I didn't cry. My eyes just burned, raw and stinging.

But that didn't stop me from tendering my resignation and demanding my shares back.

Elwin actually laughed.

"Maureen, stop being dramatic. Without Valerie backing you all these years, how could you have possibly held onto your position and that generous salary? Leave Starlight, leave me, and you'll be nothing."

So that was how he saw it. Everything I'd poured into this company—invisible. All of it credited to Valerie.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"If your precious Valerie weren't the billionaire's daughter, would you still be marrying her?"

He didn't even hesitate. "No—I love her, not her status."

"Just like I once loved you."

My stomach turned.

"You've always said you wanted to be part of my family, haven't you?" He tilted his head, magnanimous. "Valerie is generous. She's agreed to let me take you on as my sworn sister. As long as you behave, my parents will accept you too. Getting you into the family registry might be difficult, of course."

"Unless you return the Starlight shares to Valerie..."

He stood there, looking down at me with absolute certainty that I would agree.

I laughed out loud.

I must have loved him too much, once. Enough to make him think I'd accept this absurd charity.

He mistook my laughter for joy. After all, the Gilbert family was one of the most prominent in Crescent City.

"Little sis, I knew you'd be sensible!"

He'd already changed what he called me before I could even respond.

The crowd around us erupted.

"Oh my God, even someone like Maureen gets to be the Gilbert heir's sworn sister? Does that mean we qualify too?"

A chorus of voices started calling him "brother."

Elwin basked in the adulation, chin lifted like a preening peacock. He gestured to his assistant, who handed me a document.

"Maureen, sign this agreement, and you can settle into your role as the Gilbert family's adopted daughter. With me and your future sister-in-law looking after you, you'll never want for anything."

The agreement stated in black and white that the Starlight shares were registered under my name.

But the actual shareholder was Valerie.

The date was three years ago.

Elwin was trying to use a forged proxy agreement to steal my equity.

Whatever love I'd once felt—that towering, overwhelming love—crumbled to ash.

I looked away and turned to leave.

Elwin grabbed my arm. "Little sis, where are you going?"

The seamless way he'd adopted that title made my hand move before I could think. My palm cracked across his face.

"Shut up. You think you're fit to call yourself my brother?"

He clutched his reddening cheek, disbelief written across his features.

"Maureen, what is wrong with you? Becoming a Gilbert daughter is something people would kill for. Why can't you just be grateful?"

"I suffered through everything to be with you. I thought love could conquer anything. But apparently, all my success was really because Valerie was secretly helping me behind the scenes."

"She sacrificed so much for me, and all she wanted was the title of Mrs. Gilbert. You're the one benefiting from all of this—you're about to leap up the social ladder. Why can't you just see the bigger picture?"

"If you could help me take this company public the way Valerie did, I wouldn't mind giving you the Gilbert name either."

I froze.

Valerie—the decorative secretary who couldn't even carry a cup of tea without spilling it—had helped take the company public?

Then what were my five years of blood, sweat, and tears?

I spent my days fixing the flaws in Elwin's development work. My nights were spent drinking with clients, securing investments.

I'd been hospitalized for stomach bleeding more times than I could count. And where was Valerie during all of that? Checking in at nightclubs. Eating street food at night markets.

Then showing up the next morning with heavy smoky eye makeup to hide the dark circles.

Thinking back to all those times I couldn't stand Valerie's garish makeup and told her to pay attention to her appearance—and how Elwin always defended her—it hit me all at once. He'd been cheating on me even then.

I'd just been too buried in work, too busy helping him build his business empire, to notice his heart had already drifted to another woman.

And now, at the very pinnacle of his career, he wanted to demote me from girlfriend to sworn sister—a neat little cover for his betrayal while making himself look loyal and honorable.

Fine. Then I wouldn't hold back either.

I'd taken Starlight Corporation public. I could just as easily bankrupt him.

But this was still the company I'd poured everything into. I didn't want to destroy my enemy at the cost of destroying myself.

"I need to use the restroom. Give me five minutes to think."

Elwin saw me wavering and took it as my last show of resistance. He let me go.

I left the celebration and called Elwin's biggest rival.

"Thirty percent of Starlight's shares. Interested?"

Because of Elwin, Arnold Delgado and I had always been on opposite sides—competitors, even enemies. But that never stopped us from respecting each other's abilities.

As Arnold put it, Starlight's equity was nothing to him.

What he actually wanted was the product patent I was bundling with the share transfer.

It was a surprise I'd secretly prepared for Elwin, meant to celebrate today's IPO.

Too bad. He'd missed his chance.

I didn't mind selling it to Arnold at a premium—and throwing in the Starlight shares as a bonus for him to play with.

Whatever he did with them was no longer my concern.

Arnold's response was immediate:

"Time and place. I'm on my way."

While Elwin and Valerie celebrated their engagement upstairs, Arnold and I signed the contract in the ground-floor café.

Once the money hit my account, we raised our glasses in a toast.

But Elwin, still fixated on getting me to sign that nominee shareholder agreement today, had sent someone to find me in the restroom.

