When The Unwanted Genius Breaks The Contract

A thick folder of legal documents slapped against the glass coffee table, the sharp sound echoing through the grand living room of the Booth family mansion.

"Our engagement is off."

Dwayne Burks stood over the sofa, looking down at his fiancée, Adelaide Booth, with open disgust in his pale blue eyes.

As the arrogant young heir to a Wall Street investment firm, Dwayne was bound by a longstanding marriage agreement between the Burks and Booth families-one that specifically required him to marry a Booth by blood.

When the family finally tracked Adelaide down in a run-down Midwest town and brought her back to New York less than a month ago, Dwayne had been forced to accept her as his fiancée. He'd resented it every single day since.

Lounging on the leather sofa, Adelaide didn't even bother looking up, her long fingers scrolling casually through her phone.

"Sure. Sign the papers and get lost."

Dwayne's jaw clenched. He'd prepared a whole speech to put her in her place, and her flat indifference only pissed him off more.

Light footsteps hurried down the grand spiral staircase. Brittanie Booth, the adopted daughter raised by the family as a pampered Upper East Side socialite for the past nineteen years, rushed into the living room.

Tears welled in her eyes as she walked straight past Adelaide, catching Dwayne's tailored sleeve and leaning defensively into his side.

"Dwayne, please don't talk to my sister like that," Brittanie said, her voice trembling with fragile guilt. She turned her teary gaze toward Adelaide.

"Addie, please don't blame Dwayne. Everything is my fault. Before you were brought back last month, Dwayne and I were already in love. When we found out the marriage agreement was meant for their biological daughter, I tried so hard to step back and let him go."

Brittanie bit her lower lip, letting a single tear roll down her cheek as she leaned even closer into Dwayne's chest.

"I just didn't expect Dwayne to care about me so much that he couldn't bear to marry someone else," Brittanie continued softly.

"Besides, Dwayne is about to take over his family's firm on Wall Street. He needs a wife who understands high society and corporate galas.

You're a high school dropout from the middle of nowhere, and you don't know a soul in New York. Dwayne isn't breaking the engagement to humiliate you-he's just afraid you'll be laughed at by his circle. Please don't hate us."

Hearing her words, Dwayne's expression softened immediately. He wrapped his arm tightly around Brittanie's waist, pulling her against his side as he glared down at Adelaide.

"Did you hear that? Even now, Brittanie is still making excuses for you," Dwayne sneered. "She's gentle, educated, and a hundred times the woman you'll ever be. Brittanie is the only one I love. Uneducated gutter trash like you isn't worthy of the Burks name."

Adelaide let out a quiet scoff. She finally locked her phone and looked up, her dark gaze coolly taking in the pair clinging to each other.

"A cheating scumbag and a two-faced phony," Adelaide said, her voice smooth and unhurried. "Honestly, you two belong in the same dumpster. Do the world a favor and close the lid from the inside."

Brittanie's face drained of color. Fresh tears spilled over her lashes, and her shoulders shook violently as if she had just been slapped.

"Addie, how could you call me that? I was only trying to smooth things over so you wouldn't be humiliated."

Sharp stiletto heels clicked rapidly down the marble hallway. Eleanor Booth, Adelaide's biological mother and the matriarch of the house, stormed into the living room. Seeing Brittanie crying in Dwayne's arms, Eleanor's face darkened instantly.

"Adelaide! Are you bullying your sister again?" Eleanor snapped, her sharp voice slicing through the room.

She marched over and stood defensively in front of Brittanie, glaring at her own flesh and blood as if looking at a repulsive stain.

"I knew bringing you back from that gutter was a mistake!" Eleanor said coldly.

"Look at yourself. No manners, no education, and a foul mouth. For nineteen years, Brittanie has made our family proud in every social circle in Manhattan, while you've brought nothing to this house but hostility and embarrassment. If Dwayne prefers her, take a hard look at your own failings instead of lashing out like a rabid dog!"

Adelaide looked at her biological mother without a trace of warmth.

"If you don't need your eyes, Mrs. Booth, you can donate them to someone who actually uses them."

Eleanor's face flushed an ugly, mottled red as she pointed a trembling finger right at Adelaide's nose.

"You ungrateful little savage! How dare you speak to your mother like that! Brittanie has ten times the grace and decency you'll ever have, you complete disappointment!"

"Mom, please calm down, you'll make yourself sick," Brittanie cried out, stepping out from Dwayne's embrace.

She walked quickly toward the sofa, positioning her back toward Dwayne and Eleanor so her body blocked their direct line of sight. Reaching out both hands, she grabbed at the cuff of Adelaide's black jacket with a pleading expression.

