Chapter 1
I was the newly recognized illegitimate daughter of the Cobbs, and I was also Shaun Poe's arranged fiancée since we were kids.
However, my entire family heavily favored their adopted daughter, Emma. Even my so-called fiancé was entirely on her side.
"Halle, the engagement is off. Emma is the only one I am marrying," he had declared.
My whole family pressured me to break the engagement, calling me a delusional gold digger.
On my very first day transferring to this elite prep school, Emma's cronies cornered me in the restroom.
"So you are Halle? Do not think a pretty face gives you a free pass to steal Shaun!"
"Dressing in literal rags and still trying to throw yourself at him. You have zero shame."
Outside the bathroom stall, Emma's voice drifted in.
She sounded choked with tears and completely helpless. "Halle, please. Can you just give Shaun back to me? We have ten years of history together."
I leaned back against the cold tile of the stall and listened to their pathetic little drama unfold.
[Fighting over a guy? God, how incredibly boring.]
[If I spent my time entertaining this petty jealousy, I would never get my third tech patent approved.]
[If the Cobb Group actually spent their cosmetics R&D budget on real technology, they would not be getting absolutely choked out by overseas competitors right now.]
Suddenly, a dead silence fell over the bathroom.
Emma's fake sobbing stopped in an instant.
The minions who were holding a bucket of dirty water over my stall completely froze.
The bathroom door was shoved open violently. Shaun stood in the hallway, glaring inside. "Halle, what the hell did you just say?"
*****
The bathroom door was shoved open violently.
Shaun stood in the hallway, glaring inside. "Halle, what the hell did you just say?"
I did not even bother looking up at him. I just turned sideways and walked toward the exit.
Taking my silence as a guilty confession, Shaun acted like he had caught me red-handed.
He scoffed, his voice dripping with absolute contempt. "Let me spell this out for you one last time.
"That ridiculous childhood engagement was just a stupid joke made by our grandparents.
"I would never be caught dead with you. Look in the mirror. You do not even come close to Emma.
"You are just a tacky, illegitimate mistake. Do us all a favor, get a clue, and stay the hell away from her!"
I stopped dead in my tracks.
Slowly turning around, I stared straight into Shaun's eyes and delivered my words with ice-cold precision. "I am not an illegitimate child.
"Richard Cobb married my mother for her wealth and status. When she got sick, he broke his vows and married someone else behind her back.
"At the end of the day, he is the lying cheater. Why should my mother and I take the fall for his garbage behavior?"
"And as for you," I smirked. "I could not care less."
Shaun froze. He stared at me in stunned silence for a few seconds before letting out a mocking laugh. "You are a total psycho."
The moment those words left his mouth, the entire hallway erupted in laughter.
All the students stared at me like I was the punchline to a pathetic joke.
Shaun had successfully painted my entire comeback as the ramblings of a lunatic with just one dismissive comment.
I rolled my eyes and kept walking.
[What an absolute narcissist.
[The Poe family just burned through ten billion dollars on their overseas project. Their cash flow is going to completely snap next week.
[His entire family is about to go bankrupt, and he still has the time to stand around trash-talking me?]
The hallway went dead silent all over again.
Shaun's eyes widened, and his arrogant smirk completely vanished.
Emma quickly stepped forward and gently looped her arm through his. "Shaun, let's just go. Do not waste your breath on her."
[Not that the Cobb family is doing any better.]
[That is the problem with these nepotism-heavy family businesses. A million tiny, stupid management issues.
[If they keep running things like a mom-and-pop corner store, they are going to tank the whole corporation.]
Emma's grip on Shaun's arm went completely rigid. All the color drained from her face as her head whipped around to stare at me.
The kids at this elite prep school were nothing if not ruthless social climbers.
The way the surrounding students looked at Shaun and Emma instantly shifted. Their gazes were suddenly filled with deep, calculating suspicion.
When I finally got back to my homeroom, I found my textbooks ripped to shreds and my desk stuffed full of snot-covered tissues.
Ignoring the poorly hidden snickers from the rest of the class, I sat down without a single change in my expression.
I pulled out a clean sheet of scratch paper and went right back to calculating the advanced energy formulas I had not finished the night before.
"Who are you trying to impress?" the guy sitting in front of me sneered, throwing a mocking look over his shoulder. "Do you seriously think you are some kind of genius?"
I shot him a blank look and stayed quiet.
[Isn't this the same idiot who spent the entire morning exam cheating off my test?
[Makes sense. That love letter he tried to write for Emma was completely full of typos and broken grammar.
[With his IQ, he really should not be insulting the concept of a love letter.]
The entire classroom erupted into a roar of laughter.