Chapter 3

"I wish you were my real sister-in-law," Kourtney whispered to Dahlia, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Beverley bustled over, her face alight with a genuine warmth I had never seen her direct at me. "Dahlia, my dear girl. It's been too long. You look wonderful."

They stood there, the Hopkins clan, fawning over Dahlia, completely ignoring me. They had no shame.

My heart, which had ached and broken and tried to heal for six long years, finally turned to ice. Every last drop of warmth I held for these people evaporated.

I remembered the stench of desperation clinging to the Hopkins name six years ago. A massive financial scandal involving the General had erupted. Their lands were seized, their accounts frozen. They were about to lose everything.

Dahlia's family, who had been close allies, packed their bags and fled with their remaining wealth, leaving the Hopkinses to face the vultures alone. Dahlia had broken up with Connor via a short text message, abandoning him in his darkest hour.

He was heartbroken.

And then there was me. I was a rising star in the medical world, already incredibly wealthy. I was dating Connor. I saw his family's pain. So I stepped in.

I wrote a check for five million dollars.

I single-handedly paid off their debts and saved their "prestigious" family name.

Out of a sense of gratitude, or perhaps obligation, Connor asked me to marry him. I accepted, hoping that love would grow.

It never did.

He resented me. He resented his dependency. Other soldiers in his unit mocked him for living off his wife's fortune.

But I had hoped. I poured everything I had into this family, believing I could build the home I never had.

I looked at them now, circling Dahlia like she was a returning queen.

They owed me everything. Their home. Their reputation. Their very existence.

I had been paying Kourtney's bills for six years. Not just her eighty-thousand-dollar-a-year tuition. I paid for her clothes, her spring break trips, her car. I bought her first designer handbag, a Chanel worth more than Connor's monthly salary.

I had been more of a mother to her than Beverley ever was.

I gave Hugh and Beverley a monthly allowance of twenty thousand dollars. I bought them new cars every two years. I paid for the best doctors and treatments when their health failed.