She scoffs. “Please. You don’t know anything about this family.”
“I know enough,” I say. “I know you grew up with every advantage and still needed to borrow relevance from whoeverwould hand it to you.” I glance back at Sofie, then at her again. “She grew up watching everyone underestimate her and learned how to outwork them. That’s the difference.”
Her mouth tightens. “You’re romanticizing mediocrity.”
I laugh, sharp. “Mediocrity? You wouldn’t survive one week doing what she does without staff, without money, without someone telling you where to stand.”
Deacon and Faulker take our backs. The Legacy duo stands there, but do not leave, me I continue. “You walk into rooms and expect them to rearrange around you. Sofie walks in and figures out how to make everything work.”
She snaps, “She’s just fathers’ caretaker.”
That’s when I lose the last of my patience. “You’re the caretaker of appearances. She’s the reason the lights are still on.”
Her laugh is brittle. “You athletes are all the same. Loud. Temporary. You think money makes you powerful.”
“No,” I say. “Hard work does.”
I turn slightly so she can see Sofie fully now.
“She didn’t carve herself into something palatable. She didn’t change her face, pick up a fake accent, and spend thousands of Daddy’s dollars to look pretty on the outside because her insides were rotten.”
Her sister’s eyes flash. “She thinks she’s better than us because she’s KET.”
No fucking clue what KET is. “She doesn’t think it, she knows it, so does everyone else in this room.” I turn and shoot Matteo and James warning glares as I step closer to Elena, lowering my voice so only she hears it. “You had to become someone else, shinier, to survive the world you chose to fabricate around you. She chose something harder and didn’t take the easy way.” She swallows hard. “You’re here because you thought you could still make her feel small. You joined forces with a bitch who wants to steal one of her best friend’s kids to treat like a pawn in?—”
“Emme would never do that. She’s wanted kids for years and.” She doesn’t just pull back the reins, she yanks them while clearing her throat, “She will be an amazing co-parent, a bonus mom to Savvy. She’ll open doors,” her whole face fucking puckers. “That her biological mom could never.”
Sofie steps forward now, shoulder brushing mine. “I asked you to leave. You didn’t.”
Her sister sneers, “I am going to make sure the board knows what you have done, and then I am going to replace you.”
Sofie says calmly. “Escort her out.”
Matteo and James step around her.
Her sister jerks back. “I will call the board now and leak what I have found out.”
Matteo leans down eye level to her, face an inch from her, “Move.”
As they crowd her enough, she has no choice but to turn and leave. She does, but she twists back toward Sofie, voice shrill now. “You think you’ve won?”
I meet her eyes before Sofie has to. “No, I think you finally figured out who you were always competing with.”
The doors slam, and I turn to Sofie, my voice shifting instantly, softer. “You okay?”
Chapter 19
The Call
Sofie
“That was so hot,”Noelle says as I close the bathroom door behind her, Nalani and I.
“It was, but?—”
“But nothing, it’s time you stop playing hard to get and take full advantage of all that energy he’s putting out,” Nalani says as she hovers over the toilet and pees, letting out a moan. “This baby is raising hell on my bladder already.”
“The fact you’re not all bombarding me with questions about my family right now is?—”
