Chapter 2 She Is Not an Ungrateful Daughter

Wendy froze for a full two seconds, then screamed and rushed over. "Elara! Are you out of your mind? How dare you hit Jasmine?"

She pulled Jasmine into her arms and checked the red mark on her jaw, then spun around and glared at Elara. "You bumpkin. No wonder Brandon Robinson called off the engagement — you're nothing but a wild, classless brute!"

Jasmine buried herself in Wendy's arms, eyes red and voice trembling like she was about to cry. "Elara, I know you have feelings for Brandon. But just because he chose me over you doesn't mean you get to put your hands on me..."

The guests around them started murmuring. So that's why Elara snapped — she was fighting her own sister over a man.

Encouraged by the whispers, Jasmine leaned even harder into the act. "Elara, Brandon told me himself that he likes me. You don't blame me for that, do you?"

Elara almost laughed at how shameless these people were.

They were really good at changing the subject. Like mother, like daughter.

She looked at Jasmine's overdone performance and let a cold smirk cross her face. "Blame you? Why would I? A trashy girl and a trashy guy — perfect match. I should be congratulating you two."

She'd never even liked Brandon. He was a playboy, and she'd only agreed to the engagement for the sake of the families' alliance. If Jasmine was so eager to snatch up someone else's leftovers, then fine — she was welcome to him.

Jasmine's fake crying face stiffened for just a moment, a flash of real anger crossing her eyes.

Gordon's expression darkened. "Elara! What kind of talk is that? With an attitude like yours, what man would ever want you? You could never compete with Jasmine!"

Elara turned to look at him, her gaze flat and cold. "Manners? Mr. West, the West family wants to talk to me about manners?"

She turned to face the crowd, her voice calm but every word cutting through the air. "Three years ago, the day Jasmine walked in with that paternity test, you threw me into the storage room. I ate your leftovers. Even the servants could order me around."

The guests exchanged uneasy glances.

Wendy's face shifted. "Don't you dare make things up!"

"Should I pull up the security footage?"

Elara's eyes moved to Jasmine, then continued. "Junior year of high school, Jasmine was bullying other students. To protect her reputation, you forced me to take the blame. And every month, Jasmine got a hundred thousand dollars in allowance. I got nothing."

The room went completely silent. The guests' expressions changed.

The ones who had been whispering and pointing fingers at Elara just moments ago now went quiet, their attention shifting to the West family.

"That's way too far. They raised Elara for eighteen years and couldn't even give her proper food?"

"Exactly. Making her take the blame, giving her zero allowance — I'd have snapped too if I were her."

Gordon's face went pale. His lips trembled but no words came out.

He wanted to argue, but everything Elara said was true. Trying to deny it in front of all these people would only make things worse.

Wendy panicked and grabbed Elara's sleeve, her tone suddenly soft. "Why are you talking like this in front of everyone? We know you're upset about being sent back to your birth parents, but the West family raised you for over a decade. You can't just throw that back in our faces, can you?"

"Throw it back in your faces?" Elara let out a cold laugh and shook her off. "What exactly did you do for me? Of the entire family, the only one who ever treated me like a human being was Grandpa. The rest of you just used me as Jasmine's scapegoat."

Gordon cared too much about his reputation to let this go on. He could see it was only getting worse. He clenched his jaw and lowered his voice. "What do you want?"

Elara didn't look at him. She held out her hand. "Just my grandfather's box."

Wendy quickly shot a look at the butler. "Go get that old box from the storage room. Now."

Ten minutes later, the butler came back carrying a leather suitcase. The surface was peeling and covered in dust.

The moment Jasmine saw it, she wrinkled her nose and covered it dramatically. "Elara, please tell me that's not leftover food in there. It smells rotten. Are you scared you won't have anything to eat out in the countryside?"

Elara ignored her, took the box, and opened it to check. The medicine vials were lined up neatly inside, every single one accounted for.

"You have your things. Now delete that video," Wendy said.

