He disappears out the double-door exit of the wing, but I stay frozen, the image of his back and arms still burned into my mind.
“Cirella?” Jules calls out with annoyance, like it’s not the first time she’s tried to get my attention.
I snap out of my stupor and hastily grab the bottle from the floor. “Oh, sorry.”
“Trust me when I tell you this: stay as far away from the Kensington boys as possible, especially if you want to keep your job. The family has a strict no-fraternization policy.”
A humorless chuckle escapes me, one that morphs into a continuous laughter that causes Jules to look at me like I’m insane.
“Are you okay?” She grins nervously with her question, her eyes still wide.
Nodding frantically, I assure her, “Trust me, I have no interest indatinga Kensington—or anyone for that matter. All I’m focused on is myself.”
“Good.” Jules straightens up proudly. “Now, can we hurry up so you can show me the progress on your dress?” She pauses. “And finally tell me who you’re making it for.”
I perk up at her question, excitement flooding my veins. “Y-yeah, of course.”
“It looked beautiful from what I saw this morning,” she praises me before striding into a guest bedroom.
The corners of my lips twitch, and the sensation is almost foreign.
The semblance of a smile feels foreign on my face.
How sad of a thought. How sadder of a reality.
I begin cleaning the sconces on the wall as my mind spirals, searching for a memory where I was genuinely happy, beaming from ear to ear.
I have to go back,allthe way back to before my dad passed, before I was left with Adrianna—who is far more of a con woman than a mother—to even find a memory with a real smile.
Adrianna convinced my dad that she loved the both of us, that she would care for me and raise me as her beloved daughter. She weaseled her way into our lives, and once he was gone, so were all her promises.
But it was too late.
My dad left her everything to help her care for me, trusting her more than he should’ve. Which was surprising, given that he had been the most cautious and paranoid man I’d ever known when it came to handing his trust to another.
It wasn’t until I was nearly eight years old that I realized my dad was secretly a multimillionaire. He never intentionally kept it from me, but we didn’t live the lives millionaires did.
We lived in a three-bedroom home in the middle-class part of Evermore, Washington, only a few miles from the Kensington estate.
But we didn’t have golden gates, rivers, maids, or chefs. He made my breakfast every morning, growing up. The only difference between my life and my neighbors’ was that I was homeschooled.
At first, by my mother, who had been a brilliant scholar. But after she passed from a heart attack when I was five, my dad hired a teacher to educate me five days a week.
I didn’t know there had been a spotlight he lived in outside of our house. I didn’t know he had spent countless resources and time keeping me safe from the vultures of his career.
No one knows there was ever a Chamberlain daughter—an heiress, if you must—and I doubt anyone ever will. Besides, Adrianna destroyed my dad’s legacy, at least the money and businesses, selling everything off to fill her pockets. Her greed only worsened with time.
My homeschool teacher was the only part of my old lifestyle that Adrianna kept, because she didn’t want me in the public eye more than I had to be. And she paid the teacher enough to keep her emotional distance from me, and her mouth shut about my existence.
The only asset she’s ever held on to is my mom and dad’s house, but I think she knew that, one day, she could use that against me, to do her bidding. She was right.
Recently, her well began to run dry, and when she ran into Everett Kensington at a recent charity gala—which she got into by using our last name—this scheme formed in her mind.
There are no lies between Adrianna and me anymore, no charade. I knowexactlywho she is.
She thinks I’ll get in the way of her engagement to Mr. Kensington. I think it’s just easier for her to keep me in the shadows, where I’ve always been. Besides, I may be the only person in this world who knows who she really is.
Once the next month is over, once she’s secured her marriage to Everett Kensington and she finally signs over the deed of my parents’ house to me, I can be free of her.
