Chapter 18
Chapmans. And without that backing, things would no
After all, without Cameron, the Wallace family would lose their connection to the Chapmans longer go as smoothly for them as they had all these years.
Just as Cameron was debating whether to call back. Martin called again. Her finger accidentally slipped, and the call went through.
“Cameron, why the hell didn’t you come home last night? And what’s this about refusing the transition surgery? You even dared to hit the doctor? You’re getting bold now, huh? Growing a backhone?” Martin’s angry voice boomed through the speaker the second the line connected.
Cameron propped her Spanish textbook upright, resting the phone between her car and shoulder. Her face stayed cold as she listened.
in silence.
Martin roared, “I raised you all these years, and this is how you repay me? Do you even care about our family? About me? I gave you life. and you can’t even do this one small thing?
“Raising you was a waste—I’d have been better off raising a dog. At least a dog would wag its tail at me. Let me make this clear. If you refuse to transition and marry Amelia, then get the hell out of our family.
She’d heard it all before. In her previous life, Martin and Heidi had used that same guilt–tripping garbage to manipulate her.
And like they wanted, she’d spent eighteen years pretending to be a man, even throwing away her pride just to play the loyal simpto Amelia–anything to help the Wallace family wave the Chapman name around in business deals
Her sacrifice had made their lives easy and comfortable. And it wasn’t until her final breath that she finally understood–they hadn’t raised her out of love. She was nothing but a pawn, a means for the Wallace family to climb the social ladder.
Whatever debt she owed them for raising her had been repaid the moment she’d died in her previous life.
Cameron lowered her voice. “Are you done!”
Martin froze. Are you done? he repeated in his head, stunned. That wasn’t the reaction he expected. Cameron used to fall right back in line after one scolding. She used to cave the second he raised his voice. But now she had an attitude.
Milena had said Cameron seemed like a different person now, and Martin hadn’t quite believed it—until this moment. Tve been pulling her strings for eighteen years. She really thinks she can break free from me just like that? Not a chance, he thought.
Martin’s tone
tone dropped, cold and forceful. “You’re coming home. Now, I booked the surgery for two o’clock this afternoon.”
Cameron was already eighteen and about to graduate high school. If she was going to marry the Chapman heiress, they needed to lock it in as soon as possible.
I don’t have time for this.” Cameron replied coolly. I’m in class. I’m hanging up.
Without waiting for a response, she ended the call and immediately switched her phone to airplane mode to avoid being harassed
The moment she set her phone down, she caught her Spanish teacher Lacey Morgan heading her way. Cameron’s brows twitched as she thought, Crap She slid her phone into the drawer with one hand while slowly lowering her textbook with the other.
From the front row, Zach immediately tattled, yelling, “Ms. Morgan, Cameron was on her phone in the middle of class. Totally disrespectful
Zach had gotten humiliated by Cameron yesterday. He didn’t have the guts to start something again. But this was the perfect opportunity to make her look bad and he wasn’t about to pass it up.
Cameron’s gaze swept coldly across the back of Zach’s smug haule head. Clearly, thus idiot didn’t learn his lesson yesterday, she thought
little
Lacey stopped at Cameron’s desk, her expression stern. “What were you just doing?”
She was a young teacher, but despite her age, Lacey was known for being both responsible and strict
was looking up a word on my phone, Ms Morgan, Cameron said.
“Looking up a word” Zach jumped in practically vibrating with excitement. “I heard you talking on the phone. My desknate heard it
1137 AM &
Chapter 18
He jabbed his elbow into the guy sitting next to him, trying to rope someone in. “Didn’t you hear in?”
