The Second Life of a Discarded Heiress novel Chapter 554

Theo followed their gazes and glanced over, pausing in surprise when he saw the woman’s face.

“Jeanette? What’s she doing here?”

Remembering she was a friend of his younger sister, he hesitated for a moment, then made his way over and sat across from her.

Jeanette’s heart was pounding with excitement, but she forced herself to act oblivious, pretending to be tipsy and out of sorts.

“Who… who are you? Why are you sitting here?” she slurred, looking up at him with feigned confusion.

Theo frowned. “This isn’t the kind of place you should be hanging around. Go home, Jeanette.”

Jeanette threw her hands in the air in wild exaggeration. “Go home? Go where? The house is gone, my father’s in jail, my mother left… I don’t have a home anymore.”

Only then did Theo remember the recent events, the headlines from earlier that day. He pressed his lips together. “Then you should at least get a room at a hotel for the night.”

Jeanette shook her head stubbornly. “I… I haven’t had enough to drink yet.”

Theo’s frown deepened. “You’re already drunk. I’ll have someone take you back.”

He rose to leave, but suddenly Jeanette grabbed his hand.

“Don’t go,” she pleaded.

Assuming she was just being belligerent, Theo tried to pull away, but her grip was surprisingly strong—he couldn’t shake her off.

As they struggled, something slipped from beneath the collar of Jeanette’s shirt, catching the light.

Theo’s expression changed in an instant. He grabbed the pendant hanging from her neck—a battered old locket—and demanded urgently, “Where did you get this? How do you have it?”

Jeanette’s eyes flashed with a sly, triumphant look, though it vanished almost as quickly.

Just when Theo thought he was done for, a little girl charged out of nowhere, flinging a handful of cayenne pepper into the kidnappers’ faces.

The men staggered back, blinded and cursing.

The girl yanked the sack off Theo’s head, grabbed his hand, and took off running. “Help! Somebody help! Kidnappers!” she shouted at the top of her lungs as they sprinted down the street.

He remembered the locket bouncing against her neck, clinking with every stride—and the deep scratch across its surface.

She was even smaller than he was, barely reaching his shoulder, but her eyes burned with fierce determination.

Once they reached safety, she let go of his hand and fixed him with a solemn stare. “I saved you.”

“What do you want?” Theo had asked, wary—he’d grown up with the complicated politics of the Glenwood family and trusted no one.

But the girl shook her head. “I saved you, so now you’re mine. You have to listen to me from now on. You can only like me—you’re not allowed to like your little sister.”