Chapter 2: The Price of Being the Jennings Daughter

When the cab stopped outside the Jennings villa, the living room lights were still on.

I pushed open the door and walked in. The sofa was piled high with engagement gifts Nolan had sent for Chloe.

Holding up a diamond necklace, Chloe smiled sweetly at me.

“Laurel, look. Nolan gave me this. Isn’t it beautiful?”

“It is.”

I slipped off my shoes and started toward the room at the end of the hall.

Diana came out of the kitchen with a plate of freshly washed strawberries.

“Have some. We just bought them. They’re delicious.”

Chloe happily plucked one from the plate and popped it into her mouth.

Diana ate one herself, then beckoned to me.

“Laurel, you should have one. Don’t always make people ask you twice.”

I had been living with them for three years, and they still didn’t know I was severely allergic to strawberries.

“I can’t eat them.”

Diana paused for a second, then pressed a hand to her forehead in a gesture of feigned forgetfulness.

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot. Well, don’t eat them, then. Chloe, you have the rest.”

She pushed the entire plate toward Chloe, not a hint of apology in her voice.

Robert’s voice came from behind me.

“The Ironwood Pack is sending someone for you tomorrow. I’ve already had your things packed. When they ask questions, watch what you say.”

I pushed open my bedroom door.

Robert followed me in and took a bank card from his pocket.

“There’s two hundred thousand in here. Consider it a pre-marital asset. Once you’re in Ironwood, you can’t have people looking down on you. You’re still a Jennings, after all.”

I took the card without a word.

The clasp on Chloe’s new necklace probably cost more than that.

My room had originally been for storage. After they’d cleared it out, it could barely fit a single bed and an old wardrobe. The curtains were stiff from countless washes, their edges frayed.

Across the hall, Chloe’s bedroom door stood ajar.

It was the spacious master suite, its floor covered in soft wool carpet. Her walk-in closet overflowed with custom gowns and limited-edition handbags.

On her nightstand sat a framed photo of Robert and Diana holding a smiling little Chloe, their faces radiant with happiness.

I wasn’t in the picture.

As I passed the living room, I heard Chloe on the phone.

“Nolan, I want to wear that custom wedding dress next month. You promised me ages ago, remember?”

“Of course. Whatever you want.”

In my last life, when I married Nolan, Diana had reluctantly bought me a few decent outfits, worried I would embarrass the family.

My wedding dress had been custom-made, too, but it hadn’t fit at all.

On the day of the wedding, standing beside Nolan, I had to spend the entire ceremony pinching the gaping fabric at my waist to hold it in place.

The guests whispered among themselves.

“So this is the Jennings’s long-lost daughter? They couldn’t even get her a dress that fits.”

Nolan never looked at me once.

This time, they thought I was marrying a dying old man. They couldn’t even be bothered to pretend.

The next morning, the representative from Ironwood arrived right on time.

The visitor was the director of household affairs from the Alpha’s residence. He handed Robert a list of engagement gifts.

When Robert saw the figures, his eyes widened.

“An eight-figure personal gift? And three downtown apartments?”

Diana snatched the document, her eyes scanning it again and again.

“But the Alpha is on his deathbed. Why would they give so much?”

The director offered no explanation, turning instead to me with a polite nod.

“Miss Jennings, the Alpha asked me to inquire if you have any additional requests. As long as they are reasonable, we will see them met.”

“No. The agreed-upon date for the wedding is fine.”

He nodded respectfully and departed.

Robert and Diana stared at the list in stunned delight for a long time before finally remembering I was still there.

“Laurel, you really lucked out,” Robert said, his voice slick with greed. “We’ll hold on to these gifts for you. Once you’re married, the Ironwood Pack will be responsible for your expenses anyway.”

“All right.”

I didn’t argue.

Chloe stood off to the side, biting her lip, her expression sour.

She had waited and schemed for so long, and the Pierce family’s engagement gifts had only totaled six million.

I, on the other hand, was supposedly marrying a dead man walking, yet I was receiving far more than she ever dreamed of.

***

When Nolan came by that evening, Chloe was in the middle of a tantrum.

“Laurel got so much more than I did! I don’t care—I want that pink diamond set, too. All you bought me was a necklace.”

“All right. I’ll buy it for you.”

Nolan soothed her patiently, but his gaze kept drifting toward the balcony.

Laurel was standing there in a faded dress, watering a few potted plants. The evening sun caught in her lashes.

Without warning, Nolan was pulled back to his previous life.

Back then, Laurel would often sit on the balcony of the Pierce estate, tending to her flowers. Every time she saw him come home, she would rise at once to bring him his slippers and take his briefcase.

He had always found her cloying and would brush past her with a cold expression.

Then the light in her eyes would dim, bit by bit.

“Nolan?”

Chloe tugged at his arm.

“What are you looking at?”