Chapter 9

What followed came out of him piece by piece.

Long before Julian was born, the Harrington family hadn't wanted Elaine. She was the wrong kind of background, the wrong kind of name. She'd fought her way in the only way available to her — by getting pregnant. But the baby was a girl. The Harrington family wanted an heir.

So Elaine had given the girl to an orphanage.

Packed her off and said nothing. Took home a boy she adopted and told everyone she'd given birth to him.

That boy was Julian.

But she couldn't let the Harrington estate pass to someone with no blood tie to her. So she came back for the daughter she'd abandoned. Brought her home. And arranged for her to marry Julian — because any children they had would be both Elaine's bloodline and the Harrington heir.

"But you died," Julian said. The words were flat, bare. "And she couldn't accept it. So she went through IVF — at her age, at serious risk — and had twins. She was planning to have me killed once the children were old enough, have them inherit everything." He paused. "Both babies were fragile from the start. In the end, only Sophia made it."

"After I found out, I left the estate. I built my own company. Elaine couldn't stand that I was beyond her reach — that's when she started filling Sophia's head with the idea that she'd marry me someday. And I couldn't let that continue." He said it without heat, only a kind of tired finality. "So I dismantled the Harrington Group. Every last asset. Buried them in enough legal debt that they had no choice but to leave the country."

I sat with all of this for a long moment.

Every question I'd never been able to answer — why only me, why always me — they all resolved at once.

Because she was my mother. And she had never wanted me.

Julian reached over and took my hand.

"From now on, we're the only family either of us has." A pause. "I've had the estate attorneys notarize everything. Half of what I own is already in your name."

I looked down.

Tears dropped, one after another, onto the back of his hand.

"That's not what I care about," I said.

His voice went quiet. "I know.

"But Ivy, she was never capable of love — not for you, not for Sophia, not for anyone. She loved power and she loved herself.

"You got a second life. This is a new one. What happened before is done."