The Stepbrother’s Wager Chapter 04

The Stepbrother’s Wager Chapter 04

After returning to the Whitmore estate, I began packing.

There was not much for me to take. I only wanted the things my mother had left me: her journal, her photographs, and the silver apple-blossom pendant.

She had been clutching the pendant in her hand when she died. She told me my grandmother had given it to her, and it was the only thing she had to leave me.

But when I opened the drawer, it was empty.

I searched every corner of the room, but the pendant was nowhere to be found. The uneasiness inside me grew with every passing second.

When I finally asked one of the housekeepers, she stammered, “Mr. Whitmore was in your room this afternoon.”

I rushed downstairs.

A small party was underway in the living room. Claire Whitmore, the Whitmores’ adopted daughter, had just returned from abroad.

Guests crowded around her, and hanging from her neck was my mother’s pendant.

A deafening buzz filled my head as I charged toward her.

“Give me back that pendant.”

Claire touched the necklace and put on an innocent expression.

“But Dylan gave it to me as a welcome-home present.”

I turned to Dylan.

“My mother left that to me. What gave you the right to take it?”

Dylan’s expression remained cold.

“You live under the Whitmores’ roof. We feed you and pay for everything you wear. Doesn’t that make everything you own ours too?”

I clenched my hands into fists.

“You can have everything else, but not that.”

Claire gently tugged on Dylan’s sleeve.

“Dylan, don’t fight with her because of me. Maybe I should just give it back.”

She walked toward me, then lowered her voice so only I could hear.

“You really are pathetic, Ivy. Your mother is dead, your father doesn’t love you, and your own brother can’t stand you.”

“Now even Ethan has fucked you and tossed you aside.”

I looked up at her.

Her smile grew even sweeter.

“You want the pendant back? Get on your knees and beg me for it.”

I stared at the necklace around her neck.

It was the only thing my mother had left me.

I closed my eyes, then slowly sank to my knees under the gaze of everyone in the room.

“Please give it back.”

Quiet whispers rippled through the room.

Dylan’s expression shifted.

Ethan had arrived at some point as well. He stood in the doorway, watching me with a conflicted look in his eyes.

Claire smiled, removed the pendant, and held it out to me.

I reached for it, but she suddenly opened her fingers.

The pendant fell to the floor. The delicate silver chain snapped, and the apple-blossom charm rolled to a stop beside Dylan’s shoe.

Claire gasped.

“Oh no. I didn’t mean to drop it.”

The last thread of restraint inside me snapped.

I surged to my feet and slapped her hard across the face with a sharp crack.

Claire covered her cheek as tears immediately spilled down her face.

“Dylan, my hand just slipped…”

Dylan’s expression darkened instantly, and he shoved me away with all his strength.

I slammed into the corner of the table, and the pain made my vision go black.

Ethan rushed forward too, but the first person he helped was Claire.

I looked at all of them and suddenly began to laugh.

The laughter soon dissolved into tears.

I bent down to retrieve the pendant, but Dylan planted his shoe over it.

“Apologize.”

My hand froze in midair.

“Why should I apologize?”

Dylan stared at me with a vicious look in his eyes.

“You’re causing all this trouble over a worthless piece of junk left behind by a dead woman?”

I raised my hand and slapped him across the face with a sharp crack.

The entire room fell silent.

Dylan’s head remained turned to the side for several seconds.

My voice trembled.

“Dylan, you can bully me and humiliate me all you want, but you have no right to insult my mother.”

He slowly turned back toward me, fury churning in his eyes.

“Fine. This thing matters that much to you?”

He bent down, picked up the silver apple-blossom pendant, and hurled it against the floor.

The charm shattered with a sharp crack.

My heart seemed to break with it.

I lunged for the pieces, but the housekeeper grabbed me and held me back.

Dylan’s voice was ice-cold.

“Hold her down. She can stay on her knees until she apologizes.”

The housekeeper forced me down until my knees slammed into the floor.

The jagged silver fragments dug into my palm, and drops of blood fell onto the floor one by one.

Ethan’s expression changed.

“Dylan, that’s enough!”

Dylan sneered.

“Feeling sorry for her now? I thought you said she was too filthy to touch.”

Ethan’s face tightened.

Claire suddenly clutched her chest and went limp.

“Dylan, I feel awful.”

Dylan immediately rushed over and lifted her into his arms. Ethan followed him.

Before leaving, Dylan glanced back at me.

“Stop making a scene, Ivy. If anything happens to Claire, I’ll make you pay.”

They hurried out with Claire before I could say anything.

Still kneeling on the floor, I collected the broken pieces in my bleeding palm until the silver fragments were stained red.

At two in the morning, I dragged my suitcase out of the Whitmore estate.

Julian’s car was parked outside. He got out and took my luggage from me.

As the car pulled away, I looked back one final time.

The brightly lit mansion had trapped me for three years.

Now it had nothing to do with me.

Meanwhile, Claire was sitting upright in a hospital bed, scrolling through her phone.

She suddenly laughed.

“Dylan, Ethan, you two really do care about me. You actually got rid of Ivy for me.”

The moment the words left her mouth, both men’s expressions changed.