The moment I heard his words, I couldn’t help but clench my fists. Even now, with me buried somewhere beneath this rubble, Adrian's only concern was Madilyn.
If I hadn’t returned to the Monticello family, Tristan would have broken off his engagement with Madilyn. The Blake and Monticello families had always been close, and their engagement was an unspoken agreement arranged by their parents. Tristan, who excelled at everything, had no time to grow close to Maddy, despite their childhood friendship.
When Tristan first learned of the engagement, he had gone to the Monticello family to break it off. It was the same day I had returned home for the first time. The moment he saw me, he recognized me—not as his fiancée’s sister, but as the girl who had excelled in the city’s middle school exams. When he found out I was the rightful daughter of the Monticellos, he thought the engagement would naturally shift to me.
But I was wrong to believe my return would mean anything. Yes, I was their daughter by blood, but I was never truly one of them. They didn’t even consider changing my last name.