Chapter 2: She Was Not a Pretty Toy
1412 Words
The day Evelyn Hart entered Sterling Group, the entire executive office was waiting to watch the show.
Her arrival was too obvious.
No interview.
No probation period.
No proper onboarding from HR.
She was placed directly beside my father as his special assistant.
Her desk was right outside his office.
At ten in the morning, Adrian sent me a message.
**The old man brought her into the company.**
I had just finished my thesis defense. I was sitting in a campus café with a cup of cold black coffee in front of me.
I replied: **Who?**
Adrian answered: **His little lover.**
A few seconds later, he sent a photo.
It was a screenshot from the company’s security footage.
My father walked in front.
Evelyn followed beside him in a white blouse and black pencil skirt. Her long hair fell over her shoulders.
She was not holding his arm.
She was not leaning close to him.
But standing beside him, she still looked intimate.
Like an expensive object her owner had brought out for display.
I stared at the photo for a long time.
Then I replied: **She’s pretty.**
Adrian: **You still have the mood to judge her looks?**
Me: **Pretty women are troublesome. If she wasn’t pretty, Dad wouldn’t be this stupid.**
Adrian did not reply.
This was not the first time my father had a woman outside.
Richard Sterling had been unfaithful when he was young.
Age had not made him loyal.
But the women before Evelyn were always kept outside.
They had apartments.
Credit cards.
Monthly allowances.
But they could not enter Sterling Group.
They could not enter the Sterling estate.
Evelyn was different.
She had entered the company.
That meant my father was not merely playing.
My mother was still at Cedar Grove Nursing Home.
She had married my father at twenty-six and helped him build Sterling Group from a small trading company into the empire it was now.
Later, more and more women appeared around him.
She went from fighting to silence.
From insomnia to depression.
Finally, after a car accident, her health collapsed completely.
No one could say whether that accident had truly been an accident.
After that, she never returned to the Sterling estate.
My father did not divorce her.
Not because of guilt.
Because my mother still held early shares in Sterling Group.
Divorce was troublesome.
So he placed her in a private nursing home, hired expensive nurses, visited her once a month, and continued acting like a devoted husband.
Every visit lasted twenty minutes.
After Evelyn appeared, Adrian talked to me seriously for the first time.
That night, I had just moved back into the Sterling estate.
Adrian stood on the second-floor balcony smoking. His shirt sleeves were rolled up to his forearms. His eyes were hidden behind smoke.
He was five years older than me.
He had always been calmer.
I walked over and frowned when I smelled the smoke.
“You didn’t smoke before.”
He put out the cigarette.
“I’ve been annoyed.”
“Because of Evelyn?”
He hummed.
“The old man is letting her touch several projects.”
I froze.
“So soon?”
“Sooner than you think,” Adrian said. “He enrolled her in an executive business program. He also asked finance to open special access for her. She isn’t just here to look pretty.”
I leaned against the railing and looked at the dark garden below.
“You’re afraid she’ll become Mrs. Sterling?”
“I’m not afraid of that.”
Adrian turned to me.
“I’m afraid he’ll start moving shares for her.”
That made me silent.
Money, houses, jewelry — they were nothing.
Shares were different.
My father held the largest voting power in Sterling Group.
If he pulled Evelyn into the center of the company, sooner or later, she would touch things she should never touch.
“Did you investigate her?” I asked.
“I did.”
He handed me a folder.
Evelyn Hart.
Twenty-seven.
Born in Georgia.
Ordinary university graduate.
She had worked in sales, public relations, and as an assistant manager at a private club.
Her father owed gambling debts.
Her mother remarried.
Her younger brother was still in school.
She met my father when she was twenty-four.
At first, she was only a hostess manager at a business dinner.
Later, she followed him.
I turned to the last page.
There was a photo.
Evelyn stood in a hospital corridor, holding a payment slip. She wore no makeup and looked exhausted.
Adrian said, “Her mother had surgery last year. She needed money. The old man paid five hundred thousand dollars for her.”
I closed the folder.
“So she’s grateful to him?”
Adrian laughed coldly.
“She’s grateful to money.”
I did not speak.
I disliked Evelyn.
But in that moment, I suddenly felt she was different from the kind of mistress I had imagined.
She was not a spoiled canary.
She was someone who had rolled through mud.
Someone who knew money could save lives.
So she understood better than anyone whom she should hold onto.
Adrian said, “I already sent someone to get close to her.”
“Who?”
“Lucas Bennett.”
I raised an eyebrow.
Lucas was famous in our circle for being a playboy.
Handsome.
Rich.
Skilled at making women smile.
If Evelyn only wanted a younger, charming rich man, Lucas would make her slip easily.
But Adrian had clearly underestimated her.
Two weeks later, Lucas failed.
He called me from a bar, sounding defeated.
“Your family’s Miss Hart is something else.”
“What happened?”
“I offered her a car. She refused. I sent her a bag. She returned it. I asked her to go to the Bahamas with me, and she said Mr. Sterling needed her recently, so she was busy.”
Lucas sighed.
“The worst part? She smiled at me and said, ‘Mr. Bennett, playing is fine. Betting is not.’”
I laughed.
“She really said that?”
“Really. First time a woman has insulted me so politely.”
I hung up and went to Adrian.
After Adrian heard the story, his expression darkened.
“She’s more careful than I thought.”
I sat on the sofa in his office and flipped through Evelyn’s file.
“She’s not careful.”
“What is she then?”
“Clear-headed.”
I looked at the photo of the woman with the gentle smile.
Lucas was rich.
But Lucas was playing.
My father was old and disgusting, but he could give Evelyn a real path upward.
A woman as realistic as Evelyn would not place the wrong bet.
Adrian rubbed his forehead.
“Then we change the method.”
“I’ll do it,” I said.
He looked up sharply.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You are my sister.”
“That’s why I’m the most suitable.”
I put the file back on the desk.
“If a man can’t pull her away, then use a woman.”
Adrian stayed silent for a long time.
Then he asked, “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Chloe Sterling.” He rarely used my full name. “This is not a game.”
I looked at him and smiled.
“Adrian, did you forget?”
“I never liked Ryan Lancaster anyway.”
His expression changed.
Ryan and I were the perfect couple in everyone’s eyes.
Same background.
Same education.
Similar family interests.
Everyone thought we would marry.
But only Adrian knew the truth.
Ryan loved his college roommate.
And I had never liked men.
Adrian stared at me for a long time.
Finally, he said only one sentence.
“Don’t put yourself in the trap.”
At that time, I thought it was funny.
How could I possibly trap myself?
I approached Evelyn only to drag her away from my father.
A woman who wanted money.
A woman with deep schemes and steady hands.
A mistress who knew my father had a wife and still stayed by his side.
She deserved no sincerity.
I truly believed that.
Until later, when I pushed her into the abyss myself, I realized something.
There is never only one person inside a trap.
I lied to her.
She lied to me too.
But in the end, she was the worse liar.
Because she fell in love.
- Writer
