Chapter 4: He Doesn't Deserve to Marry You Anymore

Leah's POV

"Cut ties with the family? Leah, stop being so dramatic." Mia's disapproval was obvious as she said, "We're talking about a million dollars. Do you know what that means? It means we never have to worry about money again. All you have to do is marry Elias and all of it is yours."

"Including the humiliation he put me through?"

I asked the question calmly. She was a woman too—she should have understood how I felt better than anyone.

"It was just a little pre-wedding cheating." Mia didn't seem bothered at all. "As long as he doesn't cheat after the marriage, why make such a big deal out of it? Why push things to a point where nobody wins?"

So my own sister was just as fixated on money. As long as there was money, she was perfectly willing to sacrifice me.

I sighed. "If you don't think it's a big deal, then you marry him."

"That's not happening!" Mia refused immediately. "I could never accept a man who cheated before marriage."

She couldn't accept it. But she expected me to. How laughable.

As if she'd realized what she'd said, Mia quickly added, "Besides, Elias likes you, not me. Even if I went after him myself, it wouldn't do any good."

"There's nothing more to say." I didn't want to keep talking. I raised my hand to end the call.

But Mia wouldn't let it go. "No—the family raised you all these years. You have to give something back."

"Give something back?"

A voice suddenly came through from the other end—my father, Kyle Carter. His breathing was a little uneven, like he'd just been running.

Mia answered him in her most coaxing tone. "Dad, it's Leah being difficult again. Just because Elias made one tiny little mistake, she went and signed a marriage agreement with some other man. She's not thinking about the company at all."

She called it a tiny mistake, left out everything else that happened, and in a few sentences turned me into someone throwing a tantrum and deliberately pushing the family business to the brink of collapse.

I didn't feel like listening anymore, but then Kyle spoke again. "What tiny mistake? Leah may be a little spoiled, but she's not the type to dig her heels in over nothing."

Something warmed in my chest. Of course—even now, my father was still speaking up for me.

But from what Mia had said, it was clear he didn't know what had actually happened. If he did, would he still say the same thing?

I gripped the phone tightly and kept listening.

"The man she married is a complete nobody—totally useless. She's just making a mountain out of a molehill." Mia let out a scoff and went over the whole story again, adding her own spin to every detail.

"Elias cheated, and now he wants someone to take it out on Leah?" Kyle's voice was full of disbelief. "Where is Leah?"

"She wouldn't come!" Mia said heavily. "Mom and I have been taking turns trying to talk her around, and she still won't budge. She even said she wants to cut ties with the family. After all these years of raising her—she's completely ungrateful."

"She would never say something like that." Kyle didn't believe it. "I want to ask her myself."

"Fine, here's the phone."

The moment he said it, Kyle's voice came through directly. I could tell the phone was now in his hands.

"Leah, are you okay?" Kyle asked, worried. "Are you upset? Have you been eating?"

"I'm okay."

I'd been pretty upset before, but hearing my father's voice made it better. At least there was still someone in this family who was on my side.

"It's alright, sweetheart. You don't need to come to the hospital. He doesn't deserve to marry you anymore." Kyle's tone was serious. "Don't worry. I'll take care of everything."

"How are you going to take care of it, Dad?" Mia's anxious voice cut in. "Without money, nothing else matters."

"That doesn't mean I sell my daughter." Kyle was firm and righteous. "I won't do that. I'd rather sell my blood, sell everything I have, than push my daughter into a situation like that."

"What good would selling your blood do?" Mia scoffed. "You could drain yourself completely dry and it still wouldn't cover what the company owes."

Then she raised her voice, making sure I could hear every word. "Leah, listen to me. If you don't divorce that man and come back to marry Elias—if you just stand there and watch Dad bleed himself dry—then you're an unfilial daughter."

"Stay out of it!" Kyle's voice rose above hers. "I'm her father. I'm not going to let her throw away the rest of her life for this."

"Then what about the company?" Mia's voice climbed even higher. "Stop spoiling her! Have you thought about Mom and me at all?"

"What's all this shouting about?" Lyra's voice cut in abruptly. "This is a hospital, not home."

"Mom, look at Dad." Mia's voice slid back into its most pitiful register. "He won't let Leah come. What are we supposed to do?"

"Why not?" Lyra demanded sharply, directing the question at Kyle. I could practically picture the look on her face.

"I worked so hard to convince Elias to let this go. We were one step away, and you shut it all down with one sentence. Do you have any consideration for me? For this family?"

"Of course I do," Kyle said, his voice steady as ever. "That's exactly why none of us should get hurt."

"That's easy to say. Leah left us with this enormous mess and now she wants to just walk away? I won't allow it." Lyra's voice went cold. "She comes back, or we're getting a divorce."

A sharp crack rang out. Then silence.

Who had hit whom? I stared at the phone screen, my heart pounding.

A moment later, Lyra's voice tore through the quiet, shrill and disbelieving. "You hit me? You actually hit me—for her?"

"Leah is my biological daughter. If she's willing, that's one thing. But if she's not, then no one gets to force her."

Kyle's voice was shaking.

In all the years Kyle and Lyra had been married, they had barely ever argued—rarely even raised their voices at each other. And now he had slapped her. For me.

"You hit me?" Lyra asked again, as though she still couldn't believe it, and then the phone erupted into chaos—Lyra shrieking, Mia trying to intervene, everything tangled together.

The call dropped in the middle of it. I sat staring at the screen, sniffling, moved beyond words.

What a relief.

Even though the other two only wanted to use me, my father was still my support. I wanted to tell him that I could help the family now—but I held off, wanting it to be a surprise. Instead, I transferred eight hundred thousand dollars into the company account under an anonymous name.

When it was done, I felt good. For the first time in days, a real smile crossed my face.

"Looks like you're in a good mood." The voice startled me. I looked up to find Matto leaning lazily against the doorframe. "Something good happen?"

"When did you get back?" I stood up immediately. "You didn't make any noise at all."

"Right around the time you were sitting there smiling at your phone."

Matto said it simply, walked over, and hoisted me onto his shoulder in one motion. "Come on. We'll talk at home."

"I can walk by myself." I struggled a couple of times, predictably got nowhere, and gave up.

Shortly after, the car turned through the gates of an estate and pulled to a stop in front of a villa.