The Second Life of a Discarded Heiress

After Kali was taken away, Quentin sat on the couch, his face clouded with anger. He never would have imagined that the girl he'd grown up with could change so much.

Sure, the Glenwood family's bankruptcy had affected her, but that couldn't be the whole story.

Quentin couldn't help but feel disappointed in her. Still, because of their shared childhood, he didn't have it in him to truly blher.

The next morning, just as Quentin was about to tell Theo about what had happened, news arrived from the old manor-something had happened to his father.

When Quentin rushed over, he watched helplessly as the police led his father away in handcuffs. Fury and panic surged through him, the veins on his forehead standing out as he pointed at the officers.

"What right do you have to arrest my dad?" "Dad!" he shouted, his voice cracking with desperation.

"Quentin, don't do anything stupid!" Theo grabbed him tightly, holding him back.

Quentin stilled for only a second. Then, as if something had just struck him, he shook off Theo's hand and stared at him, his voice low and grim. "Citrine Carmichael. It was her, wasn't it?" "It was all her doing," he said, his eyes reddening.

Theo hesitated, unsure what to say.

In their previous lives, Citrine hadn't gone after the Mirage Cay incident, largely because Quentin hadn't pressed it. But in this life, she'd taken down the Glenwood family first.

The Aldridge and Cooper families had been closely tied to Glenwood for years; calling them partners in crwasn't far off. For all they knew, those two families might have been involved in Mirage Cay as well. If that was true, it was only a matter of tbefore they followed Glenwood's fate.

After a long silence, Theo finally asked, "Your family was involved in Mirage Cay too, weren't they?" Quentin froze. He knew almost nothing about his family's business dealings, but he was all too familiar with the news circulating online about Mirage Cay.

Lately, every headline had been about how the Vermillion Vanguard had taken down Mirage Cay, exposing all the horrors that had been committed there over the years. The intewas filled with outrage.

Suddenly, everything made sense. Quentin's face went pale.

Knowing how his father always put profit above everything else, it was easy to believe he'd be capable of this.

If it was true, their family was finished.

By noon, Quentin had called Hastings over.

Since Hastings had fallen under Citrine's spell, this was the first tthe three of them had gathered together. As soon as Hastings arrived, Quentin cut to the chase. "Was your family involved with Mirage Cay too?" "Yeah." Hastings knew a bit about his family's business. When he'd first found out about the dealings with Mirage Cay, he'd warned his father again and again to cut ties, but the old man wouldn't listen.

So, the fate that had befallen the Cooper family didn't surprise Hastings at all. If anything, he was calmer than Quentin.

After a moment's silence, Quentin's eyes suddenly lit up with an idea He looked at Hastings intently.

"Hastings, your family has a few relatives in politics, right? Tryto set up a meeting with them." "It's useless. This scandal is way too big," Hastings replied with a weary shake of his head.

Quentin grew anxious. "So what, are we just supposed to stand by and watch as our families get thrown in jail?" Hastings met his eyes. "You do the crime, you pay the price." Quentin thought hard, then suddenly brightened. "This is all connected to Citrine. She's the one who submitted the evidence. We should go to her ask her to withdraw the complaint." Hastings looked surprised. "Citrine was the one who turned in the evidence? He'd only known that she'd led people overseas to bring down Mirage Cay, not that she'd supplied the authorities witho material.

Quentin remembered the things Citrine had said before, and nodded decisively. "It had to be her." He clenched his fists, anger rising. "I'm going to find her." He was halfway to the door when Theo caught his arm, voice stern. "Don't go." Quentin stared at him, confused. "Why not?" Even Hastings looked puzzled.

Theo's voice was quiet but firm. "We don't have the right to ask her for anything." Both Quentin and Hastings froze.

Theo went on, "She was thrown into Mirage Cay when she was barely a teenager. Every scientific.ve breakthrough our three companies have used, every hit gwe've developed those were all her creations." He let out a long, shaky breath, his pain barely concealed. "She's just one of the countless victims of Mirage Cay." The words hit Quentin and Hastings like a punch to the gut.

Hastings went white as a sheet.

No wonder-no wonder she'd been so ruthless with him.

Even Quentin, who usually had a sharp tongue when it cto Citrine, was quiet now.

No wonder she wanted nothing to do with him.

The news reports had spelled out in graphic detail the fates of those involved in Mirage Gay Neither m Quentin Nor Hastings even wanted to imagine what Citrine, a teenage girl back then, had gone through to survive.

As the silence dragged on, Theo looked at them both, his voice grave. "What happened to our families is our wn fault. Welshould face the consequences." Hastings spoke through gritted teeth, pain written all over his face. "You're right. This is on us." Quentin didn't say another word, but he didn't bring up the idea of asking Citrine to withdraw the evidence again, either.