Legally Not Yours

The Final Push

POV: Leah

Ever since I was little, Eva was never really a mom to me. She’s selfish and always wanted all the good things for herself. She doesn’t care about me, all she ever cared was money and status. She married three times and three of them were crazily rich. Yet, she’s still thinks it’s not enough.

She left me for a man who lives on the other side of the country. She didn’t even bother to check on me for years. She showed up when she needed something like a few days of crashing in my small apartment, or maybe when she wanted to borrow some clothes.

She hates me. She only gets close to me when she needs something for her own benefit.

She blamed me for my own existence once, she said that I’m useless. She left me and told me to never show up in front of herself again when she’s the one who kept showing up. I also know that she wanted me to not hangout with Jared and Clarson so she can have their dad.

I knew Eva wasn’t done torturing me or I can say taking revenge on me.

Not after the essay. Not after Carlson stood up for me in class. Not after I saw her leaving Jeff Connors’ office with lipstick perfectly reapplied.

She was getting bold. Strategic. And worse—smug.

But I didn’t know she was setting the trap until it was already too late.

“Tell me the truth,” Jared said, cold and controlled.

I blinked. “What?”

He walked toward me, slow and dangerous. “How long have you been screwing my father?”

I froze. The words hit like a slap. “What the actual hell did you just say to me?”

“You heard me.”

My mouth dropped. “Are you seriously accusing me of—?”

“I’m asking,” he cut in, tossing his phone on the table in front of me.

I looked down. Photos, lots of them. Me walking into my father's office late at night. Me smiling with him. A blurry shot of my hand on his sleeve. Each one perfectly timed to look like something it wasn’t.

Taken from angles that screamed setup.

“Carlson showed me,” Jared said, voice like gravel. “The proofs said it’s been going on for weeks. That you’re just playing me to get closer to my father.”

I shoved the phone back at him. “Do you hear yourself right now?”

“He showed me proof.”

“That’s not proof, you dumb paranoid bastard, that’s a goddamn stalker folder!”

“Oh, now you’re the victim?”

“I trusted you!”

“No, you used me.”

My voice cracked. “I ripped the contract to prove it to you that I’m not using you. I chose you, Jared. And now you’re accusing me of trying to sleep my way into power? Are you out of your mind?”

His jaw clenched. “I should’ve known better.”

“You should’ve known me.”

“You think I don’t?” he shouted. “You think I haven’t watched you flirt with every powerful man who walks into a room just to keep your position?”

My hand snapped across his face. The silence that followed was deafening. His head turned slowly back to me, eyes blazing.

“Oh,” he said, low. “So that’s what you do now? Hit people when the truth hurts?”

“Don’t talk to me about the truth. You’re the one too weak to believe in anything without someone feeding it to you.”

“You think I’m weak?” he barked. “Try looking in a mirror. You’re terrified of real power. That’s why you hide behind Jeff’s approval and fake self-righteous bullshit.”

“I work harder than you ever have!”

“You manipulate better than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“You gaslight like it’s a goddamn art form!”

“You lie through your perfect fucking teeth—”

“You seduce with your daddy issues—”

We were screaming. We were standing too close.

And somehow, we hadn’t even noticed the document still on the screen behind us — the final deck, half-prepared, glowing innocently as if everything wasn’t on fire.

Jared threw the marker across the room. “You want to be the best? Then stop acting like some gold-digging little bitch playing office politics!”

I shoved the laptop off the desk.

It hit the floor with a hard thud, the screen cracking on impact.

“Go to hell, Jared!”

“I’m already there,” he spat. “You built the fucking map!”

I stormed to the board, yanked off the final printouts we’d spent weeks revising, and ripped them in half.

He stared. I dared him. He stepped forward and hit delete on the master file.

“No!” I lunged, but it was already gone. He didn’t flinch. I froze, breath heaving.

The silence was louder than our screaming had been. The entire project—Gone.

Just like that. We stood there in silence, processing what just happened.

Chest to chest. Hands shaking. Hating each other. Needing each other. Destroying each other.

“I hate you,” I whispered.

“I hate you more,” he growled.

But neither of us moved. Neither of us ran.

And I think that’s what scared me the most.