The Hidden Heiress's Revenge

na's

blared in my di

shford and Mateo Blackwood. The ceremony is currently underway at the HMP Grand Hote

from exhaustion but edged with

te

The man who swore

via. My

the TV. The room fell into suffocating si

teen. Naive. In love. And wil

trembling as if he actually cared. "You know Olivia can't survive this. She's just getting her big break. If the pu

s. Stress could trigger another episode. You're stronger, Selena. Take the bla

ieved

ould

ildhood, the one I loved before I

the fall

thought it

that prison cell, Mateo

e sister I protected,

in grand spectacle. Together, they turned me into a

move, it burst open with a loud slam, crashing

are you doing still dressed like thi

my chair, letting a sm

icker in his e

ected the bit

t the sound of his anger. This wasn't the Sele

?" he asked, step

N

What will people say

on the creaky bed, my body sin

n working its way into his shoulders. "So it

s never mine, apparently. But no, I'm no

om and yanked the blanket off my be

"You know how much it means to

I said, my voice like ice. "

e little girl who came back i

ir biologic

ong as I could remember, raised

rundown orphanage, sickly and pale,

shfords, she

thing shifted. Their love. Their loyalty. Their

g. That I was the one they raised. The one who

rse. A

e," she'd said. And so, I was relocated to the poultry house. A glorified s

m for Olivia. An

my father's last gift, to buy Olivia's medication. Giving up my university offer to help run

every

, I was

uest at the

I asked, the words sharp as I fou

rom deep within me, ri

itis, a lingering punishment from the years I spent breathing in the moldy,

rabbed my wrist and started d

ded, I'd refused to take even a cent from the Ashfords. I scrubbed motel floors and cleaned toilets ten

ith a thin mattress on the floor, no

n shot up my leg, a sharp reminder of a

e low. "I'm done pretending.

red. Rage flicke

Selena. If you don't walk in, I'l

ut, slamming the door s

cked mirror above the sink. The reflection that sta

One day, they'll beg to be fo