Phoebe's POV
September hit Coralia like a slap, and here I was, back in the suffocating grandeur of the Hale mansion in Clearwater. Five bodies crowded the living room, tension so thick you could practically taste it.
I sprawled across my couch, legs crossed with deliberate casualness, while the other four huddled together on the opposite side like scared rabbits. The distance between us might as well have been a battlefield.
My phone buzzed with gunfire sounds from the game I was crushing, each blast perfectly timed to cut through whatever garbage my father was trying to spill.
"Phoebe, you just flew in. You don't know jack about running a business," Sergio's voice grated against my ears. "Hand over those shares to me. You'll still collect your yearly payout like always."
I didn't bother looking up. My thumbs kept working.
He pressed on, desperation creeping into his tone. "Atticus's a man now. Time he learned the business. I could split half your shares his way so he doesn't start with nothing."
Still nothing from me.
"And this whole Brady engagement thing," Sergio pushed harder. "You've been gone for years. You don't even know the guy anymore. Why not let Patty step in?"
I kept playing like he was invisible—which, honestly, he pretty much was to me.
Sergio's control started cracking. His face went dark, but before he could blow his top, Nathalia swooped in with her practiced grace. The woman had turned playing stepmother into an art form.
"Sergio, sweetheart, she just walked through the door," Nathalia cooed, her hand finding his chest. "Give her a minute to breathe."
But those eyes of hers? Ice cold as they shot a look at her daughter.
Patty caught the signal and sprang up, snatching my phone like she had any right to touch my stuff. "Phoebe, Dad's trying to talk to you! Show some respect. You're stressing him out."
The temperature in the room dropped about ten degrees as I fixed her with a stare that could've melted steel. "Give. It. Back."
She went white as a sheet, probably feeling the chill rolling off me in waves.
I snatched my phone back, but the damage was done. Game over. My teammates were ripping me apart in chat, and my mood went from bad to nuclear.
I hadn't even grabbed a glass of water since my plane touched down. My luggage was still sitting by the front stairs like some sad abandoned puppy. But did Sergio give a damn about any of that? Not a chance.
No questions about how I'd survived all those years overseas on my own. No interest in my life whatsoever. Just greedy hands reaching for my shares and scheming to dump my fiancé on someone else.
Some father figure he turned out to be. Then again, Sergio had never bothered with the whole dad thing anyway.
I couldn't care less about this mysterious fiancé or the whole arranged marriage circus. But that didn't mean I'd let anyone steal what belonged to me.
I wasn't my mother—Natalie—who gave up everything, including her last breath, for a man who didn't deserve it.
The real kicker? Shortly after Mom died, Sergio had the balls to move his side piece Nathalia and her two brats right into our house.
Atticus was older than me, and Patty was barely my senior. Their sudden invasion was like spitting on Mom's grave, and it sent my mother's family into a rage that nearly ended in bloodshed.
Even though I'd grown up overseas with Grandfather, I was still the legitimate Hale heir. My uncles were so pissed they almost came after Sergio with actual weapons.
Back in the day, Sergio had built his empire using my maternal grandfather Oscar Lorenzo's connections and cash. Mom had owned 60% of the shares, and before she died, she'd secretly transferred every single one to me.
It was probably the smartest thing she'd ever done, considering how everything else had gone to hell.
By the time Sergio figured it out, it was way too late. Oscar's people had already whisked me out of the country.
Sergio didn't hear a peep from me until I got old enough to make contact on my own terms.
As far as the Lorenzo family was concerned, Sergio and his mistress had pushed Mom to her breaking point. They'd wanted revenge, but no matter what moves they made, Sergio always slipped through their fingers.
The only explanation was that he had serious muscle backing him up. Some of the company's breakthrough products didn't even come from our research team—they arrived through private channels under Sergio's name.
But here's the part that really messed with my head—I'd discovered that Mom hadn't cracked up and run away like everyone thought. She'd been taken.
When Oscar's people finally tracked her down, she was locked up in some psychiatric facility—either drugged senseless or dead to the world. During her rare lucid moments, she'd cry and beg for a lawyer to help her write her will.
I shoved those dark thoughts aside and slipped my phone into my pocket, locking eyes with Sergio.
My voice came out flat and deadly. "So all those hundreds of calls, all that pressure to get me home—that was just your con to trick me into handing over my shares so your worthless son can destroy everything I own?
"You actually think you run this company now? Did you forget who controls the majority stake around here?
That bastard kid of yours isn't setting foot in my business."
Sergio's face went ugly. "You ungrateful little—"
Atticus, who'd been playing statue until now, shot me a look that could've killed small animals.
I didn't even blink. Instead, I pointed straight at Patty.
"And you want me to dump my engagement so this little homewrecker can slide into my spot, right? Like mother, like daughter. I've never seen anyone so proud of being the other woman."
I turned my attention to Patty and let my contempt show. "Did mommy teach you that trick? Was that part of your precious upbringing—how to steal another woman's man?
What is it with you people and taking what's mine?"
Sergio's expression went black, his whole scheme exposed, but he still tried to keep his voice level. "Phoebe, don't talk like that. Atticus's the only male heir. Of course he'll run the company eventually. You don't even want to work there, so why hang onto those shares?
"And this Brady engagement—that was just something your grandfather and Silas cooked up years ago. Now that Oscar's dead, it doesn't hold water. Patty and the boy are in love. Would you really want to destroy that?"
Sergio only had the guts to push me around now because he'd heard Grandfather was gone.
With Oscar dead, the Lorenzo family was like fresh meat in shark-infested waters—every vulture was circling for a piece. Sergio probably figured they were too busy protecting their own empire to waste time on him.