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 of an asset worth tens of millions of dollars to the police.”
“And for the record, that bracelet is a personal Harrington family heirloom.”
“You do not want to find out what kind of sentence comes with stealing something like that.”
Claire completely broke down.
Sobbing, she clawed at the bangle.
But her hands were shaking too violently to get it past the bones of her wrist.
The bracelet dug into her skin, leaving an angry red mark.
“Mom… help me!”
“Get it off! Please, get it off!”
Her scream sounded like she was being tortured.
Victoria finally snapped out of her shock.
She stumbled forward, pulled hand lotion from her purse, and frantically smeared it over Claire’s wrist.
Mother and daughter struggled together until the priceless violet bangle finally slid free.
Alexander stood nearby.
His perpetually calm, rational face had turned gray.
He watched Damian wrap the bangle in a spotless silk handkerchief and hand it to one of his bodyguards with open disgust.
“Have it UV-sanitized three times.”
“And send it out to be professionally cleaned and polished.”
Damian looked like touching it again would make him sick.
Julian finally recovered from the shock.
He looked at me standing between Adrian and Damian, protected like royalty.
For the first time, real panic rose inside him.
He finally understood that he hadn’t merely rejected some foster girl as his future wife.
He had thrown away a connection powerful enough to drag the entire Prescott family into a completely different social class.
“Elena…”
Julian forced out a smile that looked worse than crying.
He tried to recover his dignity by slipping back into the condescending tone he was most comfortable with.
“If your position is really this important, why didn’t you tell us from the beginning?”
There was even accusation in his voice.
“If you’d been honest about who you were, Claire never would’ve taken your jewelry.”
“None of these misunderstandings would have happened.”
“And we are still engaged.”
“By hiding all this, aren’t you just giving people a reason to laugh at both our families?”
I looked at his face.
A wave of physical disgust rolled through me.
Even now, he was trying to use our engagement to control me.
Before I could answer, Adrian laughed softly.
He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, every inch the polished predator.
“Engaged?”
He sounded genuinely amused.
“Has Julian forgotten his place?”
“Three years ago, the Prescott family was desperate to secure an East Coast port project.”
“Under your grandfather’s instructions, you did try to arrange a marriage connection with the Harrington family.”
Julian’s face rapidly drained of color.
Adrian continued in the same pleasant tone.
“But my exact answer to your grandfather was—”
“Why would the Harrington heiress marry into an upstart family that survives by marrying for money and status?”
He smiled.
“What happened?”
“The Sterlings were willing to take you, so you started believing you were actually a prize?”
Julian’s face burned bright red.
It looked as though someone had slapped him repeatedly in front of the entire ballroom.
His mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Because Adrian was telling the truth.
The Prescott family had been declining for years.
Without their engagement to the Sterlings keeping them afloat, they would already have fallen out of the East Coast’s inner circle.
“Mr. Harrington…”
Alexander inhaled deeply and forced himself to preserve the last scraps of his composure.
Then he walked toward me.
“Elena…”
His voice was painfully hoarse.
“No. Elena Sterling.”
He looked at me with overwhelming regret, though some part of him still seemed determined to preserve his authority as my older brother.
“No matter how powerful you became away from us, Sterling blood still runs through your veins.”
“What happened today was our mistake.”
“But we are still your family.”
“Could you please—”
“Mr. Sterling.”
I cut him off.
My voice was cold.
“I signed your agreement surrendering my rights to the family trust.”
I looked at his stiff face, mockery curling at the corner of my mouth.
“So as far as I’m concerned, I have nothing to do with the Sterling family anymore.”
“Stop pretending we’re close.”
“It makes me sick.”
I turned away.
Under the stunned and reverent gazes of the East Coast elite, I headed toward the ballroom doors with Damian’s coat around my shoulders.
“Oh, Alexander.”
I stopped without turning around.
“One more thing.”
“Harrington and Whitmore just withdrew all financing from three of Sterling’s core overseas projects.”
I smiled.
“You’d better save some of that famous rationality of yours.”
“You’re going to need it when you explain this to your creditors.”