Chapter 35
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Kayla knew that the affection she once mistook for fatherly love had never been love at all. It was just protection over a product. Something meant to be preserved and eventually sold off at the highest possible price.
She buried the bitterness in her chest and kept her expression pitiful. With a tremble in her voice, she looked up at her parents and said, “Dad, Mom, please don’t blame Tris. I’m sure someone must’ve led him astray. I’m not mad at him.”
Bailee’s heart clenched even tighter, her arms wrapping around Kayla protectively. “My sweet girl, you’ve suffered so much. Come on, I’m taking you to the hospital. We need to make sure you’re okay. This kind of wound can’t be taken lightly.”
Kayla shook her head slowly. “It’s okay, Mom. I already got treated at the school clinic earlier.”
Then, as if something important had just come to mind, she added, “Actually, I passed out at school today. The wound got infected, and I had a really high fever.
“If it hadn’t been for one of my classmates taking me to the clinic, I might’ve done permanent damage. I didn’t even have any money on me to pay for medicine because…”
She trailed off and glanced at Tristian’s darkening expression before quickly correcting herself, “No, Tris didn’t grab it. I–I must’ve dropped it. My classmate covered the cost for me, or I don’t know if I’d have even made it home alive today.”
But her backpedaling came far too late and far too obviously. Even though she said Tristian wasn’t responsible, neither Jackson nor Bailee looked convinced in the slightest. Both turned their sharp, angry eyes on Tristian.
Jackson snapped, “You took her money? We leave the house for a few days, and this is how you take care of your sister?”
Kayla smiled inwardly, ‘Just as I thought, Marianna’s tricks really do work. I even gave Tristian an out, but the more I speak up for him, the more they turn against him.
‘And none of it’s technically my fault. Mom and Dad came to their own conclusions.‘
Tristian’s face was turning a shade darker with every passing second. He protested, “I didn’t take her money. Why would I—”
But before he could finish, Kayla jumped in again to defend him. “Mom, please don’t be mad at Tris. He’s going to take over the company one day, and I… I’ll need to rely on him. If Tris gets upset with me, I won’t…”
She looked down, her lips trembling, eyes full of fear, as if she genuinely believed she had no future if Tristian decided to cast her aside.
At that, Bailee’s face dropped. She asked, “Who told you that?”
Kayla blinked, clearly startled, and shrank back slightly. Her eyes darted to Tristian instinctively, and that glance alone said more than words ever could.
Tristian had grown up being treated as the heir to Sexton Group. With that status, he became arrogant, especially around Kayla. He told her plenty of times that she’d better behave if she wanted to keep her place in the family.
In Kayla’s past life, she believed it. She thought he was just being a protective older brother, the kind she could rely on
forever.
That fantasy shattered the moment things fell apart with Marianna. Tristian warned her time and time again–if she didn’t do as she was told, she’d be thrown out of the Sexton family with nothing.
That was when Kayla finally realized that Tristian’s acceptance was her only shield. If he withdrew it, she would become nothing.
1/2
7:35 pm
Chapter 35
In this life, Kayla would never let her survival depend on anyone else again.
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Bailee’s eyes were filled with tears. She turned to Tristian, devastated. “Tris, how could you say something like that to Kay?”
Tristian’s pride had taken too many blows tonight, and now, he was boiling with frustration. He didn’t even try to deny it. Instead, he lifted his chin and scoffed, “I just told her the truth.
AD
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