Chapter 2

Julian barked out a laugh.

He looked at me as if I were an utter fool who got lucky on a single card and immediately lost her mind.

"Sure. Since you're offering your neck, what else do you want to bleed?"

Meeting his mocking gaze, I tapped my Ace of Spades.

"The New Harbor Docks project. The Sterlings hold five percent. The Vances hold three."

"I'll bet my family's three percent against your five."

"Dare to take it, Julian?"

The entire ballroom exploded into chaos.

"Is Nadia insane?! That's the Harbor Docks! Families have been tearing each other apart for years over those shares!"

"No wonder Julian won't touch her. How did the Vances raise such an idiot?"

"Her grandfather bled for that empire, and she's tossing it out like pocket change! If the old man were alive, he'd strangle her with his bare hands!"

Julian clapped his hands together, the sharp sound instantly silencing the room.

"Brilliant! Since Ms. Vance has such 'guts,' who am I to refuse?"

"I call!"

I offered a satisfied nod, then slowly turned my gaze toward Chloe.

"Julian is in, Chloe."

"What about you? Are you matching, or folding?"

Chloe bit her lip.

She was just an illegitimate parasite living off my family's leftovers. Her father, Arthur Miller, was a penniless leech who married my mother for money. She had nothing. Those thirty million in starting chips were already more money than she had ever seen in her life.

She parted her lips and cast a desperate, pleading look at Julian.

Julian couldn't bear to see his favorite toy squirm. "Chloe, name whatever you want. I'll back—"

"Watch your tongue, Julian!"

My voice turned razor-sharp, cutting him off cold.

"This is between two women. Keep your nose out of it."

I looked down, twisting the vintage signet ring on my middle finger—the heirloom worn by the future Sterling bride.

"Don't worry, Chloe."

"I know you don't have the bloodline or the bank account to match that kind of bet."

I slipped the ring off my finger.

Clink.

It landed squarely in the center of the pot.

"I'll stake this. My status as the future Sterling matriarch."

"Against one thing from you: you stand on this table and confess to everyone that you were never an adopted daughter or a family friend. You are Arthur Miller's bastard, born from his filthy affair with our maid while my mother was pregnant with me."

Gasps rippled across the room.

Chloe's face drained of all color. She slammed her hands on the table and shrieked at me.

"You're lying!"

"My father adopted me! You're just jealous that he loves me more than you! You're smearing my name!"

"Julian, don't listen to her! She's making it up!"

Everyone in high society knew Julian hated bastards more than anything on earth. Five years ago, an illegitimate half-brother had almost stolen his birthright and forced him into brutal exile overseas.

He had nearly died on foreign soil, saved only by a mysterious mentor who trained him to claw his way back to the top.

Julian's face was unreadable. He merely snapped at the hysterical Chloe.

"Sit down."

Then he turned to me, his gaze freezing over with a warning.

"I'll look into your claim myself."

I met his glare without flinching. Tilting my head, I chuckled softly.

"It's just a bet, Chloe. Calm down."

"If you're terrified, fold. Why scream like a feral animal and ruin what little dignity you have left?"

My dismissive tone lit a match to Chloe's hysteria.

She snapped. "A bet? Fine! You want to bet? Let's bet!"

"I call!"