Chapter 2

2.

"Gia, stay right where you are!"

"If you walk out that door today, don't you ever think about coming back!"

Jax grabbed my arm, his voice vibrating with suppressed rage.

I gave him a self-deprecating smile and pried his fingers off me, one by one.

"Don't worry. I'm never coming back."

This place hadn't been my home for a long time.

Jax opened his mouth to say more, but Landon let out a cold snort from the side.

"Let her go, Jax. It's just another one of her games to get attention. I don't know who taught her to be so manipulative."

"Let her leave. It'll be better for Sienna anyway. Once she struggles out there on her own, she'll come crawling back crying for help."

Hearing that, the flicker of worry in Jax's eyes turned into pure irritation.

I knew they wouldn't stop me again.

But the moment I turned my back, the tears started falling like a storm.

The physical pain and the emotional trauma finally took their toll. My vision blurred, and I collapsed the moment I stepped outside the estate.

When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed.

The nurse checking my IV smiled at me. "Where are those two handsome guys who usually come with you? They aren't here this time?"

She was talking about Jax and Landon.

The last time I was here was six months ago.

I had a severe case of food poisoning back then.

As soon as they heard, both of them dropped their business meetings and rushed to the hospital. They stayed by my side all night without sleeping.

The story spread through the hospital. Everyone knew I had a brother who adored me and a fiancé who treated me like a queen.

But now, that love belonged to someone else.

The nurse saw my silence and realized something was wrong, so she stopped asking.

I watched the cold medicine drip into my veins and drifted into a feverish sleep.

I dreamed of the past.

Sienna was my stepsister who moved in six months ago when her mother married my father.

At first, both Jax and Landon hated her.

They said she was trying to steal what belonged to me and even tried to kick her out.

But slowly, something changed. They started accepting her, and then they started choosing her over me.

When I noticed the shift, I panicked. I cried and threw fits, trying to get them back.

But the men who used to hate seeing me cry started scolding me instead.

"Gia, stop being so dramatic. You're the heiress of this family. You've had everything since you were a baby. Sienna has nothing but us!"

The two people I trusted most had joined Sienna's side.

Twenty years of history were wiped out by a girl who had been here for six months.

It was a joke.

If they didn't want me, then I didn't want them either.