Chapter 7 Before I can even start , Cade jumps in to defend Dad . " Grandma , it's all Mom's fault for spoiling Brielle rotten when she was alive . " " If she'd learned to be sweet and gentle like Tiffany instead of acting like such a spoiled brat , we'd love her just as much . " After Cade finishes , Jaxon adds his bullshit . " Brielle , we and Dad were just trying to toughen you up so you could handle being a real CEO someday . You gotta understand we were doing this for your own good ! " Looking at these shameless assholes , I laugh in their faces . " So it's my dead mother's fault for not raising me right ? " " You ungrateful pieces of shit actually have the balls to trash - talk the woman who saved you from foster care , put you through college , and got you jobs at the company ? " Seeing that Grandma's not buying their crap and I'm not falling for their gaslighting anymore , both brothers drop their masks completely . " Brielle , you sure you want to be our enemy ? " I look at them with disgust . " Don't think I'm scared of you two just because I used to call you brothers . Even if you tried to fight me , you'd lose . " " My grandma's the richest woman in America and I run Apex Industries . What've you got ? Two orphans with nothing . " Dad stares at me , looking crushed . " Brielle ! Treating your own father and brothers like this - aren't you afraid people will judge you ? Afraid of karma ? " I shrug like I couldn't care less . " The second you called Tiffany your daughter at that party , the second you all ganged up on me - we stopped being family . " Since Dad and the brothers are hopeless cases , I don't even bother telling Dad about Ryan and Tiffany's sick con game . When the cleaners tell me they've finished clearing out the rooms , I order the bodyguards . " Throw them out . And don't let them back on my property . " Today's drama wore Grandma out , so she goes to bed early . I head to the family shrine and light incense for Mom's memorial tablet , leaving her favorite foods as offerings . I have this feeling Mom's spirit is what gave me this second chance at life . That night , I dream about her . She's just like always - calling my name so softly , holding me in bed while telling bedtime stories , cooking all my favorite meals . Finally , Mom kisses my forehead and says with such relief : " My Brielle's finally grown up ! " I wake up with tears soaking my pillow and swollen eyes . The next day , Grandma throws me this huge ceremony to officially become Apex Industries ' CEO . Tham Al 75.0 % Chapter 7 After Dad and the brothers got kicked out of the Hartwell family , no company would hire them and all their old friends ditched them . Nobody wants to piss off Apex Industries . Just to survive , both brothers ended up working as male strippers , while Tiffany started bartending at the same club . After that , I was too busy running the company to pay attention to them . Until a year later when I suddenly got canceled all over the internet , and Apex Industries faced boycotts that tanked our stock price . Turns out my foster brothers and Tiffany had spent that whole year becoming internet celebrities with millions of followers . Once they had that platform , they started trashing me during their livestreams . My foster brothers told everyone not to envy them for being adopted by the richest family , because they actually lived in hell . They claimed my grandma and mom abused them daily , and I bullied them constantly just because I was the heir . To make their fans feel sorry for them , both brothers showed off scars on their bodies , claiming I had beaten them . But those scars were actually from when Dad whipped them with a belt after finding out they were both screwing Tiffany . Ryan backed up their lies , claiming he used to be our house manager and everything the brothers said was true . To make things even worse for me , Dad joined their livestream to trash me too . He told everyone I was an ungrateful daughter who threw her own father out on the streets with nothing . I got canceled so hard I was getting death threats daily . In the middle of all this hate , I went live myself . I did my makeup perfectly and looked straight into the camera . " I'm Brielle Hartwell - the girl you're all calling a spoiled bitch who beat up her brothers and disowned her father . " " Anyone who wants to curse me out can do it in my comments today . I won't block you or ban you . Today only ! " Chapter 8