“On my first day back with the Sterling family, their adopted daughter, Claire, dropped to her knees in front of me with an oxygen tank clutched to her side.
“Elena, I know you’re their real daughter.”
“If you think I stole the life that should’ve been yours, I can leave. I’m so sick anyway. I probably don’t have many years left.”
The second she finished speaking, tears spilled down her cheeks.
Before I could say a word, my biological mother, Victoria, rushed over and pulled her into her arms.
My older brother, Alexander, shot me a cold warning look.
“Claire’s had a heart condition since she was a child. You just got here. Don’t push her.”
Even Julian Prescott, the fiancé arranged for me through the Sterling-Prescott family alliance, spoke up with a hard expression.
“If Claire gets hurt because of you, the marriage agreement between the Sterlings and the Prescotts is over.”
Everyone waited for me to back down.
I almost laughed.
Claire wasn’t the first adopted daughter from a wealthy family I’d dealt with.
I grew up in foster care.
When I was sixteen, I was placed with the Harrington family.
Their adopted daughter wanted me gone so badly that she embezzled money from the family foundation and planted evidence to frame me.
In the end, I was the one who sent her to prison.
Later, I was placed with the Whitmore family.
Their adopted daughter was even worse.
She tried to arrange a car accident to kill me.
I sent her to prison too.
Now, at twenty-seven, I held significant interests in both the Harrington and Whitmore families.
And I’d finally discovered who my biological family was.
Claire was simply the third adopted heiress who thought a few tears would be enough to chase me away.
I walked over and crouched in front of her, gently wiping the tears from her cheek.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to make you leave.”
“After all—”
I smiled.
“Out of the three adopted daughters I’ve dealt with, you’re by far the least impressive.”
The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 10 Three months later, New York saw its first major snowfall of the winter. Sterling Holdings officially entered bankruptcy and liquidation. The once-prestigious old-money Sterling family disappeared from the world it had dominated for generations. After handling what remained of the company’s debts, Alexander moved into the six-hundred-and-fifty-square-foot
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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
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The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 08 Claire’s remarkably athletic sprint and piercing screams landed like a slap across Victoria and Alexander’s faces. Victoria’s entire world collapsed. For twenty years, she had poured all her love into this supposedly fragile adopted daughter. She had even hurt her own biological child to protect her. And
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The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 07 The morning after I left the Global Investment Summit, Sterling Holdings shares plunged so violently that trading was halted within ten minutes of the opening bell. The combined Harrington-Whitmore withdrawal was precise. And fatal. They didn’t use a single illegal tactic. Their financial scale and credit influence
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The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 06 “Take it off.” Damian didn’t shout. He didn’t summon bodyguards. He simply stood there, gazing at Claire with the detached calm of someone looking down at an insect. “I’ll count to three.” “If that bracelet isn’t off your wrist by then, Whitmore attorneys will report the theft
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The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 05 Damian didn’t seem to care that the entire East Coast elite was watching him. Despite being the man in control of the Whitmore family, he bent slightly toward me with helpless indulgence written all over his face. “Was running away from home fun?” “You ignored every call
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The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 04 The Global Investment Summit was held in Midtown Manhattan. The red carpet stretched from the entrance into the main venue, camera flashes turning the night almost as bright as day. Alexander and Victoria walked at the front with Claire between them. They smiled and waved at the
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The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 03 Early the next morning, the atmosphere at the Sterling estate in Greenwich was unusually peaceful. The Global Investment Summit was being held in Manhattan that day, an event that took place only once every three years and drew some of the most powerful financial figures in the
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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
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The Heiress They Chose To Lose Chapter 01 On my first day back with the Sterling family, their adopted daughter, Claire, dropped to her knees in front of me with an oxygen tank clutched to her side. “Elena, I know you’re their real daughter.” “If you think I stole the life that should’ve been yours,
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