Chapter 6

Bella's POV

"Exactly," Caspian agreed. "The judges are going to give you favorable scores because you're backed by Vale Group anyway."

The conversation stopped the moment they noticed Adeline and me entering the room.

Evander calmly closed his laptop, picked up his coffee, and took a sip. "Mom, finally come to your senses? If you're here to discuss the Westmere development, Adeline needs to leave first. That project involves confidential company information."

I walked straight up to him and slapped the altered finalist letter onto the conference table. "Give Adeline her place back."

Evander glanced down at the letter and gave a quiet laugh. "I thought this was going to be something serious."

He leaned back. "Mom, Adeline is young. She'll have plenty of other opportunities. Marielle doesn't come from the kind of background we do. An achievement like this could make a real difference on her college applications."

Then, he looked at Adeline with the patronizing patience of an adult explaining something obvious to a child. "Adeline, you need to stop being so selfish.

"You've already been given more advantages than most people could ever dream of. What's wrong with letting Marielle have one opportunity?"

Adeline began trembling with anger, her nails digging into her palms. "It wasn't given to me! I earned it! I spent six months researching and writing that proposal. You stole my work and gave it to her!"

Stellan rose from his chair. "Watch what you're accusing us of, Adeline. No one stole anything. Vale Group sponsors the competition. We have discretion over which candidates receive the company's backing.

"As senior executives, we're perfectly entitled to direct those resources toward someone who needs the opportunity more than you do."

Zet burst out laughing and pointed at Adeline. "Come on, Adeline. Even if you compete with that proposal, everyone will assume your family handed you the whole thing. Marielle's different. She came from nothing and fought her way up. Judges love an underdog story."

Half-hidden behind Caspian, Marielle spoke in a small, hesitant voice, "Adeline, I'm sorry. If the competition really means that much to you, you can have the spot back. I just… I guess I'll have to give up on college."

Right on cue, tears spilled down her cheeks.

Caspian pulled her into his arms, then glared at Adeline. "Adeline, are you really going to destroy Marielle's future just to get your way?

"If you take that finalist spot back from her, I'll walk away from every Vale Group project I'm managing. Effective immediately."

The four of them surrounded Adeline like an impenetrable wall. In their twisted version of reality, Adeline fighting to keep something she'd earned through six months of hard work made her selfish. Marielle taking it from her was somehow justified because she had less.

I looked at Evander. His expression remained calm, almost gentle. He was certain I wouldn't touch them.

Not now. Not when the Westmere development was at such a critical stage, and he believed I needed the four of them to keep it under control.

"Fine." I nodded.

All four pairs of eyes turned toward me.

"You want the finalist spot? Keep it."

Adeline stared at me in disbelief. "Mom?"

I didn't look at her. My eyes remained fixed on Evander. "I just hope you're still this comfortable in those seats tomorrow."

Then, I took Adeline's hand, turned around, and walked out.

Behind us came Evander's quiet, confident laugh. "See, Mom? This would've been much easier if you'd been reasonable from the start."

The moment we were back in the car, Adeline finally broke down. I handed her a tissue and turned my gaze toward the window. "Adeline, remember exactly how they treated you today."

She looked at me through her tears.

"Because tomorrow, they're going to discover they don't have nearly as much power as they think."

Adeline wasn't ready to give up. I knew she'd secretly contacted the chair of the competition committee, hoping to convince them to let her resubmit her proposal under her own name.

I didn't stop her. Sometimes, no matter how much I wanted to protect her, there were truths she needed to see for herself.

Adeline still wanted to believe there was a fair way to fix this. Soon enough, she would understand exactly who she was dealing with.

That afternoon, the preliminary round of the Global Young Entrepreneurs Challenge was held in the Grand Hall downtown in Bellgrave.