Part 3They Stole My Name, I'll Steal Their Empire

It didn’t take long for Ethan to demonstrate his brotherly “responsibility.”

Over the next week, every single internship application I had submitted to companies in Port Sterling in my field was rejected.

I finally went to my faculty advisor, a kind man who suddenly couldn’t meet my eye.

“Chloe,” he stammered, shuffling papers on his desk. “Did you… have you upset someone important? Someone with your last name, perhaps?”

The words hit me like a bucket of ice water on that hot summer day.

I couldn’t believe it. To force my hand for Sloane, Ethan was willing to use the Donovan family’s influence to blacklist me. Without a relevant internship, I would fail a core requirement of my degree.

I wouldn’t be able to graduate.

Ethan had never, not once, shown me an ounce of mercy.

I wandered the campus in a daze for what felt like hours until a single name surfaced in my mind.

Carter Hayes.

The Donovans were powerful in Port Sterling, but they weren't the only ones. The Hayes family was just as formidable, and Carter, as one of the heirs, was already working at the family corporation.

Over the years, our engagement had been a strange, disembodied thing. We weren’t close, but we exchanged polite phone calls on holidays and birthdays. Every time he called, my heart would leap with a nervous excitement, and I’d force myself to respond with a calm, measured grace.

He had no idea that a simple rag doll was enough to make a lonely girl think of him for eight years.

My palm was sweating as the phone rang. This was the first time I had ever asked anyone for help. And I was asking the one person I had secretly cherished a crush on.

After I explained my situation, Carter agreed without a moment’s hesitation.

“Don’t worry about it. Just bring your internship forms to HR tomorrow. I’ll let them know you’re coming. We happen to have an opening that’s a perfect fit for your major.”

A wave of relief washed over me, so potent it pushed back the tears that had been threatening to fall all day.

“Carter, thank you. Thank you so much.”

He laughed on the other end of the line, his usually formal tone softening into something warmer, almost intimate. “Chloe, relax. You can intern here for as long as you need. Besides… it’ll give us more time to get to know each other.”