"Addie, just apologize to Mom and Dwayne," Brittanie whispered, pure malice flashing across her face, hidden from the others. "I know you're jealous that Mom and Dwayne love me more, and you can take your anger out on me later, just don't-"

Adelaide pulled her arm back to avoid the touch, her fingers never even brushing Brittanie's skin.

Right at that moment, Brittanie let out a sharp gasp. She deliberately twisted her high heel and threw her weight backward, crashing heavily onto the expensive Persian rug. Clutching her ankle, she sobbed aloud.

"Ow! My ankle... Addie, I was only trying to help you-why did you push me so hard?"

Dwayne's expression twisted with rage. He dropped to his knees on the rug and pulled Brittanie into his arms, glaring up at Adelaide as if she were a violent criminal.

"Have you lost your mind, Adelaide? How dare you lay a hand on her right in front of us!"

Eleanor gasped and crouched beside them, checking Brittanie's ankle with frantic care before whipping her head around to glare venomously at Adelaide.

"Vicious! You're completely vicious!"

Adelaide crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at the clumsy performance from the sofa.

"There are three high-definition security cameras covering every angle of this living room," Adelaide said flatly. "Do you need me to pull the footage onto the television and teach you how to stage a more convincing fall?"

Brittanie's spine stiffened for a fraction of a second. Before Dwayne could look up toward the ceiling corners, she buried her face deep into his suit jacket and cried even louder.

"Mom, it hurts so much... Wait, please don't check the cameras. If word gets out that Addie pushed me, she'll be ruined in New York. I'll just tell everyone I tripped on my own..."

Moved by her adopted daughter's selfless plea, Eleanor felt her heart ache even more for the girl, any thought of checking the footage instantly forgotten. She stood up and pointed furiously at the floor in front of Brittanie.

"I don't need to check the cameras to know how twisted and cruel you are! Apologize to Brittanie and Dwayne right now, or I'm cutting off your allowance and freezing your trust fund today!"

Adelaide smiled. As she rose from the sofa, her tall, slender frame commanded the room with a sudden, suffocating intensity.

"Cut it off?" Adelaide asked softly. "Do you really think I care about a few crumbs of charity from the Booth family?"

A chill ran down Eleanor's spine when their eyes met, making her rage burn even hotter to mask her sudden unease.

"Fine! Since you have so much backbone, get out of my house right now and don't take a single cent of Booth money with you!"

From the floor, Dwayne sneered with cruel satisfaction.

"Let her go, Mrs. Booth. Without the Booth family sheltering her, a penniless high school dropout like her won't survive three days on the streets of New York."

Brittanie dabbed at the corners of her eyes, her voice weak and trembling, barely hiding her smug satisfaction.

"Mom, please don't kick Addie out. She doesn't have any skills or friends here. She'll starve to death out there by herself."

Adelaide slowly cracked her knuckles, smoothing down the cuffs of her black leather jacket.

"Save your crocodile tears," Adelaide said. "Watching your bad acting makes my stomach turn."

Seeing her head for the stairs, Eleanor rushed forward to block the bottom step, squaring her shoulders to assert her authority.

"Stop right there! Everything in your room was paid for by this family! You're not going upstairs to pack a single thing until you swallow your pride and apologize to your sister and the Burks family!"

Adelaide stopped a step away and looked down at Eleanor, her eyes as cold and dead as winter ice.

"Move."

She spoke quietly, yet that single word carried the crushing authority of someone used to giving orders that determined life and death.

Eleanor's stomach dropped. Frozen by the sheer lethality in her daughter's eyes, she stumbled half a step back on pure instinct, clearing the way. By the time she realized she'd just caved, humiliation scorched her cheeks.

Without sparing the three of them another glance, Adelaide walked straight up the stairs.

"By the way," Adelaide called out without looking back. "Dwayne, make sure the legal paperwork ending that engagement is finalized before midnight."

Dwayne's pride stung sharply. He stood up from the rug and shouted at her back.

"You're going to regret this, Adelaide! Once those papers are signed, don't come crawling to my office begging me to take you back!"

Adelaide paused on the second-floor landing, glancing back over her shoulder with cool disdain.

"Regret? You'll find out soon enough who was actually out of whose league."

Down in the living room, the three of them stood in stunned silence in the wake of her departure. Several seconds passed before Eleanor gritted her teeth and spat at the empty stairs.

"Arrogant little bitch! Let her suffer on the streets and see how long she lasts before she comes crying at our gates!"

Brittanie leaned softly against Dwayne's chest, hiding a triumphant smile against his suit jacket.

"Dwayne, the engagement is finally ours."