His lips hovered dangerously close to the top of my thigh, but this time, I did not surrender.
I shoved him away.
"Mr. Davis, I won’t wear the dress, and I won’t be attending the banquet."
"My adoptive mother passed away today. Our contract is void. I’m leaving."
The moment the words left my lips, the heat in Carlos’s gaze turned to ice.
He rose to his feet, his expression darkening like a brewing storm.
"She was just an adoptive mother, no blood ties, nothing. If she’s dead, then she’s dead. Are you really going to mourn an outsider? Don't forget your place. The family cannot afford such humiliation!"
"Stephen may not have come from your womb, but he carries half your blood. You raised him for seven years, and now you think you can just walk away?" He let out a cold laugh. "Dahlia, you are unbelievably selfish."
His words cut deeper than I wanted to admit.
My status? What was I, really?
An illegitimate daughter, hidden in the shadows of my family name?
A mere caretaker hired to raise a child that was never mine?
Or the woman Stephen resented, the homewrecker he loathed to his very core?
Back then, Carlos and my half-sister were the envy of Ridgeway’s elite, an untouchable golden couple.
Their union wasn’t just a marriage; it was a merger of power, elevating the Cavendish name to the pinnacle of wealth and prestige.
Perhaps their love was so flawless that even the heavens grew resentful because fate dealt Evie a cruel hand. Born without eggs, she could never conceive a child of her own.
But she adored children. She refused to use a stranger’s egg, and her younger sister was still too young. So she turned to me, the desperate woman drowning in debt.
One million dollars. The price of my adoptive mother’s life. The price of my first child.
Then, fate struck again. Evie died unexpectedly.
Before she took her last breath, she feared for Stephen. She couldn't bear the thought of leaving him alone in this world, so she made one final wish.
She asked me to raise him.
The Cavendish family had resisted at first, but their opposition to Carlos marrying outside the family was even stronger. A union with another woman could threaten their interests, so they made their choice.
They restored my surname to Cavendish and sent me to the Davis residence.