When Phineas Sullivan spotted me downstairs with Arnold, he immediately ran to fetch his boss.

"Maureen! What the hell is this?"

I didn't spare Elwin a single glance. I clinked glasses with Arnold again.

"Mr. Delgado, here's to a successful partnership."

Being ignored made a vein throb at Elwin's temple.

"Maureen, what kind of deal did you make with him? You know he's my enemy!"

Before I could answer, Valerie appeared out of nowhere and cut in:

"Elwin, isn't it obvious? She's exactly what the rumors say—only ever interested in your status as the Gilbert heir!"

"Since she can't be Mrs. Gilbert, she's latched onto your rival just to spite you!"

"Who knows? She's probably already sold company secrets to him!"

Elwin's patience snapped. He lunged forward to drag me from my seat.

Arnold raised a hand and blocked him.

"Elwin Gilbert. You're an embarrassment to men everywhere. You cheated, and you have the nerve to interrogate your girlfriend?"

"Oh wait—ex-girlfriend now. And while we're at it, let's update our relationship too. 'Rivals' sounds so harsh. From now on, we should call ourselves partners."

Arnold deliberately waved the share transfer agreement in Elwin's face.

Before Elwin could read it, Arnold turned to me with a wicked grin.

"Maureen, what do you say—should I crash Starlight's stock price right now? Give everyone a front-row seat to watch Valerie Pruitt, the so-called billionaire's daughter, try to save the day?"

Even Arnold, an outsider, knew that Starlight's success was entirely my doing—not Valerie's.

Yet Elwin couldn't see it.

He was so blind, so willfully ignorant, that he believed every lie Valerie fed him.

Or perhaps, all of it was just an excuse for his affair and his scheme to seize my shares.

Arnold had been at odds with Elwin for years. He knew exactly how to twist the knife.

Sure enough, Elwin fixed his glare on me, his jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscles twitch.

"Maureen, have you lost your mind? You're selling your shares to him?"

"How much did he pay you to throw away your position as a Gilbert daughter? Do you really want to make an enemy of me?"

"Can you not tell the difference between one good meal and a lifetime of them?"

"Or did you use those shares as a bargaining chip to become his mistress, just so the two of you could humiliate me together?"

So that was it. In Elwin's eyes, neither my devotion nor I as a person had ever been worthy of the light of day.

I didn't look at him. Instead, I turned to Arnold with a smile playing at the corners of my lips.

"Then I'll have to trouble Mr. Delgado to show me something impressive. I'm dying to see how the daughter of the richest man in the country plans to save Starlight Corporation from bankruptcy."

Arnold held my gaze for a moment, then pulled out his phone and made a call.

"In half an hour, Starlight's stock will hit its lower limit."

The certainty in his voice caught even me off guard.

I wouldn't have dared claim I could tank Starlight's stock in thirty minutes. Was this guy overselling himself?

But it was Valerie whose eyes flickered with panic.

She clutched Elwin's arm, her voice unsteady. "Elwin, you don't think he's found some powerful backer, do you?"

Elwin pressed a kiss to the corner of her lips. "Silly girl. What backer could possibly be more powerful than you?"

He turned back to me with a sneer. "Maureen, you're giving him way too much credit. If he had the ability to bring me down, he wouldn't have kept it hidden all this time."

"Besides, with Valerie here, neither of you can touch a single hair on Starlight's head."

But his mockery only made Valerie's unease more visible.

When she caught my knowing look, she opened her mouth as if to say something—then defaulted to slinging mud at me instead.

"Maureen, you latched onto Arnold awfully fast. Don't tell me you two have been carrying on behind everyone's backs this whole time?"

Elwin's already dark expression turned thunderous.

"Maureen, is this your way of getting back at me for not proposing to you today?"

"If you truly loved me, shouldn't you feel guilty? Shouldn't you step aside and wish me happiness when I've found someone better?"

I stared at the mouth moving in front of me, unable to believe this was the man I'd loved for years.

I felt nothing but shame for my own blindness.

Fury surged through me. I reached over and took Arnold's hand, lacing my fingers through his.

"You've already cheated and found your true love. Am I not allowed to move on?"

"Or is it that I sold my shares to Arnold instead of handing them over to your mistress for free, and now you're barking about it?"

Elwin, humiliated and enraged, raised his hand to slap me.

I sidestepped.

He stumbled, off-balance, and took Valerie down with him. They hit the floor face-first.

Arnold and I couldn't help it. Our eyes met, and we burst out laughing.

Everyone else wanted to laugh but didn't dare.

They could only point at me and hurl insults.

"Maureen, you shameless little tramp! You've got some nerve! Cross Mr. Gilbert, and you can forget about surviving in Bayview City!"

"Exactly! The Gilbert family could crush you like an ant! You're acting high and mighty now, but you'll be on your knees begging soon enough!"

I shrugged, utterly unconcerned.

"Is that so? I have a feeling the one begging on their knees might be someone else entirely."

Elwin glared at me with fury blazing in his eyes, unable to fathom where my calm confidence came from.

A flicker of unease stirred in his chest—but Valerie's sobbing quickly drowned it out.