CHAPTER 55

CLAUDIA'S POV

I sat and watched through the windshield of my car as Ella dropped Ivy off at school. My fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel, the knuckles whitening as I watched her lean down and kiss Ivy on the head before watching her skip away into the building. Pathetic. It was a scene out of some suburban fairytale. She was living a life that wasn't meant for her, a life which was supposed to be mine. And Ivy? Well, she came to be the personification of all that went wrong with this world-a bastard child, born from a mistake.

As Ella got back into her rusty excuse of a car, my stomach twisted with jealousy. How could this man of power and influence settle for this? A washed-up nurse, incapable of keeping a good car and a child that was obviously out of hand. It was an outrage to my blood. How could she have set such a trap for him so easily? What was her secret? I needed to know.

I tailed her, following her from the school into the grocery store. The audacity of her,