Chapter 4

### Chapter 4

Julian smashed the suitcase to pieces.

He flung my clothes all over the floor, and finally, from the very bottom, he dug out a stack of selfies of me with my family.

His face changed in an instant, and he threw the photos in my face.

"Well, well, Lorraine! You keep swearing you're innocent, so what are these? Pressed up that close to a man, and the next second you'd be spreading your legs for him, wouldn't you?"

The photos cut across my face, leaving thin threads of blood.

I watched my mother's keepsakes shattered, the room left in ruins, and my eyes burned red.

"They're my father and my brother!"

Anna stood at Julian's side and gave a knowing little smile. "Father and brother? Looks more like a sugar daddy and a fake brother to me."

I stared straight at Julian.

"You don't believe me, then call your grandfather and ask him yourself!"

In the entire Farley family, only old Duke knew who I truly was.

One phone call from Julian and the whole truth would come out.

But he only sneered. "You know perfectly well my grandfather's off in the mountains on vacation, and no one's allowed to disturb him. You think saying that will make me believe you? You cheap, worn-out slut."

Anna curved her red lips and tossed out a light little line.

"Right. If those two are really your own father and brother, I'll strip naked and crawl around on all fours on a livestream for the whole internet to see."

I ground my teeth and gave a cold smile.

"Anna, I'll be waiting for that."

Then I lifted my head to Julian. "And you, Julian. Humiliate me like this, and the Farley family can forget about ever rejoining the four great families."

For a beat, everything went silent.

Then the servants who'd gathered to watch burst out laughing.

"God, has this woman lost her mind?"

Anna hugged her arms to herself, laughing so hard she was shaking.

"I'm dying. One word from you and the four great families kick the Farleys out? Keep dreaming."

Julian rolled his eyes at me the way you'd look at a bug someone had already stepped on.

"Lorraine," he said, his voice thick with mockery, "your mother died five years ago, and you've never so much as met your father. You're nothing but an orphan with no father and no mother. Walk out that door and the only thing left for you is selling yourself on the street. And you think you can decide whether the Farleys live or die?"

My face was still stinging, but my voice held steady, each word measured.

"I'm not an orphan."

"My father is Quinn Pruitt, head of the Pruitt family. My brother is Clement Pruitt, CEO of Pruitt Group."

"My grandfather is old Lucas Whitney, first among the four great families."

"And Orson Craig, of the four great families, is my future husband."

"Every word you've said to me today, everything you've done, they will make you answer for it."

The laughter around me only grew more shameless.

Josephine stepped forward, seized a fistful of my hair, and sprayed spit across my face.

"I think you really have gone out of your mind. If Mr. Craig would ever want you, I'll stand on my head and eat shit!"

My scalp burned where she yanked it, but the corner of my mouth curled up instead, and my eyes swept viciously over every face in the room.

"Don't believe me? Then wait and see."

"You pack of frogs at the bottom of a well. The humiliation of today, I'll repay it double."

Julian shook his head, his eyes full of pity and disgust, as if watching a madwoman's last struggle.

"Enough, Lorraine. I get it. You couldn't handle being dumped, and it broke something in your head."

"I won't even hold it against you for dragging the Farley name through the mud."

"Now get out, before you disturb Anna and the baby."

With that, he pulled Anna into his arms, his large hand moving gently over her belly, every motion careful and tender.

My gaze fell on the slight swell of Anna's stomach.

So they'd had their little bastard growing there all along.

Fury made my fingertips tremble.

But in the end, I only wiped the spit off my face and, one piece at a time, gathered the scattered clothes back into the broken suitcase.

"You don't need to throw me out. Breathing the same air as you two dogs even one moment longer is more filth than I can stand."

"But we're not letting this go."

Through the waves of cursing, I strode toward the door.

The moment I left the Farley house, I dialed a number.

"At the Farleys' comeback ceremony tomorrow, I'm going to let Julian taste what despair feels like."