The Lost Heiress Returned: Stay With Me, My Two-Faced Goddess
Following twenty years away from home, Cathleen returned expecting family, but all she received was contempt.
Her parents sneered, "You may share our blood, but someone as exceptional as your sister is the only one fit to be our daughter."
Her brother scoffed, "Ashley is my only sister. Get out of here, you country bumpkin!"
Her so-called sister put on a sugary smile. "You won't mind if I borrow your fiancé, will you?"
Cathleen stayed unshaken and walked into a contract marriage with Matthew, who believed he had married a useless woman.
Then her masks fell one by one-divine doctor, underground boxing queen, elite hacker, phantom racer, AI genius, and powerful heiress. Even the comics his sister adored, and the only voice that could ever lull him to sleep, belonged to her.
Matthew pinned her wrists down, his dark gaze locking onto her. "Just how many secrets are you keeping from me?"
Cathleen flipped his hold, her smile calm. "The contract ends tomorrow. Remember to get the divorce."
He grinned, "Absolutely not. Not now, not ever."
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Chapter 2
"What? You and Matthew are already married?" After making sure he'd heard correctly, Bruce brought his fist down hard on the table. "Marriage isn't something to be taken lightly. Do you think this is some game?"
The news was enough to bring tears to Ashley's eyes. Noticing her distress, Suzanne and Kevan hurried over, offering words to soothe her.
Cathleen, in contrast, remained perfectly upright, her expression unreadable. "Three days ago, Edmund personally visited Erin to formally discuss this marriage. If you have a problem with it, take it up with him instead of interrogating me."
Holding the visibly shaken Ashley in her arms, Suzanne felt her irritation toward Cathleen grow even stronger. She shot Cathleen a sharp, icy look. "You did this to take the man Ashley loves, didn't you?"
Kevan chimed in with clear annoyance, "Mom, why even bother arguing with someone like her? She's just envious because we've always cherished Ashley. This is nothing more than petty revenge on her part."
"Please... don't say that! If Cathleen has feelings for Matthew too, I can step aside..." Ashley's voice faltered as she completely broke down in tears.
Suzanne's heart tightened at the sight. She gently wiped Ashley's tears away. "Sweetheart, what are you saying? That marriage was meant to be yours from the start. Don't worry; I'll fix this for you."
She turned toward Cathleen, the warmth in her eyes instantly replaced with cold disdain. "I understand you may hold resentment toward us, but that doesn't justify taking the man your sister loves. Cathleen, you're my daughter as well. I'll find you another suitable match. As for Matthew, you need to return him to Ashley."
"And how exactly do you expect me to do that?" Cathleen shot back.
"Get a divorce," Bruce said flatly, leaving no room for disagreement. "Go file the paperwork tomorrow. I'll handle Edmund myself. All you need to do is end things with Matthew."
Cathleen gave a slow nod. "Since Ashley loves Matthew so much, then..."
She let the sentence hang on purpose. The others visibly relaxed, convinced she was finally about to give in.
Ashley fixed her eyes on Cathleen, her eyes brimming with expectation.
A faint smile curved Cathleen's lips as she went on, "I have no intention of divorcing him."
"What did you just say?" Bruce's voice shook with anger. Turning to the butler, he barked, "Bring me the whip!"
The butler hurried off and returned moments later with it.
Ashley made a show of stepping forward as if to stop him, yet her words only made things worse. "Dad, I'm sure Cathleen didn't mean to talk back to you like that. She's been living in the mountains for so long without proper guidance, so it's not surprising if her behavior is a bit rough around the edges. And after being away from you for all these years, it's only natural she might feel a little distant."
Her remarks hit home for Bruce. Cathleen, who had been absent for years, could never compare to Ashley, the daughter he had cherished and taken pride in for twenty years.
Ashley was bright, considerate, and deeply devoted. Cathleen, on the other hand, had challenged him outright from the moment she returned. If he didn't put her in her place now, how could he expect to keep authority over this household?
"She needs to learn her place!" Bruce snapped, lifting the whip with fury. "Cathleen, since no one bothered to teach you manners these past twenty years, I'll do it myself as your father. Let's see if you still dare to show such disrespect after this!"
With that, he lashed the whip toward Cathleen.
Out of the corner of her eye, Cathleen caught the unmistakable satisfaction in Ashley's expression. Her lips pressed together. She had tolerated enough. Did they really think she would just stand there and take it?
