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The Heiress They Chose to Lose
Novelix
new
Completed
"On my first day back with the Sterling family, their adopted daughter, Claire, dropped to her knees in front of me with an oxygen tank clutched to her side. “Elena, I know you’re their real daughter.” “If you think I stole the life that should’ve been yours, I can leave. I’m so sick anyway. I probably don’t have many years left.” The second she finished speaking, tears spilled down her cheeks. Before I could say a word, my biological mother, Victoria, rushed over and pulled her into her arms. My older brother, Alexander, shot me a cold warning look. “Claire’s had a heart condition since she was a child. You just got here. Don’t push her.” Even Julian Prescott, the fiancé arranged for me through the Sterling-Prescott family alliance, spoke up with a hard expression. “If Claire gets hurt because of you, the marriage agreement between the Sterlings and the Prescotts is over.” Everyone waited for me to back down. I almost laughed. Claire wasn’t the first adopted daughter from a wealthy family I’d dealt with. I grew up in foster care. When I was sixteen, I was placed with the Harrington family. Their adopted daughter wanted me gone so badly that she embezzled money from the family foundation and planted evidence to frame me. In the end, I was the one who sent her to prison. Later, I was placed with the Whitmore family. Their adopted daughter was even worse. She tried to arrange a car accident to kill me. I sent her to prison too. Now, at twenty-seven, I held significant interests in both the Harrington and Whitmore families. And I’d finally discovered who my biological family was. Claire was simply the third adopted heiress who thought a few tears would be enough to chase me away. I walked over and crouched in front of her, gently wiping the tears from her cheek. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to make you leave.” “After all—” I smiled. “Out of the three adopted daughters I’ve dealt with, you’re by far the least impressive.” ..."
Chapters (3)
第1章
On my first day back with the Sterling family, their adopted daughter, Claire, dropped to her knees in front of me with an oxygen tank clutched to her side.
“Elena, I know you’re their real daughter.”
“If you think I stole the life that should’ve been yours, I can leave. I’m so sick anyway. I probably don’t have many years left.”
The second she finished speaking, tears spilled down her cheeks.
Before I could say a word, my biological mother, Victoria, rushed over and pulled her into her arms.
My older brother, Alexander, shot me a cold warning look.
“Claire’s had a heart condition since she was a child. You just got here. Don’t push her.”
Even Julian Prescott, the fiancé arranged for me through the Sterling-Prescott family alliance, spoke up with a hard expression.
“If Claire gets hurt because of you, the marriage agreement between the Sterlings and the Prescotts is over.”
Everyone waited for me to back down.
I almost laughed.
Claire wasn’t the first adopted daughter from a wealthy family I’d dealt with.
I grew up in foster care.
When I was sixteen, I was placed with the Harrington family.
Their adopted daughter wanted me gone so badly that she embezzled money from the family foundation and planted evidence to frame me.
In the end, I was the one who sent her to prison.
Later, I was placed with the Whitmore family.
Their adopted daughter was even worse.
She tried to arrange a car accident to kill me.
I sent her to prison too.
Now, at twenty-seven, I held significant interests in both the Harrington and Whitmore families.
And I’d finally discovered who my biological family was.
Claire was simply the third adopted heiress who thought a few tears would be enough to chase me away.
I walked over and crouched in front of her, gently wiping the tears from her cheek.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to make you leave.”
“After all—”
I smiled.
“Out of the three adopted daughters I’ve dealt with, you’re by far the least impressive.”
...
“Elena... what... what are you talking about?”
Claire Sterling’s face had already been pale.
Now even her lips had lost their color.
Her thin fingers twisted into the white fabric over her chest as ragged breaths scraped from her throat.
“I just... I just feel guilty about what happened to you. Why are you threatening me like this?”
She swayed twice.
Then her entire body toppled backward.
Victoria screamed and lunged forward, catching her.
“Claire! Claire, breathe! Where’s her medication? Get her medication!”
The foyer of the Sterlings’ Greenwich estate exploded into chaos.
