Warren saw the dead, empty look in Adela's eyes. It made a spike of unease shoot up his spine, but he quickly masked it with louder authority.
"What do you understand?" Warren barked, stepping toward her. "I'll tell you what you need to understand. As long as I am breathing, you will do as you are told. You will marry Juston, and you will forget this design nonsense."
He expected her to flinch. He expected her to dig her nails into her palms and lower her head in submission, just like she always did.
Adela didn't flinch. Her hands hung loosely at her sides.
She turned away from him and walked calmly toward the grand staircase.
"Where do you think you're going?" Warren yelled, his voice echoing in the massive foyer.
Adela paused with her hand on the mahogany banister. She didn't look back.
"To pack my bags," she said evenly.
Warren's face turned a dangerous shade of red. His absolute control was slipping, and he despised it.
"Pack your bags?" Warren sneered. He pulled out his ultimate weapon. The only leash he thought he needed. "Listen to me very carefully, Adela. You walk out that door tonight, and I will freeze your trust fund. I will cancel every credit card in your name. You will have absolutely nothing."
Beatrice stood up, wringing her hands. "Addie, stop being foolish! How will you survive out there? You don't know how to do anything!"
Kayden leaned against the wall, a cruel smirk on his face. "Let her go, Mom. She'll be sleeping on a park bench by tomorrow."
Kara watched with wide, innocent eyes, but her fingers were tapping excitedly against her thigh.
Adela walked up three steps. Then, she stopped.
She turned around and looked down at the people standing in the foyer. From this height, they looked small. They looked pathetic.
A genuine, startling laugh escaped Adela's lips. It was a sound of pure, unadulterated relief.
"Freeze them," Adela said.
Warren blinked, stunned. "What?"
Adela's voice grew louder, ringing with a fierce, unbreakable power. "Freeze the accounts! Cancel the cards! Burn the money for all I care! I will never take another cent from this house!"
She gripped the banister, leaning forward, her eyes burning with cold fire.
"Listen to me, Warren," she said, her voice cutting through the air like a blade. "The second I walk out those doors, I am no longer your daughter."
Warren stepped back as if physically struck.
Adela shifted her gaze to her mother. "Beatrice. I have no mother."
She looked at Alexzander and Kayden. "If I see either of you on the street, you are strangers to me."
Finally, her eyes locked onto Kara. The fake, sweet mask on Kara's face faltered under Adela's lethal stare.
"And you," Adela whispered, the words carrying perfectly across the room. "You can have them. You deserve each other. Good luck."
Adela stood up straight. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with air that finally felt clean.
"I, Adela, am done with the Richmond family," she declared, her voice echoing off the marble walls. "We are severed. We are nothing."
She turned her back on them and walked up the stairs.
Behind her, the foyer was trapped in a stunned, suffocating silence. Warren's hands shook with rage. None of them moved to stop her.
