The church was heavy with grief—our father’s casket at the front, mourners exchanging soft condolences—when my sister, Victoria Hale, decided it was the perfect moment to humiliate me.

“Elena, seriously?” she said loudly enough to silence three entire pews. “Did you pull that dress out of a bargain bin? You’re embarrassing us all.”

A flush crept up my neck. My mother looked away. Our aunts froze. Victoria smirked, drinking in the attention. She’d always loved playing the superior Hale sister. To her, I was the plain one. The forgettable one. The one she’d overshadowed since childhood.

She had no idea how wrong she was.

No one in that room knew the truth:

The “cheap” black dress she ridiculed was a thirty-thousand-dollar prototype. Its design was unpublished, unseen, unreleased. And I was the one who personally approved the final pattern.

Because I was the silent founder and sole owner of HÉLOISE—the luxury brand that had made Victoria a minor fashion industry darling.

For five years, she flaunted her role as one of our “faces.” She belittled junior designers, shouted at stylists, and mocked anyone she considered beneath her. She had never once realized that the girl she ridiculed the most—me—was the one who had built that entire company from scratch.

But when she insulted me at our father’s funeral—the man who had raised us with nothing but kindness and patience—something inside me shifted. It snapped, like a thread pulled too tightly for too long.

Earlier that morning, before stepping into the church, I had signed a document:
Victoria’s immediate termination.

And that was just the beginning.

As the service ended and people began to filter into the reception hall, Victoria strutted ahead of the crowd, accepting condolences as if they were applause. She didn’t know that every campaign she’d ever appeared in, every photo she’d posed for, every lookbook she had bragged about… would soon be erased from our brand’s future plans.

I waited until she had separated herself, champagne flute in hand—utterly inappropriate for a funeral, but perfectly “Victoria.”

“Elena,” she said, not even bothering to look at me. “Next time, try not to represent the Hale family like a thrift store tragedy.”

I inhaled slowly. “Victoria, about your contract—”

“My contract?” she snorted. “Please. You know nothing about fashion. Just stay in your little cubicle job.”

“My cubicle job?” I smiled, enjoying the moment.

Before she could say another word, Daniel—the head of operations, whom she had never bothered to acknowledge—approached.

“Ms. Hale,” he said with the utmost professionalism, addressing me respectfully. “Legal has confirmed your signature. Her termination becomes official at noon.”

Victoria blinked. “Termination? Whose termination?”

Daniel held her gaze. “Yours, Ms. Hale.”

She barked out a laugh. “You’re firing me? Do you know who I am? HÉLOISE needs—”

“HÉLOISE,” Daniel interrupted calmly, “belongs to her.”

He nodded toward me.

Victoria’s champagne glass slipped from her hand, shattering on the floor. Her face drained of color, her lips barely forming the words:

“You… own HÉLOISE?”

“I built it,” I said quietly. “Every stitch. Every campaign. Every job you’ve ever bragged about.”

The room went silent. Relatives stared, whispers spreading like wildfire. Even my mother hovered nervously, unsure of whose side to take.

Victoria stepped closer, her voice shaking. “You planned this. You waited to humiliate me.”

“No,” I replied, calm and collected. “You humiliated yourself. I just stopped shielding you.”