Vivian
That bastard.
How dare he humiliate me like that?
The word echoed in my head as I walked down the steps of his mansion, spine straight, chin lifted, every inch the composed heiress the world knew me to be.
But inside?
I was burning.
An illegitimate child.
That was what he was.
A mistake the old master made before his death — a stain the Carter family had no choice but to acknowledge because of the power Adrian now wielded.
If not for the influence in his hands, the shares he controlled, the board members who listened when he spoke, I would never have lowered myself to approach him.
Never.
He wouldn’t even be worthy to clean the soles of my shoes.
Yet today—
Today he had looked at me like I was nothing.
Like I was… irrelevant.
My heels clicked sharply against the drive
