I stared into my coffee.
My voice remained as casual as if I were discussing the weather.
“She likes pretending she’s sick, doesn’t she?”
“Maybe prison will cure that heart condition that only seems to flare up when money’s involved.”