Staff rushed around for water and medicine.
Victoria knelt on the expensive rug, clutching Claire as tears poured down her face.
Alexander coolly ordered the butler to call the family physician.
And I simply stood there.
Watching a room full of polished, powerful people panic over a conveniently timed heart episode.
It felt familiar.
When I first entered the Harrington household at sixteen, their adopted daughter had cried in front of me too.
She’d sworn she would never fight me for the family fortune.
I hadn’t bothered arguing with her.
I’d called a lawyer and had every trust and asset under her name audited on the spot.
When I entered the Whitmore family at eighteen, their adopted daughter had slit her wrist and sobbed that she didn’t deserve anything the Whitmores had given her.
I’d smiled then too.
And cooperated with investigators as I handed federal prosecutors evidence of her transferred funds and planned car accident.
Now I was twenty-seven.
For the third time, I had entered a powerful family.
Except this time, I wasn’t their foster daughter.
I was the Sterling family’s biological daughter.
And Claire Sterling didn’t even have the nerve to fake poverty or slit her wrists.
All she had were a few shaky breaths and a weak little performance designed to establish herself as the helpless victim.
How boring.
“Elena.”
Alexander’s deep voice broke into my thoughts.
He walked toward me and stopped several feet away, studying me with a gaze so rational it bordered on emotionless.
“The Sterling physician will be here shortly. If something happens to Claire, you won’t be able to bear the consequences.”
He adjusted his cuff.
His voice stayed calm, but every word cut.
“I understand that you’ve had a difficult life for more than twenty years. I understand you’re resentful.”
“But Claire’s condition is real. And she has never denied that you’re our biological sister.”
“Deliberately provoking someone with a medical condition out of spite is not how a Sterling behaves.”
“I’m not blaming you. But you need to learn how things work here.”
What a wonderfully composed older brother.
He didn’t yell.
He didn’t insult me.
He simply used the most civilized language possible to brand me vicious and uncultured.
Julian Prescott spoke next.
The heir to the Prescott family.
My so-called fiancé.
He looked down at me like I was trash that couldn’t even be recycled.
“Miss Sterling.”
“Claire stayed up late arranging flowers herself to welcome you. Even her doctor told her she needed more rest.”
“And this is how you treat her the moment you arrive?”
“I was actually willing to give this marriage arrangement between our families a chance.”
“But now I see you don’t even come close to Claire.”
“If you don’t apologize to Claire immediately—”
Julian’s voice remained even, but the threat was unmistakable.
“The Prescott family will publicly terminate the engagement tomorrow.”
I looked at his arrogant face and almost laughed.
Cancel the engagement?
Just last month, Mrs. Harrington had turned down a proposal involving a European royal family on my behalf.
Compared with that, what exactly was a Prescott?
Still, I didn’t argue.
I simply pulled a sanitizing wipe from my purse and slowly cleaned the fingers that had touched Claire’s cheek.
“Julian.”
I raised my eyes to meet his.
“If you care that much, go ahead and announce the cancellation.”
I tossed the used wipe neatly into a trash can several feet away.
“And one more thing.”
“Claire’s heart rate didn’t look particularly elevated just now, and there wasn’t any sign of cyanosis.”
“So if that was really an episode from her supposed heart condition—”
I glanced at Claire.
She went rigid in Victoria’s arms.
“I suggest the Sterlings find a new doctor.”
“Because your current one apparently can’t even recognize someone faking an attack.”
第2章
The entire room went silent.
Claire’s rapidly heaving chest actually stopped for a fraction of a second.
Then she immediately began breathing even harder, fresh tears streaming down her face.
“Elena... I’m not faking it...”
She sagged weakly against Victoria, her voice fragile enough to shatter.
“If you don’t believe me, you can look at my medical records. I really... I really am sick...”
Victoria looked devastated.
She lifted her head.
Her eyes, so similar to mine, were filled with undisguised disappointment.
“Elena, what happened to you out there that made you so hostile toward everyone?”
She didn’t shout.
