A Broken Alpha Heiress' Revenge (Riley) novel Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Riley’s POV

The crowd was growing around us.

Everyone had heard the voice coming from the speakerphone.

Stunned silence followed. Even the music in the distance felt like it had dulled to a whisper.

The Ebonclaw Pack might not be the most powerful in the South, but they were certainly one of the most respected elite packs. In circles like these, it was unheard of for a daughter of the house to receive nothing–not a single cent in allowance each month. But here I was. The only daughter by blood. Not even a dime to my name.

And suddenly, everything about me made sense to them. The worn–out high school uniform. The lack of even a halfway decent dress for a formal event. The hollow eyes.

They started whispering.

“No wonder she looks like that…”

“Isn’t she the real daughter? And Scarlett’s the adopted one?”

“She didn’t get a penny? Not even once?”

“Wow… the Vale family’s really something.”

They weren’t wrong. It was laughable. Born into privilege, yet stripped of everything. Scarlett–their darling–was pampered with a monthly allowance of a hundred thousand. While I, their actual daughter, was left with nothing but an old school uniform and the sting of forgotten birthdays.

I stood there silently, watching the truth finally sink in for them. For Kael. For my so–called parents.

Kael, his face turning crimson with shame and disbelief, tried one last time to salvage the family’s dignity.

“Even if finance didn’t send you money, surely Mom and Dad gave you some personally, right?” he snapped, clinging to denial.

I smiled, not kindly. My gaze slid to Alpha Alaric and Luna Zara–my “parents.” “If they did, you can ask them directly. After all, you never believed a word I said. But surely, you’ll believe them.”

Alaric looked like he’d been punched. His shoulders stiffened, avoiding my eyes.

“I thought… I assumed you two were giving her money,” he muttered, voice barely audible.

Luna Zara looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her whole. Tears welled in her eyes–crocodile tears, if you asked me. “Sweetheart, if you were struggling, you should’ve said something. I would have helped you right away,” she said, voice trembling. “It’s my fault for not noticing sooner, but please know–I’ve always loved you just the same as Scarlett.”

I stared at her, my expression void of emotion, only a faint smile lingering at the corners of my mouth.

The woman who had ordered the finance department to cut me off. Who increased Scarlett’s allowance out of pity–for her, not for me. The same woman now pretending she hadn’t noticed my threadbare clothes, my shrinking presence, my desperation.

She wasn’t blind. She simply didn’t care.

This whole display of remorse was for the audience. Nothing more.

And

And fortunately, I’d already shed my illusions. I had no expectations left, which meant they had no power over me.

I caught Kael’s flicker of guilt–and just as quickly, the frustration overtook it. “What, you couldn’t just say something?” he barked. “We’re not mind–readers, Riley! If you needed money, all you had to do was ask. You think we’d just let you go without?”

“I did ask,” I said quietly, my voice like ice. “You just didn’t care.”

1/3

He opened his mouth to argue–but I saw it, that flicker of doubt.

A memory was returning.

I saw it in his face.

An afternoon, years ago..

you get?”

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