My Unfazed Mind Saves Me Chapter 10

My Unfazed Mind Saves Me Chapter 10

My parents and brother stared at Stella. “It really was you…”

On the big screen, Victor walked into frame. He stepped into the room and ruffled my hair.

“I thought you were actually going to fall for it. Turns out you’re not that hopeless.”

I lifted my chin. “I’m dense. I’m not a fool.”

He smiled. “So you do know.”

Then he turned to face the camera, and every trace of warmth vanished.

“Stella. Audrey. You touched my fiancée. I hope you knew what that meant when you did it.”

Bodyguards closed in from every direction.

Stella went white. She looked to my family, desperate – but my parents turned away. My brother wouldn’t

meet her eyes.

Audrey’s knees buckled. She hit the floor. All she’d wanted was to get rid of me. Jealousy that was it.

Stella was the one who’d come to her. She’d said they wanted the same thing, and Audrey had gone along

with it. If the Sterlings cut ties with the Windsors over this, her father would destroy her.

When I came downstairs, both of them rushed at me. Stella dropped to her knees.

“Chloe, I’m sorry – I’m so sorry. We’re sisters. Please, can you forgive me one more time?”

Audrey was right behind her. “I was jealous, okay? I admit it. But I’ll never come between you and Victor

again. Just please call him off!”

Victor watched me. He could see me thinking about it. For one terrifying second, he thought I might say yes.

He still couldn’t predict how my brain worked.

But this time, I didn’t let him down.

I looked at both of them and shook my head.

“You’re not sorry for what you did. You’re scared of what Victor will do. The only person you’re worried about is yourself. Being dense was how I protected myself. But now that I know what you are, I’m done pretending”

I finally understood where that habit came from.

Back at the orphanage, the adults used to tell us we were throwaway kids. The other kids weren’t exactly

kind either.

–

Maybe that was when it started my brain building a wall so the world couldn’t get in. I taught myself not to

care. Not to notice.

If I couldn’t see the cruelty, it couldn’t reach me.

But now I had a family. People who actually loved me. I didn’t need the wall anymore.

Stella and Audrey looked at my face and knew it was over.

Victor had Stella questioned. She gave up the hacker who’d broken into the Sterling system. Victor offered

the hacker two options – go to war with the Sterlings, or work for them.

The hacker didn’t hesitate.

The Bennett family cut Stella off. They threw her out without a cent.

Victor put the word out any business that hired Stella, no matter how small, would be making an enemy of the Sterlings. She couldn’t land a real job. She was useless at manual labor. No one would touch her.

Before long, she was on the streets, surviving off whatever she could scrounge up.

Audrey’s father shipped her overseas before the dust even settled. She was told never to come back.

Victor and I had our engagement – the real one, this time.

One afternoon, out of nowhere, I got a call. A movie role offer.

I ran to Victor, practically vibrating. “I got the role!”

Victor smiled – the real kind, the one that reached his eyes. He turned away and typed something on his

phone.

[Add another fifty million to the investment.]