The Heiress He Threw Away Came Back to Bury Him

Adeline's POV

I'm two months pregnant with Tristan's baby when Brielle, the woman he'd do anything for, shoves me down the stairs.

She calls it an accident. I lose the baby.

I beg my husband to do something about it. Instead, he shields her and turns it around on me.

"Brielle saved my life in that fire. The whole Merrick family owes her. So drop it."

That debt. Always that debt.

Three years. No matter how many times Brielle humiliates me, degrades me, Tristan only ever has one answer: "I owe her my life."

But the truth about that fire? I'm the only one in the world who knows it.

I tried to tell him once. He laughed in my face. "Adeline, you're so desperate for attention you'd make up something like that?"

So I shut my mouth. Buried the truth. Buried whatever was left of my heart along with it.

The man I trusted with my life just handed my child to the woman who killed them, and called it loyalty.

I'm done.

I pull up the number I blocked three years ago and hit call.

"Dad. I'll take over the company. I'll go through with the engagement to Everett. But I have one condition. I want Tristan and Brielle ruined beyond recovery. Nothing and no one left."

"Adeline. You need to calm down."

The door swings open and Tristan strides in. His face shows no grief, no guilt. Just irritation, and he's not even trying to hide it.

"Calm down?" My voice comes out raw. "Tristan, she pushed me down the stairs. She killed our baby. How exactly am I supposed to calm down?"

Every word cuts.

"I've told you, Brielle didn't mean to." He frowns, his eyes flat and cold. "She has severe depression. She got scared and it was instinct. That's it. Why do you always have to push it this far?"

Always pushing it.

I stare at him. This man I've loved for three years. The man I walked away from my entire family for, gave up everything for, swallowed his mother's contempt for, endured his silence and cruelty for.

And now he's standing here defending the woman who murdered our child.

"Instinct." I laugh, and it sounds nothing like me. Tears spill over. "Tristan, I watched her face. She was smiling when she did it. That wasn't instinct. That was intentional."

"Enough." He slams his hand on the bedside table. "Brielle ran into a burning building for me. She has been living with that trauma ever since. If it weren't for her, I'd be dead. I owe her my life. This whole family does."

"Losing a child is terrible. But you can't put this on someone who's sick."

That debt again. His shield, his excuse, his answer to everything.

He knows nothing about that fire. And he has never once wanted to.

He looks like a stranger to me now.

"Get out," I say.

"What?"

"Get out." I grab the glass off the table and hurl it at him. It shatters at his feet, and a shard catches his pants.

"You're unbelievable," he says, anger twisting into a cold laugh. "Stay here and cool off. When you're ready to be reasonable, you can come back."

The door slams.

Silence.

I don't cry. I have nothing left.

I press my hand against my stomach, flat and empty, and the hollow ache of it makes it hard to breathe.

"I'm sorry, baby," I whisper into the pillow. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you."

It takes a long time before I can move. My hand finds my phone under the pillow almost on its own. I scroll to the bottom of my contacts, to the number I blocked the same week I married Tristan and never looked at again.

My father. The man who runs one of the most powerful business dynasties in the country.

I sit with my thumb over his name. Then I take a breath, sever whatever poisoned thing I'd been calling love, and press call.

It barely rings once.

A long silence. Then his voice, quieter than I remember, slightly unsteady.

"Adeline? Is that really you?"

"It's me." I close my eyes and bite down on my lip until the urge to cry passes. "Dad, I'll take over. And I'll marry Everett. I'll do all of it."

I hear his breath catch. When he speaks again, he can't hide how much he means it. "Okay. Okay. I'm just glad you called. Whatever you need, tell me."

"I have one condition."

"Name it. Anything."

I open my eyes. Outside, the sky is a flat, dead white.

"I want Tristan and Brielle ruined beyond recovery. Nothing and no one left."