chapter 5
Lily still couldn’t let it go.
Even as her mother dragged her away to flatter producers and investors, she kept throwing glances back at me like I was the one who had stolen something from her.
A little later, when she managed to corner me again, her face was ugly with frustration.
“You’re not special,” she whispered. “I’m already making my own money. I have fans. I have a future. What do you have besides your family’s last name?”
I gave her a sweet smile.
“I was born a Carter shareholder. I have enough money to lie still for the rest of my life and never run out. That sounds like a future to me.”
She looked like I had slapped her.
In our last life, the Carter family had never gifted her shares. They had never adored her. She had never known what it felt like to be cherished in that house.
And now she could see, with her own eyes, exactly what she had thrown away.
“You just wait,” she hissed. “Once I become an Oscar winner, I’ll crush you. I’ll make my fans tear you apart online.”
I stared at her, honestly a little tired.
Why did she insist on making everything a competition?
Why was I never allowed to simply exist as her sister?
Then she leaned close and muttered in my ear, “This is your birthday, and your fake sweet family still isn’t even here. That psycho Damian? He’s just acting in public. I can’t wait to see him destroy you and drive you out of the Carter family.”
She wasn’t entirely wrong.
Damian was acting.
He had become very, very good at acting.
At that exact moment, across the hall, I could feel his eyes on me.
He was standing among guests with a champagne glass in hand, talking smoothly, politely, impeccably.
But his gaze kept drifting back to me.
When the room cleared around us later, he appeared without warning, caught my wrist, and pulled me into a dim private lounge.
The door closed.
His hand pressed lightly against the wall beside my head.
“Claire,” he said in a low voice, “you’ve been very disobedient lately. Should I punish you?”
The faint scent of alcohol and cedar wrapped around him. His usually controlled eyes looked darker than normal, touched by something heated and difficult to name.
My heart skipped.
I looked away too quickly.
“What did I do?”
He cupped my chin and turned my face back toward him.
“I’ll ask you one more time,” he said. “Do you have anything you’re hiding from me?”
My pulse jumped.
For a second, absurd panic shot through me.
Did he hear something? Did he know? Did he know about my past life? About all those humiliating memories I never wanted anyone to see?
I forced a smile.
“No. Nothing.”
He stared at me for a long moment, then took my hand and pressed it flat against his chest.
Warm. Hard. Alarmingly real.
My face went hot so fast I almost choked.
It was impossible not to remember all those years of sneaking into his room during storms, curling beside him, throwing my leg over him in my sleep like I owned the place.
Back then, he’d tell me bedtime stories in the dark in that low calm voice of his. I’d grumble that I wasn’t a child. He’d laugh and say, “You are when you sleep. You’re a menace.”
As if proving the point, he lifted my leg slightly now and rested it against his abdomen.
I nearly died on the spot.
If this man ever found out that the soul inside me had lived three lives and was only one or two years mentally younger than him, would he pass out?
Worse—had he heard some accidental thought once? Had I slipped?
He looked at me, amused.
“What’s wrong?” he murmured. “I haven’t punished you yet. Why do you look like you want to run?”
I exhaled slowly.
So he didn’t know.
Or at least, not all of it.
“Brother,” I said weakly, “the party’s almost over. Can we go back?”
For a second, something hurt passed through his eyes.
Then he stepped away.
“Fine.”
Back in the ballroom, the nosebleed I’d barely been holding back finally started.
I tipped my head back and pressed my hand to my face just as Lily glided over with a champagne flute, smiling like a cat.
“Oh no,” she said. “Did Damian hit you? I knew all that brother-sister affection was fake.”
Before I could answer, my parents’ voices cut through the crowd.
“Who said we weren’t here?”
They had just returned from their honeymoon.
My mother rushed over in panic. “Baby, why are you bleeding? What happened? Damian, how could you not watch her more carefully?”
After she led me away, my father turned toward Lily with a look so cold even she flinched.
Before he could say a word, her mother hurried over, all fake laughter and polished apologies.
“My daughter is young. Please don’t be upset, Mr. Carter.”
My father looked at them blankly.
“Who are you?”
Her face went white.
Because the truth was, they hadn’t been invited.
They had bought their way in through a staff contact.
Lily’s mother forced out a smile. “My daughter and Miss Carter are friends.”
Lily immediately nodded. “Claire invited me.”
I returned a moment later in a fresh gown and answered clearly enough for the whole room to hear.
“No, I didn’t.”
Every eye turned to me.
And then the room changed.
My parents took my hands and led me into the center of the ballroom.
Under the lights, my father announced that he was transferring another ten percent of his personal Carter Group shares to me as my eighteenth birthday gift.
“I want my daughter to know,” he said, “that she will always have the freedom to do whatever she wants in life. The Carter family will always stand behind her.”
The room erupted.
People whispered that with the five percent I’d received at birth, I was now one of the youngest women of enormous wealth in the world.
Others laughed at the old rumors that the Carters didn’t love their daughter.
Lies, clearly.
Careful, strategic lies.
Made to protect me.
I lifted my eyes to Lily and sent a thought directly into her mind.
You were right. They were acting. Just not the way you thought. They were protecting me. And Damian? He likes me far more than you can imagine.
Her expression cracked.
Her mother slapped her hard and dragged her toward the exit before she could explode.
At that exact moment, Damian entered with my birthday cake.
“Claire,” he said softly, “the figure on top was handmade. I wanted our family of four to always stay happy.”
I felt my eyes sting.
“Then cut it with me,” I said.
He nodded, stepped behind me, and covered my hand with his around the cake knife.
Music swelled. Confetti rained down. The guests sighed over how beautiful we looked together.
Somebody whispered that since Damian wasn’t related by blood, the two of us were almost absurdly well matched.
I heard it.
He definitely heard it.
And when he leaned down by my ear and asked, “Ready?” his voice sounded suspiciously pleased.
Across the room, Lily finally broke.
“You just wait!” she screamed as her mother dragged her out. “One day I’ll surpass you! I’ll crush you under my feet!”
Her mother slapped a hand over her mouth and hauled her away.
I watched them go and felt the old chill of foreknowledge settle in my bones.
Lily wasn’t the kind of person who lost quietly.
If she was dragged down, she would grab for me on the way.
I would need to be ready.