Instead, she sighed with exhausted sadness.
“Claire has needed doctors since she was a little girl. You have no idea how much she’s suffered.”
“You don’t have a shred of affection for your sister, and now you’re accusing her of something this cruel.”
“Would it only feel fair to you if she died right in front of you?”
I stood beneath the glittering crystal chandelier and listened to my biological mother pass moral judgment on me.
I felt nothing.
I’d already experienced what true favoritism looked like in the Harrington and Whitmore families.
Mrs. Harrington had been so worried I might be mistreated that she transferred twelve percent of the family foundation’s voting rights to me.
The head of the Whitmore family had worried I might get bored, so he gave me joint control over one of their investment funds.
Compared with that, the Sterlings’ cheap emotional blackmail felt like children playing house.
“You’re right, Mother.”
I nodded sincerely.
“I don’t feel any sisterly affection toward her.”
“I grew up in foster care. Nobody taught me how to love someone who spent more than twenty years living in the place that should’ve been mine.”
“If seeing me bothers you that much, call me a car and send me back.”
“I’m not picky about what kind.”
Alexander’s expression darkened completely.
He probably had never met anyone like me before.
In their version of this reunion, I was supposed to bend over backward trying to win their approval.
Or throw tantrums because I was jealous of Claire.
Instead, I stood there like an outsider watching their family drama for entertainment.
“Elena, you don’t need to keep weaponizing your childhood to hurt our parents.”
Alexander walked to the couch and sat down, crossing one leg elegantly over the other.
“Now that you’re back with the Sterling family, you need to follow Sterling rules.”
He pulled a thick document from beneath the coffee table and pushed it toward me.
“This is a settlement agreement concerning the family trust.”
“To prove that you didn’t come back for Sterling assets, and to give Claire peace of mind while she focuses on her health, you’ll sign away your beneficiary rights.”
“As long as you behave, the Sterling family will provide for you.”
“I can even try to preserve your engagement to the Prescotts.”
He delivered outright robbery in the calmest, most reasonable tone imaginable.
As though forcing me to surrender what was rightfully mine was some extraordinary act of generosity.
Julian stood nearby with a mocking curve to his lips.
“Miss Sterling, I suggest you take what you can get.”
“Without the Sterling name behind you, you wouldn’t even be qualified to stand here and speak to me.”
I stared at the beautifully bound agreement on the table.
Then I laughed softly.
The first time, Mrs. Harrington had pretended to be sick in bed for two weeks just to pressure me into accepting trust rights.
The second time, the Whitmores had sent documents granting me control of an investment fund directly to the front desk of my favorite restaurant because I kept refusing to sign them.
And now my own biological brother was testing my limits by asking me to sign away a trust.
“Elena, don’t blame Alexander...”
With Victoria supporting her, Claire sat down on the couch and looked at me with red-rimmed eyes.
“Those assets belong to you anyway. I don’t want a cent.”
“Alexander’s just afraid money will create problems between us as a family...”
She started gasping again.
I picked up the Montblanc pen on the table.
Without even reading the agreement, I flipped to the last page and signed my name.
Quickly.
Without hesitation.
Alexander froze.
Apparently, he hadn’t expected me to agree so easily.
Julian frowned too, studying me more closely.
“Done.”
I tossed the pen onto the table with a crisp clack.
“But Mr. Sterling...”
I looked at Alexander with a faint smile.
“Now that I’ve surrendered my rights as a beneficiary of the Sterling family trust...”
“If the Sterling family ever runs into cash-flow problems, make sure you don’t come asking me for a loan.”
第3章
Early the next morning, the atmosphere at the Sterling estate in Greenwich was unusually peaceful.
The Global Investment Summit was being held in Manhattan that day, an event that took place only once every three years and drew some of the most powerful financial figures in the world.
As one of the East Coast’s established old-money families, the Sterlings had naturally been invited.
Victoria had a stylist arrive early to make Claire look spectacular.
Her custom midnight-blue gown made her already pale complexion look delicately beautiful rather than sickly.
