Chapter 40
DIANA
The air is colder tonight.
I shiver as I wait for Hans on the driveway. The wind sweeps across the goosebumps puckering on my skin. A stubborn, strong will rages at me to go back into the mansion.
Tell him what you’re doing to prove that you didn’t slander Gregory’s reputation. Beg him not to tell the others about what you plan to do.
The thought of going back in makes me tremble more than the blistering wind ever could. I don’t want to feel those golden lights glare down at me for one more cursed second.
“Diana!”
The door flies open before I hear the sharp, brisk tap of flats stepping against stone. I don’t turn around. Exhaustion weighs too heavy on my bones.
“Go back inside, Sophia.”
“You forgot your coat.”
In the corner of my eye, Sophia holds it out for me. She staunchly keeps her chin up, yet there’s a silent plea in her eyes the longer I ignore her. Shivers wrack through my body, tensing up my bones until my stubbornness cracks. I snatch my coat out of her hands and thrust it on.
My hand closes around Kai’s coin.
Sophia doesn’t leave my side. Instead, she bundles her coat tighter around herself.
“Why didn’t you want them to know the board is overturning their decision?” she asks. “It would’ve helped you.”
“Helped me out of the mess that you got me into?” I glare at her, scoffing incredulously. “No, Sophia—”
“—Diana—”
“No! You don’t get to stab me in the back and pretend you still care!”
Sophia looks away. Her fists clench at her sides. Her chest softly heaves, as she blinks down at her shoes.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.” I wipe the tears from my eyes. “You wouldn’t have let it get this far if you were.”
“It’s more complicated than that.” Her meek voice sharpens, yet her words churn out slower.
“I’ve been tutoring students on campus to earn a bit of money to pay for fashion school.
Jonathan found out and he threatened to put me through the same hell you went through if I didn’t help him.
I-I didn’t…I was scared of what Jonathan and Gregory would do if I said no. ”
My heart drops. “Jonathan and Gregory?”
Sophia gulps. She shut her eyes as she hugs herself even tighter despite the thick, pink coat she’s wearing.
“They were in on it from the start. Jonathan convinced Gregory that he would be better off as the chief operating officer of the HMG. He would have the power without having to make all the decisions. Jonathan knows I don’t want to be a part of the HMG, so he promised I could walk away if I helped him. ”
Shock blisters through me, cold as the autumn air breaking into my bones. Then all I see is white. White, explosive anger that makes my hands convulse with the need to attack something because how could I be so blind and not see this for what it really was?
A calculated attempt to oust me and place Jonathan at the very top.
“So, you had time to think and plan on it, and not even once did you consider what I would’ve felt?”
Sophia’s eyes fly open, blazing with desperation and rage. “I had to protect myself, Diana!”
“I would’ve protected you!”
“Oh, like how you’re protecting yourself now?
” Sophia hisses. “You can look out for me all you want, but you’re not enough to shield me from everything bàba puts us through.
At the end of the day, you’re his little lap dog, chained up to do everything he says and soak up everything he thinks about you, and that saves you more than you think it does! ”
“Saves me?” I gasp. “Were you not in that room just now? He practically disowned me!”
Sophia laughs, the sound lithe and cruel. “You know for someone who is known for using her head, it’s shocking how it stops working at a time you need it most.”
“I don’t think you should be the one lecturing me on using your head,” I scoff.
“He didn’t kick you out of the running even though he knows how that will look to the board,” Sophia seethes. “How could anyone believe in a CEO who keeps a liability so close?”
I huff, my hands fisting at my sides. “Spit it out, Sophia. What are you trying to say?”
“Bàba is testing you, Diana! You’ve never once acted out of line. Not like this. He knows your every move. He knows that you’re going to redeem yourself, which is why he’s keeping you close enough for you to get back on, but just far enough to save face in front of the board.”
Sickness cinches my gut. I’ve been trying to rack my brain on why he didn’t punish Gregory hard enough, why he didn’t believe me, because he’s seen everything I’ve done so far. Bàba knows I would never stoop this low to get ahead and yet…
No. I refuse to believe that bàba would purposefully let me endure weeks of vitriol and alienation if he knew I was innocent. He’s hard on us, but not without good reason. He doesn’t believe me because, in the last several days leading to the scandal, I disappointed him.
The fault is mine.
Sophia charges on. “You’re protected because you’re capable of being molded, you’re fine with conforming to what he wants you to be.” Resentment tears through her voice. “You don’t have to become everything you hate just to feel safe in this family.”
I catch the scar slashing her palm. This time, Sophia doesn’t hide it. She holds it up for me to see.
“You remember this? The night I told bàba I wanted to pursue fashion instead of taking over the company. He told me to break one of the blades on the Huang family sculpture and then he would let me go.”
I remember sitting in the war room five years ago when it happened. Sophia—sixteen, small, and defiant—folding her hand over the blade to snap it off the hilt. It cut her instead. Bàba didn’t even flinch when the blood hit the carpet.
“Take this as a lesson,” he warned. “If you ever want to leave this company, you won’t do it so easily. Not without struggle. Not without pain. No luck falls on ungrateful children.”
Sophia’s hand trembles. Her fierce dark eyes are glassy with unshed tears.
“I know what I’ve done is wrong. And I’m sorry that I can’t be the sister you deserve.
But don’t act like you’d be above doing everything I’ve done.
You don’t know what it’s like to outrightly defy bàba and survive.
None of you do. You all want to walk the same path and that’s fine.
I only have myself and I will do anything to make sure I don’t bleed again. ”
My rage dies.
Before I can say anything, headlights flash across the driveway, drowning us in a white glow. Hans pulls the car up until the door handle aligns with my hand.
Sophia swallows hard. She smooths her hands over her shiny hair before straightening up with all the dignity she has left.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to argue with the Indigo store manager for not saving the last copy of Jessica Lovelace’s book for me.”
Sophia turns back to the mansion. Her strides are taut as she braces herself to go back in.
Fear and regret swallow me up. Sophia’s fate is what I’ll have to endure if bàba ever finds out I went against him by sleeping with Kai behind his back.
After all, Sophia and I don’t have Gregory’s privilege of being the firstborn son.
There’s so much he can get away with unscathed, while we have to brave the scars made by their mistakes.
I quietly slip into the car.
Hans glances at me in the rearview mirror. Concern softens his face when he sees me dab my eyes. “Is there anything I can do for you, Miss Diana?”
Can you take us back to the days when we were just kids who knew nothing about competing and taking over a mass media company? Back to the time when Sophia wasn’t the sister I hardly knew, but the sister I read romance novels with and trusted with all my heart?
“I just want to go back to the Fairmont.”
Hans simply nods.
The car eases out of the neighborhood and turns towards downtown. I draw out Kai’s coin from my pocket. My thumb runs over the warm metal before it’s pricked with tears. I close my eyes, letting the rest fall as my heart mourns the people my siblings would have become if the HMG never existed.