?Chapter 81:


    Sure, maybe Rosanna had been too quick to point fingers at Maia. Still, after what happened, she had suffered more than enough.


    In their hearts, Richard and Sandra pinned the me on Maia all the same. If Maia hadn’t shown up and caused a scene, Rosanna wouldn’t have skipped dinner and ended up shaky and dazed from low blood sugar.


    Truth be told, Rosanna had never been strong. Seventeen years of growing up in the slums had left her frail and sickly. When they first brought her back into the Morgan family, doctors had lined up diagnosis after diagnosis — anemia, vitamin deficiencies, and more.


    To make up for lost time, Richard and Sandra had thrown money into every treatment and supplement under the sun. It had taken years of constant care to build Rosanna into someone who finally looked healthy.


    Tonight should have been a simple misunderstanding, easily brushed aside. But Maia had refused to let it die. Instead, she pushed Jarrod into pping Rosanna across the face, dragging the family’s name through the mud. And this wasn’t even the first time Maia had humiliated them.


    From the moment Rosanna returned to the Morgan family, they treated her like something fragile and precious, shielding her from even the smallest difort.


    The Morgans were convinced that Maia was bitter over Rosanna taking her ce and that now Maia was doing everything she could tosh out. The more they thought about it, the faster any lingering guilt they had for Maia evaporated, leaving nothing but a gnawing worry for Rosanna.


    “If Maia wants to walk away from this family, let her,” Richard muttered, his voice low, as Sandra’s fingers moved carefully over his tense temples.


    “She was a disappointment from the start. Awful grades, no talent whatsoever. We poured a fortune into her education, and all she ever managed to do was cause chaos.” Richard shut his eyes, deep lines of tension etched across his brow.


    Years ago, they had enrolled Maia in one of the most prestigious prep academies, where just a single semester’s tuition cost more than most people’s yearly sry. It wasn’t because they cared about her academics, but because they wanted her mingling with the children of the elite, hoping that the Morgan name would climb a little higher by association.


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    Things had not gone ording to n.


    Instead of shining, Maia had be the academy’s problem child, the kind who could barely keep up and whom the other wealthy students avoided like the gue.


    At first, the calls from the school had been relentless. Teachers tried to g concerns. But Richard and Sandra, buried in corporate affairs, brushed them off with curt instructions to “handle it.” After a while, the school gave up reaching out.


    Even so, whispers spread. Other parents exchanged horror stories. Maia’s name became a stain they could not scrub clean.


    Richard let out a long, heavy sigh. “Now take a look at Rosanna. She grew up in the slums and still turned out polite and thoughtful. She always ranked at the top of her ss. She carries dreams that are bigger than her years, sings like a professional, ys more instruments than I can count, and has a natural gift for design. I can’t even begin to imagine how far she would have gone if she had been raised in the Morgan family from the very beginning. It’s our fault… for losing her when she was just a child…”


    Sandra caught the edge of regret in Richard’s voice and wasted no time stepping in to soothe him. “You have nothing to me yourself for, dear. The way I see it, getting Rosanna back at all was already a blessing. We’ve gone above and beyond to make up for those lost years. We’ve poured more into her future than we ever did into Maia’s. Sure, Rosanna’s talented. She picked up a lot on her own before she ever found her way home. But without our guidance, she wouldn’t be half the poised and brilliant young woman she is now. Now that she has been epted into Wront University, she has the whole worldid out in front of her.”


    What neither of them realized was that Maia had been extraordinary from the start. By elementary school, she was already burning through coursework meant for high schoolers — all on her own.


    But each time Maia came home with a perfect score, hoping for just a single word of praise, Richard and Sandra would wave her off with the same tired excuse that they were too busy.


    Eventually, she learned that being perfect meant nothing in this house. So she switched tactics — deliberately missing answers on tests, picking fights, letting her name sink in scandal — anything to break through the wall of their indifference.


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