My Husband Faked Our Marriage So I Destroyed His Empire Chapter 03
Three days later, I had my final follow-up appointment.
For the first time in ages, Adrian insisted on coming with me.
But after twenty minutes on the road, he pulled up outside the Shaw family estate.
Adrian turned off the engine and looked at me.
“Evie, we’re here.”
I looked out the window coldly.
“This isn’t the hospital.”
“We can postpone the follow-up,” he said, taking my hand. His tone was gentle but brooked no argument. “The Shaw family is hosting dinner today. We’re all family. Let the past stay in the past.”
“You’re a daughter of the Shaw family. You can’t cut them off forever.”
Family?
My chest tightened.
When Chloe first returned to the Shaw family, she took my room and threw the jade pendant my mother had left me into the fishpond.
Everyone told me to be generous.
Only Adrian stood beside me and held my hand tightly.
His eyes had been cold as ice.
“Touch Evie’s things again and see what happens.”
After we got together, he gave me back twice over everything I had lost.
He even told me, “Evie, if the Shaw family won’t love you, I will. If you don’t want to go back, we’ll never go back.”
Pain pricked through my heart.
I looked at Adrian, my voice trembling with cold anger.
“I’m not going.”
“Have you forgotten? Mom and I were kicked out of the Shaw family years ago. In their eyes, I’m nothing but an illegitimate daughter with no rightful name. I have no right to inherit anything from the Shaw family.”
Adrian’s brows tightened almost imperceptibly.
The warmth on his face faded, replaced by a hint of displeasure.
“Evie, stop being childish. You’re about to be a mother. You need to grow up and stop clinging to the past.”
Grow up?
I stared at him and felt as if I were looking at a stranger.
The man who had once protected me was now telling me to let it go, telling me to face the people who had ground me and my mother into the dirt.
Disappointment swallowed me like a tide.
Finally, I nodded.
“Fine. Let’s go in.”
I no longer had the strength to argue.
The moment I stepped into the living room, every gaze landed on me.
Assessing. Mocking. Disgusted.
Chloe wore an elegant maternity dress. Her eyes flicked over Adrian, smugness glittering in them.
When she saw me, the corner of her mouth lifted in provocation.
“Little sister, you finally came. I thought you’d rather die than set foot in the Shaw house again.”
She pulled out a medical report, her tone full of flaunting.
“Look. I’m pregnant too. A boy. The Shaw family will finally have an heir.”
I said nothing.
Whispers immediately rose around us.
“Miss Chloe is too kind. That illegitimate girl took her place as the Shaw family’s young lady for eighteen years, and she still treats her so nicely.”
“Her mother was someone’s mistress. What good can a mistress’s daughter be?”
“I heard she doesn’t even work. She just lives off Mr. Whitmore. A pretty little freeloader.”
Chloe put on a wounded expression.
“Little sister, I know you hate me for taking your place. If you’re upset, I can disappear from your life forever, okay?”
I did not miss the flash of triumph in her eyes.
She was waiting for me to give in.
Instead, I said, “Move.”
Chloe blinked, and tears fell immediately.