“Claire, you look gorgeous.”
Victoria carefully fastened a diamond necklace around Claire’s throat, pride filling her eyes.
“When we get there, stay close to your brother. Don’t exhaust yourself.”
Claire nodded sweetly.
Then her gaze casually slid toward me at the staircase.
I wore a simple black silk blouse and high-waisted, wide-leg pants.
No professional styling.
No makeup.
“Elena.”
Claire lifted her skirt slightly as she walked over.
Her voice was gentle.
“You’re wearing that to the summit?”
She frowned as though genuinely concerned.
“There are going to be reporters everywhere. If you dress so... casually, people might laugh at the Sterling family.”
Victoria turned at the sound of her voice.
The moment she saw what I was wearing, her formerly warm expression hardened.
“Elena, do you understand basic etiquette at all?”
She approached and lowered her voice, scolding me in the tone of someone claiming to act for my own good.
“Showing up dressed like this will make everyone think we’ve been neglecting you.”
“Go change.”
She pointed at a garment bag lying on the couch.
“That’s one of Claire’s dresses from last year. It’s an older design, but the fabric is excellent.”
“It’ll do for you.”
I followed her finger.
Inside was a gaudy hot-pink ball gown.
It was also several sizes too small.
If I forced myself into it, I’d barely be able to breathe.
And I’d look ridiculous.
“No, thanks.”
I looked away.
“What I’m wearing is fine.”
“You—”
Victoria choked on her anger before turning toward Alexander, who had just emerged from the study.
“Alexander, look at her! This is unacceptable!”
Alexander fastened the final button on his suit jacket and gave me a cool glance.
“Forget it, Mom.”
He adjusted his cuff with an air of condescending tolerance.
“She just got here. Of course she doesn’t understand the etiquette of our social circle yet.”
“When we arrive, have her stay behind the assistants and keep her away from the press.”
“As for what we tell people...”
He paused, choosing his words.
“Say she’s a cousin from Mom’s side of the family who came along to see what an event like this is like.”
A cousin.
Perfect.
They wouldn’t have to publicly acknowledge their embarrassing biological daughter.
And Claire could remain the Sterling family’s only publicly recognized heiress.
“How thoughtful.”
Claire visibly relaxed before reaching for my hand.
“Elena, don’t take it personally. Everyone’s only trying to protect you.”
“Once you’ve adjusted to Sterling life, we can slowly introduce you to everyone.”
As she spoke, her gaze suddenly landed on my wrist.
I was wearing a flawless imperial violet jade bangle.
Mrs. Harrington had given it to me for my eighteenth birthday.
It was one of a kind and worth a fortune.
“Elena, that bracelet...”
Something flickered in Claire’s eyes.
She clearly recognized that it wasn’t ordinary jewelry, but she couldn’t quite believe someone like me could own something so valuable.
“It’s beautiful. Is it a replica from a department store?”
She smiled as she asked, sounding innocently curious rather than openly mocking.
Victoria glanced at it dismissively.
“The color is far too saturated. It’s probably chemically treated junk.”
She frowned at me.
“Take it off.”
“The summit will be full of people who know fine jewelry. Wearing an obvious fake will only embarrass you.”
I looked quietly at Victoria.
At my biological mother.
At the woman who had dismissed one of my most treasured possessions as garbage without a second thought.
“Mom, Elena probably just likes how it looks.”
Claire stepped in as peacemaker right on cue.
“How about this, Elena?”
She slipped a classic Cartier bracelet from her wrist.
“I’ll trade you this bracelet for your bangle.”
“If you wear this to the summit, nobody will laugh at you.”
She smiled with such pure kindness.
Like a princess offering charity to a beggar.
I looked at the bracelet she held out.
Then at the violet bangle on my wrist.
“Sure.”
I obediently removed it and placed it in her hand.
“You asked for this trade.”
I caught the flash of triumph in Claire’s eyes and added softly,
“I just hope you can handle everything that comes with wearing it.”
