Chapter 2

Lucas kicked me away so hard I slammed into the wall, pain shooting through my back. Then he scooped Charlotte off the floor, nearly in tears with panic and heartache. "Charlotte! Are you okay?"

Charlotte covered her bleeding knee and shook her head desperately. "It's not Natalie's fault. I just lost my footing. She only gave me the lightest push. Really, don't blame her."

David charged at me and slapped me hard across the face. "You vicious woman! Charlotte already gave up the heir position to you. What else do you want? Do you have to destroy her too?" Half my face swelled almost instantly, and I tasted blood at the corner of my mouth.

Andrew looked at me with open disappointment. "Natalie, how did this family end up with a daughter as vicious as you? Starting tomorrow, the Southside Development Project goes to Charlotte. Consider it your apology."

The Southside Development Project was Wynn Holdings' biggest investment this year. I had spent three full months on it, running from department to department before I finally got the approvals. And now, with a few words, they wanted to hand it to someone else.

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and looked at Andrew. "The Southside Project ties up nearly 1 billion dollars in funding. Charlotte has never touched real estate in her life. She can't handle it."

Michael let out a sneer. "Cut the scare tactics. Charlotte is smart. What can't she learn? You just don't want to let go of power. Why are you so obsessed with it anyway? Wouldn't it be easier to just marry Lucas?"

Lucas turned his head away in disgust. "Don't talk about marrying me. Natalie, you disgust me today. Hand the Southside Project over to Charlotte, every last part of it, or our engagement is over."

I looked at the men in front of me. To please Charlotte, they had thrown even the most basic business sense out the window. The Southside Project looked like a fat prize, but buried inside it was a massive financial land mine. I'd been trying to figure out how to unload it without anyone noticing. Now they were fighting to take it off my hands.

"Fine." I lowered my head, my voice trembling. "I'll hand it over." Leaning in Lucas's arms, Charlotte looked at me with all the smug triumph of a winner.

Back at Wynn Manor, the moment I walked into the main hall, I saw the mess all over the floor. The old wooden box the orphanage director had handed me when I was brought back to the Wynn family had been smashed to pieces, and the pair of silver earrings inside had been crushed out of shape.

David sat on the couch with a golf club in his hand. Sneering, he said, "What are you staring at? Charlotte said this junk smelled musty and gave her a headache, so I had it smashed and thrown out. Got a problem with that?" I crouched down, gathered the bent earrings into my palm, and let their sharp edges cut into my skin. "No problem."

Richard came down from the study with a document in his hand and tossed it onto the coffee table. "If you don't have a problem with it, sign. This is the Southside Project handover."

He warned me to remember my place in this house. Charlotte was the daughter they had raised and doted on, and even after returning to the family, I would always come after her.

I picked up the pen and signed my name.

After signing, I turned and headed upstairs. Charlotte came out of the kitchen carrying a cup of hot milk and smiled sweetly at the foot of the stairs. "Natalie, want some milk?"

I walked around her and kept climbing the stairs. She suddenly dumped the scalding milk down her own chest, then threw herself down the stairs. Her shrill scream ripped through the silence of the house. "Natalie! Why?"

The whole downstairs instantly exploded into chaos, and Richard's roar shook the entire house. "Natalie! Get your ass down here!"