Chapter 4

Catrina POV

I met Asher Gutierrez years ago, long before the Corbetts found me. I was just another anonymous kid in the foster system, scraping by, and he was the new arrival, arrogant and defiant, fresh from a public altercation with his wealthy, estranged father. His father, a prominent lawyer, had disowned him after a particularly spectacular act of rebellion, cutting off all funds and demanding he "learn the value of a dollar." Asher, proud and stubborn, had refused to grovel, ending up in the same temporary placement as me.

The day I found him, he was cornered in an alley, beaten and bloody, by a group of older kids. They were demanding the meager cash he' d earned from a day labor job. I, having just been kicked out of another foster home that morning for "insubordination," walked into the chaos. Without thinking, I bluffed. I pulled out my non-functional flip phone, held it to my ear, and loudly pretended to call the police, describing their faces and clothes in vivid detail. The bullies, startled, scattered.

Asher, bruised and wary, looked at me with a mixture of shock and grudging respect. He transferred to my high school a few weeks later, a scholarship student at the elite private institution the Corbetts would later send me to. He'd found me in the library, poring over physics textbooks, and declared, "I owe you. I'll pay you back someday."

He did, for a while. He' d sit with me in the dusty corner of the library, watching me work my part-time jobs, offering to carry heavy boxes for the bookstore owner. I tutored him in math and science, subjects he initially struggled with, but soon excelled at under my patient guidance. He'd stand up for me against the snobbish rich kids who mocked my thrift store clothes. Once, he even took a punch meant for me, ending up with a black eye. "No one messes with my sister," he'd said, his jaw set, his gaze fierce. He was my brother, my best friend, my shield.

Then the Corbetts found me. And everything changed.

The day they announced I was Cordell Corbett's biological daughter, Asher's face went slack. He was the first to hear the news, having been with me when the private investigator tracked me down. His initial joy, his genuine excitement for my newfound family, curdled into something cold and resentful.

"You never told me," he'd accused, his voice tight. "You're a Corbett. All this time, you were a freaking heiress."

"I didn't know," I'd argued, confused. "And it's not like that. They don't even want me. They want Angelique."

But he hadn't listened. His eyes, once so warm and understanding, had grown distant, critical. "You're going to upset Angelique," he'd said, his voice laced with judgment, "She's always been so delicate. What about her feelings?"

"What about my feelings, Asher?" I'd shot back, my voice trembling with a frustration I rarely showed him. "They swapped me out like a defective product, then treated me like a servant for three years! They starved me, they isolated me, they let Angelique-their fake daughter-torment me. And now you' re telling me I' m wrong for wanting what's rightfully mine? For wanting to be acknowledged? For wanting justice?"

He had seen the scars on my wrists from where Angelique had 'accidentally' pushed me into rose bushes. He had watched me work double shifts after school to pay for my foster care tuition. He had seen me wear the same threadbare coat for two winters because I couldn' t afford another. He knew. He of all people knew.

But the Asher standing before me now, on that driveway, was a stranger. His eyes were cold, devoid of the compassion I had once cherished. He scoffed, a nasty sound that scraped against my raw nerves. "You just want to destroy them, don't you? You want to tear their family apart. Angelique is terrified, Catrina. She's afraid of losing everything. She's innocent in all of this."

"Was I not afraid, Asher?" I whispered, the words catching in my throat. "Every single day, I lived in fear. Fear of their anger, fear of Angelique's next malicious prank, fear of being forgotten again. Where was your sympathy then? Where was your outrage for me?"

He ran a frustrated hand through his dark hair. "It's different, Catrina. They've admitted their mistakes. They're trying to fix things. You're being too extreme. Too... vengeful. Too greedy."

My heart, already a fragile thing, shattered into a million pieces. Greedy. That was their word. Their excuse for everything. He had adopted their narrative, their twisted logic. My fight for basic human dignity, for recognition, for justice, was simply greed in his eyes. My pain was an inconvenience. The boy who had once called me "sister" now saw me through the Corbetts' lens of contempt.

Every hope I had harbored, every tiny flicker of faith in human connection, was extinguished. A crushing emptiness settled over me. This city, this life, was tainted beyond repair. I couldn't stay.

I pushed the bitter memories aside, focusing on the future. A new city, a new school, a new life. MIT. I would dedicate myself to my studies, to my robotics. I would build a life so spectacular, so undeniable, that the Corbetts and their petty manipulations would shrink into insignificance. I would make them irrelevant. That was my new goal.

Weeks later, on a brisk autumn morning, I walked across the manicured campus of my new school, a small, independent private academy known for its STEM programs. My new friend, Maya, a bubbly girl with an infectious laugh, walked beside me.

"Catrina! Wait up!"

The voice, familiar and unwelcome, sent a jolt of ice through my veins. No. Not here. Not now. I had deliberately chosen a school far away, a place where their shadow couldn't reach. I closed my eyes for a brief second, wishing I could unhear it. But it was too late. I turned. Standing a few yards away, looking haggard and desperate, was Dozier Corbett.