Patricia smirked as she scrolled through the news feed on her phone, flipping through every headline and comment without missing a beat. The comment section was a mess—full of insults and nasty rumors.
But while Patricia looked on with cool detachment, just watching the drama play out, Nina was a wreck. She’d been on edge since early morning, furious and heartsick. She couldn’t pretend she didn’t care about Theo. She’d given him the best years of her life. How could she not have feelings for him? But after getting hurt by him again and again, whatever love she’d had was all used up.
Still, she never thought Theo would actually turn around and chase after another woman right in front of her. All those years, just thrown away by a man who clearly didn’t care.
Someone knocked on the door. Joseph walked in. “You saw the news?”
Nina just nodded, her face tight.
She said, “Yeah, I saw it. The Newton family isn’t exactly your top pick anymore, huh?”
Joseph’s brows pulled together. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Nina looked at him like she’d been slapped. “So that’s all I am to you, Joseph? Just a pawn? Whoever’s good for the family, that’s who you want me with, right? When Theo was useful, you couldn’t wait to shove me into his arms and hope I’d get pregnant as soon as possible. Now that things are falling apart and the Newtons aren’t worth anything, you just shrug it off? Is that all I am to you? I’m a person, Joseph. I’m not some thing you can just trade away whenever you feel like it.”
Joseph’s patience snapped. “So what do you want me to do? Tell you to try harder, go win Theo back? Nina, get real. Mrs. Newton’s still in police custody—she’s going to be charged any day now. Theo’s doing all this just to cover up his grandma’s crimes. The Newton family can’t survive another scandal. He’s sacrificing himself to protect the family.”
“All I ever wanted was for you and the Miller family to come out ahead, whether it was with Theo or anyone else.”
Nina grabbed the nearest thing on her nightstand—a glass ornament—and threw it at him. “Get out. Don’t stand there pretending you’re doing this for me.”
She curled up in bed, clutching her blanket, crying so hard she could barely breathe. Her phone kept lighting up with new messages—every one of them pretending to check in, but really just fishing for gossip.



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