Chapter 2

Business hours were about to start, but the shop's door was still closed.

The manager, seeing we were at a stalemate, bowed to her first. He said, "Ms. Sutton, please accept my apology. Our staff is young and inexperienced. Please, could you overlook her mistakes?"

Olivia looked at him with utter disdain, not bothering to spare him a glance.

My boyfriend, Jason Sutton, suddenly appeared behind me. He let out a sigh as he looked at Olivia. He said, "Olivia, I was wondering why I couldn't find you. Who pissed you off this time?

"These people are doing their jobs. Don't hold it against them. Come back to the office with me."

I asked, "Wait, she's your sister?"

Jason finally noticed I was there, too. He looked at me, a bit confused. "Emily? You're here as well?"

Jason glanced at the coffee shop uniform I was wearing and instantly got it. "Emily, you're working part-time here, right?"

I nodded, about to say something, but Olivia cut me off, "So, this is your broke student girlfriend, huh, Jason?

"If you dare bring a girl like her home, watch, Mom and Dad will freeze your cards in a heartbeat.

"She was acting all tough with me now, but as soon as you showed up, she switched to playing the poor little victim."

My cheeks were burning with anger as I played the recording aloud. I said, "Jason, it's obvious your sister was the one causing trouble for no reason.

"Look at my face. It's still red. Your sister hit me, and now she expects me to bow and apologize to her."

Olivia rolled her eyes, and Jason looked a bit awkward as he pulled me aside. "Emily, Olivia is crazy about her dog, and she's pretty direct. If it hadn't gotten hurt, she wouldn't be acting like this.

"Apologize to her, okay? That way, she'll back us up with Mom and Dad. You know I don't care about where you come from. I really want a future with you."

Looking at the spineless, irresponsible man in front of me, I yanked my hand away from him. "If there's one crazy person in your family, the rest can't be much better. Who wants a future with you? We're done."

I walked over to the manager. "Boss, go ahead and open up. Start prepping the supplies. I'll take care of things here. Send me the footage from the outside cameras later."

Olivia hugged her dog and gave a mocking laugh. "Go ahead, handle it. I want to see what you can actually do."

The manager looked hesitant, so I gave him a little push to get him moving.

Jason tried to talk me out of it, but I pulled out my phone and dialed. "Hey, Dad, are you at the office right now? I bumped into some of our family's business partners outside. I'm bringing them over to see you for a drink."

Jason paused for a moment, then reached out to feel my forehead. "Emily, are you out of your mind? Isn't your dad running a little shop?

"How could he possibly have a company? And what business partners are you talking about?"

I ignored her and stared straight at Olivia. "Did your brother ever mention my last name is Harrington? Yeah, that Harrington Capital, the one behind Sutton Group. My dad? Richard Harrington."

Olivia's smirk disappeared for a moment, but then she couldn't help but crack up. "Yeah, right, if your dad's Richard, then mine's the richest guy on the planet. Funny, I've never heard that Richard had a daughter.

"That's public info anyone can Google. You really think you can pull one over on me?"

I smiled, looking at Olivia. "Honestly, I love their coffee, and I thought working here would be fun.

"I was going to tell Jason about my background once things got serious between us.

"But I never expected his family to have someone as bizarre as you, and for him to side with you no matter what, right or wrong."

Jason tried to grab my hand again, but I pulled away from him. "Guess I was wrong about you all along, but at least now I know the real you, thanks to all this."