Chapter 2

The heavy oak front door of our New York City townhouse opened.

Eleanor Hamilton, my grandmother, swept in.

She was a force of nature, the matriarch of the Hamilton dynasty, a queen in society circles.

Her eyes, sharp and intelligent, landed on Chloe.

Disgust was plain on her face.

"So," Eleanor said, her voice dripping with disdain. "This is the creature who manipulated my granddaughter and trapped my son."

Chloe flinched, her face turning a blotchy red. She tried to offer a polite greeting.

"Mrs. Hamilton, I-"

"Silence," Eleanor snapped. "You will not address me unless I speak to you first. And you will certainly not call me 'Mrs. Hamilton' as if we are equals."

Grandmother turned to my father. "Alexander, you indulged this farce?"

"Ava was insistent, Mother," he said, a hint of weariness in his voice. "She... she wanted a mother."

The old pain, the old longing, twisted inside me. But I kept my five-year-old face innocent.

Eleanor' s gaze softened as she looked at me. "Oh, my darling Ava."

She knelt and hugged me. Her perfume was familiar, comforting.

Then, her attention returned to Chloe, her expression hardening again.

"Your phone," Eleanor commanded, holding out her hand.

Chloe looked confused. "My... my phone?"

"Are you deaf as well as conniving?" Eleanor' s voice was sharp. "Hand it over. Now."

Reluctantly, Chloe pulled her phone from her purse.

Eleanor took it, her eyes scanning the device. "I will not have you leaking any information, any hint of a connection to this family, to your vulgar little friends or those gossip rags."

She handed the phone to Mr. Peterson. "Ensure this is wiped and disposed of. She will be given a basic phone, for emergencies only, with pre-approved contacts. Monitored, of course."

Mr. Peterson nodded. "Yes, Madam Hamilton."

Chloe looked like she was about to cry. Her link to the outside world, her ability to brag or spin her story, was gone.

"Furthermore," Eleanor continued, her eyes fixed on Chloe, "you will not be 'Mrs. Hamilton' in any meaningful sense. You will be Ava's companion. Her attendant. Essentially, a very well-paid nanny, with no personal life and no status."

She then gestured to a stern-looking woman who had entered silently behind her.

"This is Mrs. Davies," Eleanor announced. "My former head housekeeper. She is exceptionally... thorough. She will be returning to oversee your... duties. And your conduct."

Mrs. Davies, a woman with a face like granite, gave Chloe a look that promised misery.

"Your primary responsibility," Eleanor said to Chloe, her voice like chipped ice, "is Ava. You will do whatever Ava asks. You will ensure Ava is happy. Your life here depends on it. Mrs. Davies will ensure you understand the specifics."

Chloe was white as a sheet.

Later, when my father and grandmother were talking in the library, I sought out Eleanor.

I climbed onto her lap, sniffling.

"Grandma," I whispered, my voice small and childlike.

"Yes, my sweet girl?"

"Chloe... Chloe told me if I cried and screamed and didn't eat, Daddy would marry her. She said then she could be my new mommy."

I added a little sob.

"And... and she promised me a baby brother or sister if she married Daddy."

Eleanor' s face, already hard when thinking of Chloe, turned to stone.

Her arms tightened around me. "That manipulative little viper," she hissed, her voice low and furious.

I hid my smile in her shoulder.

Perfect.

Chloe' s misery was just beginning. I remembered the years of her fake smiles in my past life, the way she isolated me, the casual cruelty hidden from my father.

I remembered her smugness when she found out she was pregnant.

I remembered the peanuts.

This time, she wouldn't be smug for long.

She would suffer. Slowly. For years.

And I, Ava Hamilton, would orchestrate it all, with the innocent smile of a child.