I remembered how, the day after I came home, Lauren had promised to take me to legally change my name. But when Madilyn fell ill with a fever, crying hysterically for her mother, Lauren abandoned our plans without hesitation. I stood in the living room, feeling small and insignificant, while Adrian passed by with a sneer.
"Serves you right," he spat. "Do you really think you deserve the Monticello name?"
Those words hadn’t hurt as much as they could have. After all, it was just a surname. I had survived worse. Life with the Smith family had been brutal—I was nothing more than a servant to them. I had barely escaped being married off to an old bachelor to pay for their son’s education. The Monticellos had saved me from that fate, and for a time, I had been grateful, even to Adrian, despite how he treated me.
But I soon realized he was as cruel as those who had raised me. The only person who had ever shown me kindness was Tristan. He visited the Monticello mansion not for Maddy, but for me. He brought me books, asked about my interests, and treated me like I mattered.