Living in the Sterling Shadow

Julian Vance was my adoptive brother. For ten years, he was also my secret.

The day we finally decided to tell the world, he was given an undercover assignment in Mexico—a mission with little chance of survival.

The night before he left, he held me tight and promised, "If I make it back, Scarlett, I'll take your name and never leave your side."

So I waited. I rejected every suitor my father paraded before me and became the laughingstock of Manhattan's elite.

Three years later, Julian returned, trailing scandals and massive gambling debts.

He knelt before my father, humbled but strangely firm. "Dad! I promised Bianca I'd take care of her for the rest of her life!"

A timid woman named Bianca hid behind him, her hands protectively clutching a swollen belly.

My father’s gaze snapped to me. The whole room held its breath, waiting for the explosion.

Instead, I smiled. And on the spot, I accepted the engagement ring from New York's most notorious private equity tycoon.

At my engagement party, Julian came crashing through the entrance in his car. He leveled a gun at my fiancé and roared, "Scarlett! You marry him, and I swear to God, I'll kill him!"

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1

The slap echoed through the room. My hand, now trembling, fell to my side. I’d just struck Julian Vance—my adoptive brother, my secret lover.

Julian clutched his reddening cheek, staring at me. The eyes that once held me captive now stared back, wide with disbelief.

He opened his mouth to explain, but I cut him off, my voice like ice. "Do you think kneeling on the floor changes anything, Julian? That I'll forgive you? That I'll just pretend this never happened?"

"Scarlett, I know you're angry. Just give me a chance to explain," Julian pleaded.

He shuffled forward on his knees, reaching for my hand. "I know I promised you a wedding, that we’d never be apart again. But that was three years ago, Scarlett. Things have changed. Bianca... she's pregnant."

He paused, his gaze pleading, full of what I assume he thought was profound love and helplessness.

He pressed on, "But we have ten years between us. How can I just abandon that? Bianca can have the title, the ring... but my heart? That's always been yours, Scarlett. It will always be yours."

"We can tell everyone you're the child's godmother. I can still be a good son to Dad, still help him with the business—"

I let out a harsh, derisive laugh. "'Dad'? Don't forget, Julian, the only reason my father treated you like a son, the only reason he molded you into anything at all, was because of me."

"What are you? A charity case? A leech my father took in out of pity? You're an ungrateful parasite."

Another slap cracked through the cavernous hall. The other side of his face began to swell, matching the first.

I didn’t spare him another glance. My gaze swept past him, locking onto the trembling woman huddled behind him.

I advanced on her slowly, a cold smile touching my lips as I looked down at her.

My voice was deceptively soft. "You're a sweet thing, aren't you, Bianca? Happily picking up the trash I discarded. And you even managed to get knocked up by it."

Bianca’s entire body shook, and she instinctively shrank behind Julian, shielding her stomach.

I leaned in, my whisper a venomous caress in her ear. "But some things, once rotten, stay rotten. Do you really think you've won?"

"You think sleeping your way into this family and using a baby to trap another woman's fiancé will work? That the Sterlings will just welcome you? Or will you spend the rest of your life as my shadow, my pathetic little replacement?"

Julian’s face went ashen. He stared at me, lips trembling, utterly speechless.