Chapter 2

2

"I might not lack money, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want with my things."

"Sienna, I'm giving you two months. Fix this mess."

"If everything isn't resolved in two months, I won't hesitate to handle this my way."

I turned to leave, but I couldn't help glancing at the bag on the sofa one last time.

"Sienna, I'm sure you know the market value of the bags you took from my house."

"You better return every single one of them, in perfect condition, within the deadline."

I didn't finish the sentence. I thought I should at least leave her with a shred of dignity in front of the family.

But Linda reacted like I had stepped on her tail. "Who took your bags? Sienna bought those herself!"

"Linda, do you really believe that? She just graduated. How could she afford bags that cost fifty thousand dollars each?"

Linda's voice lost its confidence. "There's no way a bag costs that much. You're just trying to scare us."

My brother and my parents walked in at that moment. Seeing the tension, my father frowned. "What's going on now?"

Linda immediately threw herself toward Arthur, wailing.

"It's your sister! She's attacking poor Sienna just because the girl stayed in one of her houses!"

"She's accusing our daughter of stealing her bags! She's treated us like garbage since she walked through the door!"

Linda managed to squeeze out a few fake tears.

My parents looked at me with pure annoyance. "Why is it that every time you come home, you bring nothing but drama?"

"Your brother and his family have been here for days, and we've been perfectly happy."

"Sienna stayed in your house for a bit and used a few bags. Is that really worth this kind of interrogation?"

I looked at them. I listened to the way they said "we" and "our family," clearly excluding me.

"Right. You're a family. Well, don't forget what I told you, Sienna!"

"I didn't come here to ruin your 'perfect' family. I'll be leaving as soon as I visit Lily's grave today."

My father was so angry his finger shook as he pointed at me. "You... you! Listen to the way you talk!"

I didn't want to deal with them anymore. I grabbed my suitcase and walked out.

Back in the city, I buried myself in work. My days were packed from sunrise to sunset.

A few days later, my assistant showed me Sienna's social media profile.

It was filled with posts painting her as a victim.

"I'm so heartbroken. I was staying with my own aunt, and now she's kicking me out on the street."

"She threatened me. She said if I don't leave in two months, she'll throw all my belongings into the trash."

The comments section was a toxic mess of people attacking me.

"What kind of aunt does that? Has she no heart?"

"Finding a place to live is so hard right now. And this is her own blood relative!"

"Exactly! Even if it's a relative's house, you don't just kick someone out like that."

Sienna replied to the comments with fake humility. "Maybe she just doesn't want me bothering her."

"Sigh, it's fine. This is just the struggle of being a working girl. I'll move out."

Her words tapped into the frustrations of every young worker out there. The internet was coming for my head.

My assistant asked if we should intervene.

"No. I want to see exactly how far she's willing to go with this performance."

The next day, my assistant ran into my office, looking panicked. "Ms. Sterling, the internet is turning into a mob."

"Your niece posted a long article. People have already doxxed your home address."

My assistant hesitated. I took the phone and read the post myself.

"Growing up, my grandparents always favored my aunt. They chose to send her to college instead of my dad."

"But after she graduated, she came back and stole the company my dad built with his own hands."

"I did borrow those bags, but I felt they were rightfully ours to begin with."

There was even a video of a news interview attached.

In the video, my parents were crying in front of the camera.

"We treated her and her brother exactly the same. We never expected her to be so cruel behind our backs."

"She hasn't come home in years. We don't even know who she is anymore."

"We don't want to ruin her. We just want her to return her brother's company."

Arthur and Linda were standing there, looking like grieving saints.

"We didn't want to fight her. We know it's hard for a woman to succeed on her own," Arthur said.

"But then she seduced my business partner and conspired to steal the company from me."

"Now she's threatening my daughter. I couldn't stay silent anymore. I had to speak up."

"As long as she leaves my children alone, we don't even care about the money or the company."

Wow. What a masterpiece of lies.

The video was edited perfectly to trigger public outrage.

My assistant was terrified. "Ms. Sterling, this is hurting the company's stock. We can't ignore this."

I looked at him calmly. "Why are you shaking? You've been with me for years. We've seen worse than this."