"You have nothing to apologize for. Stop crying. We'll take you to your favorite restaurant."
As he turned to leave, he cast one last frigid glance in my direction.
"Serena, if you keep throwing these tantrums and bullying June, I will send you back where you came from. You can go back to scraping by."
I smiled. Cold and thin.
They thought I'd grown up in some slum. They thought without the Fox family I had nothing.
They had no idea that my adoptive parents were one of the most powerful families in Havenport.
When I'd insisted on returning to my biological parents, Mom and Dad Delgado had held back tears and said, "Serena, if they ever mistreat you, come home to us."
But I'd chosen blood over the people who actually loved me. I'd pushed them away, convinced that sincerity could be repaid with sincerity.
What a joke.
June walked out surrounded by their doting attention. At the door, she paused and looked back at me, triumph glittering in her eyes. Her lips moved silently.
You lost again.
I met her gaze and let the corner of my mouth curl upward.
The next morning, I went to the office. It was the last time I'd ever set foot in that building.