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 apartment in Queens I had promised them.
Victoria went with him.
By then, her mind was no longer entirely clear.
I heard Alexander found work as a finance manager at a small company.
He rode the subway to work every day.
The arrogance that had once seemed permanently carved into his face was gone.
All that remained was the exhausted numbness of someone finally being worn down by ordinary life.
As for Julian Prescott…
After the Prescott family collapsed, he was buried under enormous debt and court restrictions.
He barely had enough money to travel across the city.
One day, on my way to the Harrington Foundation headquarters, my car stopped at a red light.
Through the window, I happened to notice a man wearing a food-delivery jacket.
His order had arrived late.
He stood in the snow, repeatedly apologizing to an angry customer.
His face was red from the cold.
Every trace of his old arrogance had disappeared.
It was Julian.
For a moment, I considered lowering the window.
Then I realized I didn’t even care enough to mock him.
He wasn’t worth it.
Claire, meanwhile, had been sentenced two weeks earlier.
Between the international fraud charges and embezzlement, she received fifteen years in prison.
Damian went to see her once.
He came back laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes.
“You should’ve seen her.”
Damian sprawled across the couch in my office, one ankle resting over his knee.
“They cut her hair short, stuck her in prison clothes—there’s nothing left of the East Coast socialite.”
“And when she saw me, she actually tried faking another heart attack.”
“One of the guards slammed a baton against the metal door.”
“She got so scared she suddenly forgot how to hyperventilate.”
I kept reviewing the document in front of me without looking up.
“She should be grateful she met me now.”
I signed my name and closed the folder.
“If she’d met me a few years ago, she might never have made it into a courtroom.”
The office door opened.
Adrian entered with a newly drafted acquisition agreement in his hand.
“Elena, the final Sterling property acquisition is complete.”
He handed me the document.
His gaze behind his gold-rimmed glasses was steady and warm.
“With that, every major asset once controlled by the Sterling family has now been absorbed by Harrington and Whitmore interests.”
I accepted the document and stood.
Then I walked toward the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows.
New York stretched below me.
Snow covered the city’s dirt and ugliness, leaving behind an endless field of white.
At sixteen, the Harrington family taught me that proving your innocence wasn’t enough.
You had to leave your enemies without the power to speak.
At eighteen, the Whitmore family taught me that kindness meant nothing when money and power were at stake.
The only thing that truly mattered was power you controlled yourself.
And at twenty-seven…
The Sterling family taught me that sometimes your own family could be colder than strangers.
I turned around.
Adrian Harrington and Damian Whitmore stood behind me.
They were the only two people in this world I trusted completely.
“Come on.”
I picked up my coat from the back of the chair, a relieved smile finally reaching my lips.
“Mrs. Harrington said if we don’t come home soon, she’s personally coming over here to tear my office apart.”
Damian burst out laughing and slung an arm around my shoulders.
“Then move. Let’s go.”
Adrian shook his head helplessly and followed behind us.
Outside, the snowstorm raged.
But in my world, spring had already arrived.
The End