“Exactly, otherwise why would the Brooks family disregard decades of ties and leverage thirty years of deals? Clearly, Daniel must have his own grievances.”
“I heard the Carter patriarch’s in the hospital—driven there by that shameless daughter.”
In a single day, my reputation was ruined. I became branded as nothing more than a call girl.
My phone filled with lewd messages from men inviting me out, and all who had once befriended me avoided me like the plague. Even when my parents went out to secure investments and partnerships, they were ridiculed and pointed at.
At last, I gave in and asked Daniel for a meeting. Instead, he invited me to an amusement park he’d spent a billion dollars building.
“This is for Chloe,” he said, lifting the pouting girl from the carousel. “She’s always been like a child. After we’re married, if you want to come, you’ll need Chloe’s permission.”
After ten years of dating, Daniel had spoken to me mostly of business. I once thought all men were simply that dull. But now, seeing him spend a fortune to build an amusement park just to please another girl, a bitter ache spread through my chest.
He gently comforted Chloe, who shrank back whenever she saw me, his expression tender and indulgent—yet his tone toward me turned colder.
“Emma, Chloe was kidnapped as a child saving me. Since then, she’s never been able to leave my side. Yes, we’re close, but that doesn’t justify you lashing out at her.”
“She’s innocent, childlike. It’s only your filthy heart that twists everything.”
He spoke with righteous indignation, but I found his words absurd and laughable.
They were supposed to be adopted siblings in name only, yet they kissed and embraced before my eyes, their actions shameless. And when I dared say, “Mind your identity,” it became “verbal abuse.”
“You could have spoken to me beforehand. Why did you have to threaten the Carter family with thirty years of cooperation? Don’t you understand what state my family is in right now…”
I opened my mouth bitterly to explain, but Daniel Brooks cut me off, his face full of disapproval toward me.
“Emma! If I hadn’t brought up cooperation, would anyone in the Carter family tolerate Chloe Miller? Even you speak to her however you please. If that’s the case, wouldn’t the rest of your family bully her to death?”