Page 16 of Cruel Heir

Aiden shook his head. “Eloisa, we don’t have times for your jokes—”

“Do I look like I’m fucking joking?” I cut him off, my hands gripping the armrests tightly.

My father stared at me, his face devoid of emotions, while William and Aiden were at a loss for words.

“There’s no way—”

“It’s true.”

Surprised, I looked at my father.How did he know?

“I was suspecting this at first,” Father continued, “But then, I thought my daughter isn’t like me. She would never hurt a fly.”

Realization hit me one more time today. I wasn’t what my father wanted me to be – I wasn’t like my mother, who forgave and forgot everything. All this time, I was trying so hard to become that kind and innocent person that everyone expected me to be.

“Maybe you don’t know well, after all,” I retorted, getting up from my chair.

“Have you completely lost your fucking mind?!” Aiden yelled as he shook me violently. “What has gotten into you?!”

My lack of response angered my eldest brother even more.

“Why did you do it? How the fuck did you do it?”

“It’s not that hard,” I uttered, trying to get away from Aiden.

“That’s it,” he said, pushing me back on the chair. “I don’t think you’re going off to college anymore.”

That made me snap. “I will burn this house to the ground if anyone tries to tell me what to do one more fucking time!” I screamed, not feeling the slightest bit of guilt.

Aiden looked at my father as if asking him to intervene. Father took a step forward, and I held my breath.

“I expected better from you,” he started.

“It’s not like they didn’t deserve it.”

He towered over me. “That is not your decision to make. You’re not the head of this family.Iam,” my father responded, pointing to himself. “You’ve made a mess.”

“Father—” William tried to pipe in, obviously annoyed at how calmly he was dealing with this fiasco.

Father held a finger up to stop him. “You will clean this mess. It’s on you,” he told me before patting my head lightly and motioning for Aiden to follow him outside.

Though his gesture confused me, I was glad that my father did not hit me. I could have smiled if William did not push me on his way out.

“Your need to have all the attention is messing up everything,” he snarled.

I faced him. “At least you don’t have to pretend to actually care about the stupid alliance—”

“It wasn’t about the alliance, Eloisa,” Will interrupted. “It was about our shares that you just so amazingly decided to burn to ashes. You think you’re so much smarter than everyone that you just did the stupidest thing ever.”

My brother’s words doused the fire inside me.I hadn’t thought about it.I just did something impulsively, blinded by rage and the idea of being used. Now, it felt like it was already too late for me to fix this. I couldn’t help but look the other way, feeling like a rebel teenager who had been nothing but a pain in the ass.

But Will was not done lashing out. “This was something that your dim-witted Carson boyfriend wouldn’t even do, and that says a lot.”

Hearing that name made me want to rip my ears out. “Stupid or smart, you and I both know that you would never be like Aiden or Father, no matter how hard you try. They will never find you valuable, and you will forever be the forgotten son who’s never good enough.” I sounded like a brat, but Will struck a nerve, so I felt the need to retaliate.

I wanted to apologize as soon as the hurtful words left my mouth, but I held myself back. I left the study room and went straight up to my room, unable to deal with pointing fingers right now. As my back hit the bed, my eyelids felt heavy at once. It was only noon, but the exhaustion made me want to sleep until the next day.

I also believed that that’s why I wasn’t bawling my eyes out. I was too exhausted to express my emotions. The only thing I needed right now was some time alone. I wished there was a place where no one knew who I was or where I came from. I didn’t deserve to have my heart broken because of a family feud.

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