Elinor POV:
The city lights blurred into streaks of gold and white through the taxi window. They offered no warmth, just a cold, glittering backdrop to the hollow space that had opened up in my chest.
My phone, which I'd put on silent, vibrated violently against the leather seat. The screen lit up with a name I dreaded.
Warren Campbell. My father.
I took a deep, shuddering breath and swiped to answer.
"Elinor! What in the hell did you do at the airport?" His voice was a low growl, fury barely contained.
A humorless laugh escaped my lips. "What did I do? You should be asking your precious daughter and your future son-in-law what they were doing."
"Don't you dare take that tone with me! You've embarrassed the Charles family. You've embarrassed us!" He wasn't concerned about me. He was concerned about appearances. Of course.
My heart, already bruised, sank like a stone. I should have known.
In the background, I heard my mother's voice, sharp and piercing. "All for your pathetic jealousy! You had to make a scene! You terrified poor Kayla!"
The phone was jostled, and then Kayla's voice, thick with fake tears, filled my ear. "Sister, I know you're mad at us, but how could you do that to Ewing? The security guards almost pressed charges..."
The sheer audacity of her performance was so staggering, I almost laughed again.
Then Ewing's voice cut in, laced with impatience and a thin veneer of placation. "Elinor, let's just talk about this at home. It's all a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?" I cut him off, my voice dangerously quiet. "Do you need me to describe what you were doing in that car, Ewing?"
Silence on the other end. A thick, damning silence.
Then my father's roar exploded through the speaker again.
"Elinor Campbell, I am ordering you to come home right now! Stop causing trouble out there!"
It wasn't just a father's command. It was the command of my Pack's Alpha. I felt the pressure of it, a psychic weight pressing down on me, but it was drowned out by a wave of pure revulsion.
He wasn't finished. He delivered the final, killing blow. "Ewing and Kayla are in love. Since you can't seem to accept that, for the good of this family's reputation, your engagement to Ewing is over."
The words hit me like a physical slap. My cheek burned with a phantom sting.
"Over?" I repeated, my voice a hoarse whisper.
"The Charles family needs a union," Warren continued, his tone cold and final as a death sentence. "Since you're not suitable, Kayla will take your place."
And there it was. The truth, laid bare. My engagement wasn't just cancelled. It was being transferred. Like a piece of property. Like a stock option.
My entire life, my future, my fiancé-everything could be stripped away from me and handed to my sister without a second thought.
I thought of all the years, all the times Kayla had been excused, and I had been punished. All the times her mediocrity was celebrated while my achievements were ignored.
She was their real daughter. I was just... the other one. The placeholder.
In that moment, years of buried resentment, of quiet suffering and swallowed injustices, erupted inside me.
"Fine," I said. Just one word, spoken into the phone with a terrifying calm.
I ended the call and powered the phone off completely.
The taxi driver shot me a worried glance in the rearview mirror. I ignored him, staring out the window. The reflection that looked back was a stranger-a woman with dead eyes and a face carved from ice.
I had no home to go to. No family to turn to.
I had been utterly and completely cast out.
For a second, the sheer desolation of it threatened to swallow me whole. I was an orphan all over again.
But then, something else rose from the ashes of my despair. Something hard and unyielding.
I would not let them break me.