Before she could say another word, the butler came rushing in from outside, out of breath. "Mr. and Mrs. West — there are people at the gate. They say they're here to pick up Elara."

Wendy's face curled into a sneer. "Must be those birth parents of hers. Get out of here, and don't dirty our floors on your way out."

Gordon straightened up, playing the gracious host. "Now, now. Let's go see her off. We're still family. We can't have people thinking the West family has no class."

It sounded polite, but everyone knew what he was really doing — he wanted to watch Elara get picked up by her poor, dirt-poor birth parents so the guests would think the West family had done something noble by raising a child like her.

A crowd of curious guests followed along.

Elara picked up her box and walked behind them, her face unreadable.

The gates of West Manor slowly swung open.

Everyone stopped dead.

Lined up in the open space outside the gates were sixteen black Maybachs, arranged in a perfect row that seemed to stretch on forever. The sight was staggering.

Every car was brand new. The black paint gleamed so brightly it almost hurt to look at in the sunlight.

Wendy's feet stopped moving. The smirk on her face froze.

Gordon's eyes went wide, his mouth hanging open.

Jasmine's nails dug into her palm. She stared at Elara's calm, unbothered face, and something dark and vicious flickered in her eyes.

She quietly stepped back a few paces, slipping into the shadow of the garden, and pulled out her phone to open an encrypted messaging app.

"She's here," Jasmine said, her voice low, a sick kind of excitement bleeding through. "The Shaw family actually showed up. Don't worry about what's happening here — stick to the plan. If Elara wants to be the Shaw family heiress, let's make sure she crashes and burns at her own welcome party today."

She hung up, touched up her makeup, put her soft, innocent expression back on, and slipped back into the crowd.

While everyone was still standing there in stunned silence, the door of the lead car opened and a man stepped out.

He looked to be in his mid-thirties, tall and broad-shouldered, wearing a dark grey cashmere coat. His features were sharp and striking, with an air of quiet authority that was impossible to miss.

He walked over to Elara at an unhurried pace and spoke politely. "You must be Elara?"

Elara looked him up and down. "And you are...?"

"My name is James. I'm the head butler of the Shaw family." He turned and gestured to the bodyguards behind him. "Greet her."

Dozens of men in suits spoke in unison. "Welcome, Ms. Shaw!"

The sound was deafening.

Wendy and Gordon's composure completely collapsed.

Weren't Elara's birth parents supposed to be poor country people who could barely afford to eat?

Jasmine looked like her eyes were about to pop out of her head from sheer envy.

She couldn't stand it. She had worked so hard to take her parents back from Elara — how could she just watch her walk into a life like this?

Besides, she had done her research. Elara's birth parents were broke. They spent their days digging potatoes in the fields. Where did the luxury cars and bodyguards come from?

It had to be fake.

Jasmine pushed through the crowd, her voice dripping with fake concern. "Elara, Mom and Dad only ever wanted what was best for you. Now that you've put on such a big show, don't go embarrassing the Shaw family."

She raised her voice just enough for the guests around her to hear. "I just hope you didn't use money that wasn't yours to pull this off. If the Shaw family finds out what you did, Elara, they'll throw you out."

It was a trap. If Elara showed even a flicker of guilt, or if she seemed out of place around the Shaw family later, every guest here would assume she was a fraud — and that would destroy any chance of a good first impression with them.

James slowly turned his head and fixed Jasmine with a cold, hard stare.

Jasmine felt a chill run down her spine and didn't dare say another word.

James looked away and turned back to Elara, something complicated passing through his eyes. The Shaw family had been searching for her for three years. They'd used the most advanced satellite tracking technology in the world, but during her years with the West family, it was as if some mysterious force had wiped her completely off the map — not a single trace.

It wasn't until two weeks ago, when that strange shielding array collapsed, that she reappeared on the Shaw family's radar.

His voice softened slightly. "Ms. Shaw, the car is ready. I'm here to take you home."