His Accidental Heiress
Elena's life has never been easy. She's 23, broke, and working long hours at a small café just to keep a roof over her head. Her best friend, Elizabeth, worries she'll work herself to death, so one night she drags Elena to a house party.
Elena doesn't like parties, but she goes anyway. That night changes everything.
Looking for the bathroom, she opens the wrong door and finds herself in the same room as a man-tall, handsome, and mysterious. They don't exchange names. They don't plan it. One thing leads to another, and they spend the night together.
By morning, he's gone. No note. No name. Just gone.
Elena tries to forget about it until weeks later, when she realizes she's pregnant. Panic hits her hard. She doesn't know the man's name. She doesn't have his number. She's broke and alone, but she decides to keep the baby and work harder.
Around this time, Elliott, Elena's boss, starts visiting the café often. He's friendly, supportive, and becomes her closest friend. She has no idea Elliott is connected to her mystery man.
When the café job can't cover her bills anymore, Elliott helps her find a better job as a secretary in a big company. She's relieved-until her first day on the job, when she sees him. Jaxon Thorn. The father of her baby.
Jaxon is shocked too. He feels betrayed that she didn't tell him sooner. She feels hurt that he left without a word. Things get even worse when Khloe-the woman desperate to marry Jaxon-steps in to destroy Elena.
One night turned their worlds upside down. Now, they have to face the truth: Can love really come from one mistake?
Chapters
Share
Chapter 3
Elena's POV
My eyes follow him up the stairs until his tall frame disappears from view. Even then, I angle my head, still staring at the first landing of the stairs a full minute after he left.
"Waiting for someone?" the lanky guy questions casually, nodding towards the glass of water still in my hands.
Right. I gulp it down just as I did with the liquor and slide it over to him. I doubt it is going to do anything right now, but I desperately hope it works because the last thing I want is to be drunk in a room filled with strangers.
Where the hell did Elizabeth go?
"I'm Elliot," he murmurs, angling his head.
"Elena."
"I know."
"What?"
He chuckles again as my attention returns fully to him. I study him under the dim lights. He has boyish features and charm, but I can tell he is much older. I can see it in his eyes, the gaze of someone who knows more than they let on.
But unlike the grey-eyed man, he is warm and actually friendly.
"You work at Café Black," he continues, filling two red cups and handing one over to me.
I shake my head. "I've had enough for one night."
"It's red wine," Elliot says. "This should be easier for you to consume."
I accept it, even though I know he is wrong. I have a very low tolerance for alcohol consumed in any form. It doesn't matter that red wine doesn't contain as much alcohol as vodka. It has the same effect on me.
But Elliot doesn't have to know that. I am hoping Elizabeth will be back soon so we can head home. I have to be at the café tomorrow.
"You frequent there?" I ask, taking a sip. I really doubt it. I would have noticed him, seeing as sometimes, the manager makes me attend to every single customer. He hates me. I have to give him that. But I can't complain because he signs my paycheck.
Elliot shakes his head.
"I own it."
The red cup is in between my lips when he says that, and my head jerks backwards, taking in too much at once. I start coughing, and Elliot grabs the cup from me, placing it gingerly on the counter. Then, his hand comes down on my back, patting gently.
"I guess I should have given you that information in bits," he chuckles.
"No." I shake my head and clear my throat. He retrieves his hand just as I sit straight again. "I just wasn't expecting you to say that."
What if I had said something bad about the manager? Or worse, called it a shabby place. I would have been fired before tomorrow morning without even knowing the reason.
"It is one of my babies." He seems fond of it. I wonder if he knows how his manager runs it. But the only thing I can think of right now is how Elliot is my boss and I have been dared to kiss him.
The rest of the group has returned to playing the game, but I can still feel their eyes on me at intervals. They are waiting.
I can't do this.
"What is on your mind?" Elliot pushes slowly.
I shake my head.
"Come on," he drawls. "You don't have to act differently towards me just because I am your boss. And I don't even like calling myself that. It's the reason I leave staff matters to my manager. To you, tonight, I can just be Elliot."
