CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE – HATTIE #3
“You just don’t understand, do you?” Rosalyn puts her glass down and focuses on me, her eyes blazing. “When you returned, I told you to stay put. That once Jasmine married Finley, you’d have an easy time of it. But you just couldn’t do it.”
Finally, I let myself smile, and my lips curl to one side in an amused smirk. “Why? Because you fear my very existence?”
“That—”
“God forbid anyone should find out that your daughter is nothing more than a lovechild and you a mistress.”
She jerks, my words hitting her exactly where I need them to, and she grabs the arm of the sofa. “You ungrateful brat. I let you into my home, treated you well, funded your life, and this is how you speak to me?”
“Let me into your home?” I laugh. “You forget that this was my home long before it was ever yours. Those ‘funds’ you speak of? They’ve been mine the whole time. As for the way you’ve treated me… Shit, Rosalyn, if that’s how you treat someone well, I’d love to see how you treat someone badly.”
She flinches again, as if she wasn’t expecting me to bite back this way.
“See!” Jasmine sits forwards. “I told you, Mum. This is how she spoke to me before! She was always speaking out of turn to us while acting all sweet in front of Dad, but this is ridiculous.”
“Oh, get over it.” I wave my hand dismissively. “As if this isn’t how you’ve both spoken to me since I returned. The only difference now is that I don’t need to pretend to be a good, obedient little girl. There’s nothing you can hold over me.”
“Your trust fund is still under our control,” Rosalyn says. “If you want it—”
“My trust fund is being illegally withheld from me, you mean,” I retort, making her flinch again. “So, I suggest you convince my father to hand it over before I’m forced to take the regrettable act of legal action against my own family and everyone finds out what thieves you’ve been.”
She snaps her mouth shut.
“Don’t speak to my mother like that!” Jasmine hisses, venom lacing every syllable. “You ungrateful bitch. You’re lucky you’ve even been acknowledged.”
“Careful.” My tone takes on a dark edge. “Have you forgotten what I said to you at Lammens already, Jas? The only one of us here who’s lucky to be acknowledged is you.”
Rosalyn gets to her feet. “Watch your tone. You should be grateful we ever entertained you when you came back. If you didn’t look so much like your mother, William never would have taken that DNA test. You’re extremely lucky you were able to come back here and steal Jasmine’s relationship.
I don’t know how you managed to do it, but if you had any redeeming qualities whatsoever, you’d step aside and let her take what’s rightfully hers. ”
“I’ll say it one more time.” I follow suit and stand, bringing my gaze level with hers.
“I am marrying Finn. Even if I did walk away, there isn’t a chance in hell he’d marry Jasmine in this lifetime.
That ship sailed long before you ever kept my return a secret from Her Majesty.
If I were you, I’d save your breath about the ‘rightfully hers’ bullshit.
You know as well as I do that all this”—I wave my hand around the room—“doesn’t belong to her.
It barely belongs to you. The only lucky ones here are you.
Lucky I was kidnapped. Lucky my mother died.
Lucky you could finally step out from the shadows of your affair and become the legitimate Mrs Sinclair.
Then again, are you even ‘lucky’ I was kidnapped, Rosalyn? ”
My words hit exactly how they’re meant to.
Her face reddens. “You—!”
“I’m a generous person. You can have it.
My father, my house, even my inheritance from him.
You and Jasmine can have it all. I don’t want it.
I’m no more a part of this family than the rocks outside in the garden that you ruined.
” I fidget with my watch, then meet her gaze again.
“But if you want to keep it, I suggest you are the one who watches your tone. You have far more to lose than I do. Don’t think I won’t tell everyone the truth about your relationship with my father and who Jasmine really is. ”
She clenches her fist, and even Jasmine is staring at me with wide eyes. “Are you threatening me, Harriet?”
“Yes.” I smile, the first genuine one since I walked in here. “I am threatening you.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
I raise my eyebrows as the slick, sick itch of satisfaction rockets through my veins. “Why don’t you try me?”
Her jaw tightens, and her eyes blaze with the anger that’s colouring her cheeks. Through it all is the most delicious hint of fear—fear that I’ll do it, that I’ll really tell anyone.
After all, I’m a wildcard now.
She can’t control me anymore.
She has no idea what I will and will not do.
“Get out,” she finally says. “And don’t forget that you made the first threat here. If you release that information, I will do everything in my power to make sure your little plot of becoming the crown princess never comes to fruition.”
“Leave? Gladly.” I walk towards the front door, then look back at them both. “And go ahead. Stop me. I’d love to see you try. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.”