Carter pressed his lips into a thin line and said nothing.
Leila took that as her cue. She rushed forward and slapped me across the face, just as she'd been itching to do.
"Amanda, shut your mouth!"
"Don't forget—he's your sister's husband now. What right do you have to say something like that?"
I laughed.
But the tears spilled before I could stop them.
"What right do I have?" My voice cracked. "My sister stole my husband. Mom... I have more right than anyone."
Carter's tone went cold. "She's Nora's mother. Not yours."
I cut him off, my eyes locked on Leila's bloodless face.
"She is mine."
Leila screamed like a woman unhinged. "Stop talking!"
I let out a quiet laugh, even as something inside my chest tore. "After her one-night stand, she gave birth to me and dumped me with my grandmother. She didn't marry Morgan Henson until the following year. It wasn't until Nora went missing at five that she brought me home as a replacement."
Leila's eyes went wide. She stared at me, stunned.
She hadn't expected me to know any of this.
Her composure shattered. She lashed out, shrieking: "Don't listen to her nonsense! After we kicked her out of the family, she lost her mind!"
"She's just a girl I adopted from an orphanage—we have the paperwork to prove it!"
After my grandmother died, I'd been sent to the orphanage.
I never had enough to eat. The older kids beat me daily. I was seven years old but so malnourished I could've passed for four. My body was covered in bruises, every shade of purple and green.
I still remembered the first time my mother saw those marks.
She cried the entire day.
I felt her guilt, her regret. After that, she tried to make up for everything at the Henson house. For years, I truly believed she loved me.
But that love was too fragile.
Too fragile to survive even a few whispered words from Nora.
"Mom." My voice was steady. "This is the last time I'll ever call you that. From here on out, you're on your own."
Leila couldn't meet my eyes.
I smiled bitterly at myself. What did it matter, saying all of this out loud? She didn't care. She never had. She had Nora, and that was enough.
Carter opened his mouth but said nothing.
The moment he wavered, Nora collapsed into his arms.
"Carter, I'm so dizzy... Am I dying?"
Leila's face went ashen, her voice sharp with panic. "Nora has a heart condition—she could have an episode at any moment! Get her out of here, now!"
"This new drug we've been developing targets exactly her type of congenital heart disease. Why do you think her father and I have been bending over backward to secure this partnership?"
"Nora is supposed to join the project team. She absolutely cannot have a setback right now."
In that instant, whatever sympathy had flickered in Carter's eyes vanished. He whipped around and glared at me with pure venom.
"Amanda, you knew damn well Nora was sick, and you deliberately provoked her. If anything happens to her, I will bury you. Do you understand me? I will make sure there's nothing left."
He scooped Nora into his arms and tore down the hallway like a man possessed, searching for a doctor.
The man who once swore he'd protect me for the rest of his life now wanted to destroy me.
I smiled faintly. Calmly wiped the tears from my face.
Then I pulled out my phone.
"If you still want to marry me, be at City Hall in thirty minutes."
On the other end of the line, I heard a voice tight with restraint.
"Done."
Carter Gilbert, this time I'm the one walking away from you.
After we registered at City Hall, I went straight into the sealed lab for the new drug trial. Carter called repeatedly. I didn't answer a single one.
It wasn't until the first phase of testing was complete that I finally stepped out of the laboratory.
And found the Hensons and Carter standing in the lobby of DM Biotech's research center, every one of their faces dark as a storm cloud.
I'd made myself clear—neither the Henson family nor the Gilberts would ever receive our cooperation again. So why the hell were they here?