My lips open and close in rapid succession. What am I supposed to say?
"I can see it in your eyes," he continues. "You came from that group over there, so let me guess. You were dared to kiss me?"
"Close," I whisper. "I was dared to kiss you and then get your number."
"But you don't have to do any of that," I add quickly, shaking my hands in his face for emphasis. "I don't mind losing the dare and having them make me do whatever they want me to do. You don't have to...."
"Do you know what they will make you do, Elena?"
I look at him wide-eyed.
"You will be dared to stand on a table and dance for the whole of the room to see, and that is if you are even allowed to do it clothed."
I swallow. "What kind of ...."
"They are very passionate about their games. A piece of advice. Next time, when you come here, don't join them. They made their own rules for the game because it works for them. I don't think it does for you."
"I don't think it does, either," I murmur, my gaze going back to the spot he was seated a while ago.
I don't know what is wrong with me. I need to stop thinking about those gray eyes.
"Here," he starts, hooking a finger on my chin. "And I'll give you my number too."
When his lips come down on mine, it is nothing like the explosion I have heard is associated with first kisses. Elliot feels warm and kind, and his lips taste of the same red wine as mine. It is slightly intoxicating, but he pulls away before anything can form.
I touch my chest, waiting for my heart to race. It is racing, but not from this kiss, not from Elliot. He reaches out for a napkin and retrieves a pen from his pocket, scribbling his number into it.
"You can call me if you like."
I laugh. "Thank you, Elliot."
A tall blonde lady walks into the room with a lot of brightness in her eyes. She heads over to us, but has her eyes on Elliot. Understanding, I get off the stool and walk away, but I do not join the circle.
Instead, I go up the stairs, trying to find a bathroom. With all that alcohol in my system, it is bound to happen at some point.
"Are you lost, pretty girl?" a man drawls from the hallway upstairs.
"Bathroom," I squeak.
He points to a door down the hallway, and I scurry in that direction. But when I push the door open, what jumps back at me does in no way resemble a bathroom.
You may also like
7.8
The freezing rain lashed against my face as I clung to the iron gates of the Hendrix estate, begging for a chance to prove I didn't kill my best friend.
I had come here for mercy, but the man I had secretly loved for years had a different plan. He didn't want to hear my truth; he wanted to see me broken.
As the sun rose, the estate manager delivered the final blow. He shoved Emery’s phone into my face, showing a forged text message that framed me for her death, then turned his back as the gates slammed shut.
My own family didn't offer a lifeline, either. When the police came for me, my parents didn't fight for my innocence; they chose to disown me to save their bank accounts from Alfredo’s wrath.
I was thrown into Rikers Island, stripped of my dignity, and subjected to years of calculated, brutal torture paid for by the man who once held my heart.
How could the person I loved turn my life into a private slaughterhouse based on a lie?
After three years of hell, I walked out of those prison gates with nothing but a scarred body and a hollow soul. The woman who loved Alfredo Hendrix died in that cell. Now, I’m back in the city where it all began, and I’m done hiding.
7.4
My memory was gone, a blank slate wiped clean each day. I lived a life guided by Post-it notes-simple instructions that told me who I was, what to eat, and to be polite to visitors.
Then he came back. Jax, the man I supposedly abandoned for money seven years ago, was now a billionaire. He stood at my door with his new fiancée, his eyes burning with a hatred I couldn't place.
He forced me onto a humiliating reality show, turning my broken mind into a public spectacle. He tore down my notes, my only connection to myself, and let the world watch as I nearly drowned in a tank of ice water. When my brother tried to save me, he was arrested for assault.
To free my brother, I had to confess. I stood before the world and apologized for a betrayal I couldn't even remember, becoming the monster everyone believed me to be.
But as I spoke the lies he fed me, a single detail about a stolen necklace made his perfect world shatter. He finally saw the truth in my empty eyes. It was just seven years too late.
7.5
River Lockhart, the son of an infamous billionaire, gets a speeding ticket from the new police officer of the city, Officer Damian Reid.
