Chapter 5

Juliette Edwards POV:

"Couldn' t have what, Jake?" I asked, my voice dangerously soft. "Taken control of my own body? Made a decision about my own future? Why is that so hard for you to believe?"

I watched as the color drained from his face, his carefully constructed world crumbling around him.

He staggered forward. "This is a misunderstanding, Juliette. Whatever you think you heard... it' s not what it seems. Let me explain."

"Explain?" I let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "Explain how you and my sister plotted to steal my life' s work? Explain how my own family decided my only purpose was to be a stepping stone for her? How you planned to use our child to chain me to you forever? Please, Jake. Explain it to me. I' m dying to hear this."

He froze, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, no words coming out.

Just then, Brittany rushed into the room, her face a mask of frantic anxiety. She saw me, then her gaze fell on Jake' s stunned silence.

"What is she going on about?" she demanded, her voice shrill and impatient. "Did you tell her? Honestly, Juju, must you make everything so difficult? You' re so selfish! Do you have any idea what you' ve done? We' ve lost..."

She stopped herself, but it was too late.

"Lost what, Brittany?" I interrupted, my smile turning razor-sharp. "Lost the Vanguard Award? The record deal? The life you thought you were entitled to, built on my sweat and my tears?" I leaned forward, my voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "You should be more careful. You have no idea what else you' re about to lose."

A flicker of genuine fear crossed her face. Her hand flew to her own pregnant belly, a reflexive, protective gesture.

I let my gaze drift past her, to the figures hovering in the doorway. My parents. Their faces were stormy masks of fury and disbelief.

"Juliette!" my mother shrieked, storming into the room. She pointed a trembling finger at me. "How could you be so ungrateful? After everything we' ve done for you! To make a decision like this, without our permission!"

"My body, my permission," I said calmly. "Funny how that courtesy was never extended to me when you decided to sacrifice my career, my music, my future."

My father stepped forward, his voice a low growl of suppressed rage. "You cruel, selfish girl. To do this to your own family."

I looked at them, these people who called themselves my parents, their faces distorted with a righteous anger that was utterly misplaced. The hypocrisy was breathtaking.

"You' re right," I said, my voice flat. "It was a selfish decision. And it' s the first one I' ve ever been allowed to make for myself. From now on, it' s all I' ll be doing."

My mother looked like she was about to explode. Jake finally found his voice, stepping between us.

He held up a sheaf of papers. I recognized the letterhead of his company' s law firm. "Don' t do this, Juliette," he said, his voice cold and hard. "Don' t force my hand."

I glanced at the papers. A pre-nuptial agreement, no doubt, one that would strip me of everything I had helped build.

"Oh, I' m not forcing anything," I said, my tone light. "I' m just signing."

He stared at me, his whiskey-colored eyes filled with a storm of emotions I couldn' t decipher. Anger, disbelief, and something else... was it regret? It didn' t matter anymore.

"You' ll have nothing," he whispered, a threat and a promise.

I smiled. "My only regret, Jake, is that I didn' t see the truth sooner."

That was the final straw for my mother. "You are a disappointment!" she screamed, her face red and blotchy. "You have been nothing but a burden since the day you were born! If you sign those papers, you are no longer our daughter! We will disown you!"

"Consider it done," my father snarled, his eyes burning with a cold fire. "You are no longer an Edwards. As of this moment, we have only one daughter."

They turned, my mother and father, and marched out of the room without a backward glance, leaving a trail of icy silence in their wake.

The room felt suddenly larger, emptier. It should have hurt. It should have felt like the world was ending.

But as I looked at the spaces where they had stood, I felt nothing but a profound, startling sense of peace.

Relief.

I was finally, irrevocably free.

For my entire life, I had tried to understand it. Why was Brittany always the favorite? Why did my achievements always feel secondary to her smallest whims? Why did my parents look at me with a sense of obligation, but at her with pure, unadulterated adoration?

I had worked so hard to earn their love, to prove my worth. Now I understood. You can' t earn something that was never on the table to begin with.

I was free.

The recovery was swift. The legal proceedings were even swifter. I signed the divorce papers with a steady hand, feeling not a pang of sadness, only the exhilarating lightness of casting off a great weight.

I was Juliette Edwards no more. I was just Juliette. And for the first time in my life, that felt like enough.