When the heiress remembered

Chapter 2

Adele could have sworn she saw Gina smirk, but it vanished so quickly she almost thought she imagined it.

“I… I had no choice,” Gina whispered, voice cracking at all the right places. “The young master was drunk. He couldn’t even stand properly.” She sniffed, lowering her head, lashes fluttering as another tear slipped free.

“I tried to tell you,” she continued, pressing a hand to her chest. “I wanted to explain everything, truly I did. But you assumed otherwise before I could speak.” Her eyes lifted, glossy and pleading.

“Nonsense! Don't you dare cry, Gina, you did a good job. If you hadn't gotten pregnant for my son, how could we have had an heir?” Mrs. Harrington echoed proudly.

“You tried to tell me what? Adele interjected. That you f****d my husband behind my back.” Tears rushed to Adele's eyes, blinding and burning. This wasn’t the kind of crying that asked for comfort. It was the kind that came from a place beyond dignity and restraint.

“Please forgive me, please forgive me, ma'am. Gina rushed to where Adele was kneeling and knelt beside her. I couldn't let my child come into the world without a father, and abortion is a sin.” She paused, catching a false breath.

“I didn’t mean to break your home, and I can’t help being fertile enough to get pregnant after just one night…”

Gina couldn’t finish her sentence. Adele’s slap sent her head snapping violently to the side, her hair whipping across her face.

How dare Gina mock her, calling her an infertile woman, right to her face?

But then, Gina's shoulders started to shake violently, her black, lush hair shielding her face from Mrs. Harrington and Isaac in a way that made them think she was crying.

But Adele could see clearly; her face froze from shock as her eyes met with Gina's hateful gaze. “You are f*****g barren”. She whispered with a smirk. Then she fell dramatically to the floor.

“Please…please forgive me, ma'am.” Gina whispered continuously.

“You b***h….” Adele heard Mrs Harrington curse from across the room, followed by Isaac's stomping feet. But all Adele could do was look at how good an actress Gina was.

Gina had always seemed kind, innocent, and ambitious. Adele had never imagined this side of her existed.

But today, Adele had learned a bitter lesson, not everything or everyone seems to be what or who they actually portray themselves to be.

Before Adele could even look up, the force of Isaac’s slap sent her head to the side. Her cheek burned, heat spreading fast beneath her skin

Isaac's chest raised and fell with anger.

“How could you do something so wicked to a pregnant woman, Adele?”His voice came out low and shaky, filled with contempt. I am the one you should face”.

Adele remained kneeling and froze. She was stunned more than hurt, eyes wide as they slowly lifted to look at him.

This was the first time he had laid his hands on her, and also her first realization that Issac was never incapable of defending her. He just didn't care about what was going on with her, afterall, she was useless to him.

A tear slid down Adele’s cheek as reality settled in. For three years, she had endured hatred, insults, and humiliation from both her husband and mother-in-law. She had convinced herself they simply didn’t know how to love. Yet here they were, showing Gina the tenderness they had never once shown her.

Adele held the tears back. Instead, she swallowed hard; she couldn't let them see her break completely.

Something suddenly surged through her. She wouldn't back down without a fight, she stood up at lightning speed, lunging herself at Gina.

Adele’s fingers curved, palm already rising, ready to land across Gina's smug, pretentious, trembling face. She wanted her to feel the same amount of pain she felt.

The slap echoed through the dining hall. Adele raised her hand again…

But before her hand could fall, something seized her. A force yanked her backward so violently that her shoulder nearly tore from its socket.

Isaac’s palm crashed against her cheek, and he didn't stop. He kept hitting her on the same spot like a f*****g psychopath.

“How dare you!” he roared. If anything happens to my child, I will kill you, Adele.” “And there would be no consequences because no one cares about you.” He said before slapping her again and again.

“How dare I?” Adele laughed pathetically, shoulders slumping in between the violence; she felt numb. Her husband was hitting her so badly for his mistress. She couldn't believe it until her vision blurred from the impact of the slap.

So it isn't a dream, she whispered with tears in her eyes. If only she could remember where she came from, her roots.

Was she someone loved by her family, or was her life before memory loss even a worse tragedy than this, she thought, ignoring the blood that oozed from her nose and lips.

She tasted iron and her knees buckled, but he held her upright, just to keep her in place so he could strike her again.

“Deal with her, Isaac, so she knows her place. This is exactly why you can't have children, Adele. Perhaps if you try to be nice to fertile people, you might have children of your own”. Mrs. Harrington mocked in the background while holding onto Gina like a trophy.

Finally, as if disgusted by the sight of her, Isaac shoved her hard.

There was no balance left in Adele. She flew backward, heels slipping on the polished marble. Her back hit the floor first and then her head.

A burst of heat shot through her skull. For a moment, she saw nothing but white. The ceiling swayed above her like it was drifting away.

She couldn’t move but managed to look up at her husband through blurred vision.

He wasn’t shaken. He wasn’t remorseful.

He looked… satisfied. Breathing hard. As if she had deserved every single strike.

The word barren was still ringing in her ears when her vision flickered. The marble floor beneath her blurred, and suddenly it wasn’t marble anymore.

Memories, she had forgotten, flooded her head. Security gates that only opened at her command. Men twice her age lowered their heads when she walked past.

Her breath stilled. She remembered.

She wasn’t just some powerless wife begging for dignity.

She was an heiress. The sole successor to a dynasty built on strategy and calculated destruction. She negotiated billion-dollar acquisitions before she was twenty-three. She dismantled rivals without raising her voice. She was Sharp and Ruthless.

Her full name? ADELE WALTCOFF

She was an orphan, but she had three dangerous brothers who protected her and loved her like their lives depended on it.

Her eldest brother Daven had once bought a mansion in her name when he heard her friend brag about buying a house.

“How much did she buy the house?” he had asked his assistant with no expression on his face.

“Over twenty billion dollars sir.” His assistant replied.

“Good, buy a mansion in my baby sis's name, make sure it's triple the amount she bought the house, and let the world know that no one brags about wealth to my sister”.

A soft laugh escaped Adele’s lips. Then another followed. It was soft at first, then it echoed loudly in the atmosphere, her shoulders vibrating as she laughed continuously. She felt relieved.

“Is she going crazy, Isaac? Perhaps we should return her to the psychiatric hospital where she originally came from.” Gina spoke as if she was concerned, while Mrs Harrington stared in perplexity.

Adele ignored them, ignored the pain in her body as she stood up from the floor slowly, and she walked with difficulty to where the divorce papers were placed and signed them immediately without any reluctance.

“I’ve signed the papers.” Adele whispered loud enough for the whole room to hear.