"Trust me, officer. You don't want to do that."
"Why? Are you the Prime Minister's son?"
"What if I am?"
"It doesn't matter."
River is to follow his father, Mr Lockhart's footsteps in the future. It has been his dream to copy his father's image one day. But the timing is so wrong. He's interested in a guardian of the law, yet he is to become a devil against the law.
Can illegal shadows and emergency sirens mingle together? Is it a good match?
7.6
My husband vanished on our fifth anniversary, leaving me frantic with worry.
I thought something terrible had happened until a stranger named Jayda sent me a photo.
He wasn't missing; he was in a penthouse, flipping pancakes for her with a smile he hadn't shown me in years.
When I tracked them down, Bennett didn't apologize.
He shoved me away to protect his pregnant mistress, looking at me with pure disgust.
"You're a liability, Iris," he spat, cutting off my access to our bank accounts. "Stop being hysterical."
He laughed when I clutched my head in agony, claiming I was faking pain just to ruin his new happiness.
He didn't know my "headaches" weren't a plea for attention.
They were Stage IV Glioblastoma.
While he was buying her the diamond necklace I had always wanted, I was receiving a terminal diagnosis.
I looked at the man I sacrificed my entire career for and felt a cold, final resolve.
"Fine," I whispered, tossing the medical report in the trash where he wouldn't see it.
"Send the divorce papers. I'm done."
8.6
"Come on, Juliet... it's time to write a new story."
After years trapped in an abusive marriage, Juliet Pierce finally runs. Alone, with two children and a suitcase full of trauma, she leaves behind the luxury - and George Monroe, the man she once loved - in search of a new beginning.
The destination? Manhattan.
The plan? Just survive.
But everything changes on her first night working as a waitress at Paradise, an exclusive BDSM club where pleasure meets power. Afraid of being recognized, she wears a mask - a shield she desperately needs.
And that's where she crosses paths with Noah Blake: billionaire CEO, relentless Dominant, and co-owner of the club.
He sees her.
He wants her.
He has no idea who she really is... yet.
Days later, Juliet applies for a position as Noah's assistant. This time, she's not wearing a mask - and he starts putting the pieces together.
Juliet wants distance.
Noah wants to tame her.
"I do love a challenge," he says.
Juliet is everything he never expected: funny, bold, intense - fragile on the outside, but with eyes that reveal how untamed she truly is.
He wants her on her knees.
She wants to prove she can love without losing herself.
What begins as a dangerous arrangement becomes a quiet war between fear and desire, past and redemption.
But Juliet's past is closer than she thinks. And when it resurfaces to haunt her, she'll have to choose: surrender... or fight for herself - and maybe, for the love of a man who swore he would never love.
"It was in that moment I realized I was about to discover:
Whether this would be a nightmare...
or the best experience of my life."
7.9
Erin woke up in her luxurious Fifth Avenue penthouse, three days after returning from the cold, sterile psychiatric hospital where her husband had locked her away.
On the night of their third anniversary, Crockett Winters came home smelling of his mistress's perfume, expecting his docile wife to serve him.
Instead of playing the obedient fool, Erin calmly exposed the million-dollar diamonds he had just bought for his lover.
Furious at her sudden defiance, Crockett tried to physically intimidate her, pinning her against a wall to reassert his dominance.
When his aggression failed, he threw a brutal divorce agreement on the table.
"Sign it, and you walk away with nothing. You can't survive without me, and you know it."
He sneered, convinced the ironclad prenup would terrify her. He thought her rebellion was just a pathetic, jealous tantrum, a desperate play for his attention while he continued to pamper his mistress.
He truly believed she was just a beautiful canary who would eventually crawl back to her gilded cage in tears.
But Erin didn't cry, and she didn't sign the papers.
Instead, she locked him out of the master suite and pulled out his unlimited Centurion card.
In a single night, she calmly spent ninety million dollars of his money to buy up prime real estate and hidden assets, taking the first step to build an empire that would completely destroy him.