Bullied and Dumped, But She Won in the End (Adriana) novel Chapter 400

Chapter 400 The Last Light

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Chandler glanced at Kelsey as if she were something stuck to his shoe. His voice was flat and cold. “Clean yourself up. Wipe that filth off. We’re going home.”

From the moment he found her, Chandler had drilled one idea into her: The Bartons were their home. Everything in that house belonged to them. This wasn’t a return; it was a reclamation. They were going back to take what was theirs.

Kelsey clutched the little white pup she had just saved, holding it tightly to her chest. She was giddy with hope. She and the puppy were finally going to have a real home.

Suddenly, Chandler reached in, yanked the dog out of her arms, and slammed it hard against the ground. The dog didn’t move again.

He looked down at the small, broken body with disgust and said awful things as if it were nothing. He told her that her grandfather hated filth. If she wanted to stay, she had to be smart. She had to learn quickly. She had to be the kind of girl Grandpa would find useful.

Kelsey was too young to know how to make anyone like her.

But as she stared at the dead dog, one thing became clear to her with terrifying clarity. If she didn’t fight her way up and claw her way into an untouchable position, she would be next to be thrown away.

So, when she was brought into the Bartons’s world, she did whatever it took. She played sweet. She played obedient. She made herself valuable. She became the top student. She desperately tried to earn Jeremy’s approval.

It never mattered. His eyes always held the same disgust. He would snort and brush her aside like dust, saying, “If Nicole were still by my side, she’d be a hundred times better than you.”

For a while, Kelsey lived for him anyway. She watched his moods, chased his praise, and convinced herself that she could win his approval if she worked harder.

Then, she finally realized that she would never be fully accepted as Chandler’s daughter. No matter how hard she tried, it wouldn’t be enough. If she couldn’t change Jeremy, her only option was to destroy him. If he died and she took everything the Bartons had, she could decide her own fate.

She began to hate Nicole, the heir who vanished at birth. How dare someone be born with everything she could never have, no matter how hard she tried?

Something inside her twisted. Warped. It went dark.

That was also why Adriana had always gotten under her skin. Adriana grew up the same way she did: clawing her way out of an orphanage and up from the gutter. So why was Adriana chosen? Why did she get Curtis, someone who looked down on everyone and was impossible to reach? Kelsey couldn’t even get a real glance from anyone.

She turned her cruelty on Justin after Jeremy adopted him. She wrapped herself in thorns and called it strength If she couldn’t have what others had, she wanted to ruin it. She wanted to smash it in their hands.

In the end, all her schemes only got her one thing. She became the discarded piece that everyone stepped on. She couldn’t accept it.

Thunder rolled overhead. Rain fell in sheets. Kelsey stood in the storm, refusing to move. She stared toward Justin’s living room, where a warm rectangle of light glowed through the glass. She told herself the same thing again and again, that Justin was her only

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11:36 am

Chapter 400 The Last Light

light left. Only he could pull her out of this.

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Chandler’s threat to send her to Bellevarne was just a lie. She had become an embarrassment, a stain. Yes, Chandler would abandon her, but he wouldn’t let go of her final value.

He would squeeze every last drop out of her. He would sell her to some old man for profit. Hand her off as a toy to someone who wanted to break her.

Kelsey’s whole body shook. Not from the cold rain. From fear. From something deeper than fear.

All she wanted was to win. Was that a crime? All she wanted was to escape the slums and the sewer where she was born. She wanted Jeremy to see her as someone worth keeping. She’d only wanted to rise high enough that she’d never fall again.

“Ms. Barton, please leave.”

The butler stood beside her under an umbrella, sighing. Day after day, she came here and refused to leave. And day after day, Justin refused to see her.

Kelsey’s eyes burned red. Her voice was raw but stubborn. “I need to see him.”

‘Just one last chance,” she told herself. Just one. If she could speak to Justin, maybe everything could change.

The butler hesitated and glanced toward the living room. Through the floor–to–ceiling window, the scene was painfully clear. Under the bright, warm light, Justin set a plate of fruit in front of a woman named Susan. His expression was gentle.

Susan smiled shyly. The two of them looked comfortable together. Safe. Like a home.

Kelsey clenched her hands so tightly that her nails dug into her palms. Susan was fake. A plant. It was something that she and Savannah had arranged. Even a fake could feel Justin’s warmth. But Kelsey couldn’t earn a shred of pity from him.

‘Ms. Barton,” Chandler’s driver arrived with several bodyguards. “Mr. Chandler ordered us to take you. Your deadline has expired.”

They were there to take her away because Kelsey had lost all value.

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