In an instant, she reached out and pulled Ashley in front of her. The whip struck down swiftly and forcefully. With a sharp crack, a vivid red mark spread across Ashley's cheek, her face swelling almost immediately.
"Ah!" Ashley screamed. Everyone in the living room went pale, except for Cathleen.
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9.3
Alyssa Gregory slept with Benton Steele, a recently disgraced and bankrupt heir, just to humiliate him.
She threw a massive check at his bare chest, treating the former prince of Wall Street like a cheap escort.
But Benton didn't take the charity.
Instead, he manipulated her anger, tricking her into signing an ironclad contract that surrendered absolute control of her entire trust fund to him.
When her abusive mother found out she had funded a penniless outcast, she slapped Alyssa across the face.
Her mother froze all her bank accounts, locked her inside her bedroom, and arranged to sell her off to a degenerate politician.
Desperate to escape, Alyssa climbed down her balcony, falling fifteen feet and shattering her ankle on the stones below.
Stripped of her money and freedom, she dragged her broken body to a VIP club just to publicly declare that Benton belonged to her.
She thought she was the boss, playing a rebellious game with a broken man.
But when Benton effortlessly carried her away from the club and locked her inside his rundown apartment, the terrifying calculation in his dark eyes shattered her illusion.
How could a man stripped of his entire empire still radiate such suffocating, violent power?
"You bought me," Benton whispered, his massive frame trapping her against the sofa. "That means I have to take care of you."
Physically trapped and completely broke, Alyssa stared into his consuming eyes, her mind racing to find a way to turn the tables.
9.7
Eliana Rivera is the firstborn daughter of business tycoon Cassian Rivera. When her father's company falls into debt, he marries her off to the arrogant and ruthless billionaire, Alexander Grayson, as part of a business contract and under the threat of blackmail.
Alexander, the billionaire CEO, never planned to marry, but the pressure of blackmail forces him into a union with a woman he barely knows. Although Eliana doesn't see Alexander as her ideal partner, she agrees to the marriage out of a sense of duty.
Once engaged, however, he barely acknowledges her presence and harbours disdain for her because of her father's actions and their relationship. But as they navigate their newfound relationship, the unexpected desire for each other's touch ignites-a twist neither of them planned, leading them toward an unforeseen love.
8.7
Five years ago, I was the invisible scholarship charity case at an elite Manhattan prep school, trying to survive in a sea of trust-fund babies.
Arlo Hammond, the untouchable billionaire heir, made sure to completely dismantle my soul.
When his wealthy friends asked if he noticed me, his mocking laughter echoed down the hallway.
"Are you out of your mind? You seriously think I'd be interested in a boring little nerd like her?"
But the moment we were alone, he would corner me in dark alleys, pinning my wrists against brick walls with terrifying, possessive jealousy if my phone even buzzed. He played his twisted games until I was left standing in the rain with my shattered dignity.
Now, I am an Assistant District Attorney. I spent years burying those memories under mountains of legal files.
But tonight, he returned.
When we crossed paths at an exclusive club, he looked at me with the cool detachment he'd give a piece of furniture. In front of a crowd of elites, he coldly declared:
"We have absolutely nothing to do with each other anymore."
Then he walked away to pick up a supermodel, leaving me trembling from the sheer humiliation.
I didn't understand. If I was so worthless to him, why did he still have my birthday tattooed in dark ink on his wrist? Why did he look at me with such raw, painful vulnerability in the shadows?
I stared at my pale reflection in the mirror and made a silent vow.
I am not that pathetic seventeen-year-old anymore, and I will prove to him that I am completely, entirely over him.
9.1
For three years, June played the perfect, submissive wife to billionaire Augustus Pruitt, hoping a child would finally warm his cold heart and secure their marriage.
But when she cautiously suggested they have a baby, he looked at her with pure, unfiltered disgust.
"A woman who schemes her way into a marriage doesn't get to carry my blood."
He sneered, leaving immediately to lavish his mistress with diamonds. The nightmare only escalated from there. Augustus bought the one painting June desperately wanted—a piece she had secretly created herself—just to gift it to his mistress. He publicly outbid June at the gallery, mocking her lack of wealth, and left her to collapse in the freezing rain. When the storm gave her a severe 104-degree fever and she nearly died on their staircase, he didn't even stay by her hospital bed. Instead, he sent an assistant with a box of jewelry to buy her silence, then forced her to attend a family dinner where his mother and sister viciously mocked her barren womb and background.
Looking at Augustus, who sat there casually cutting his steak while his family tore her apart, the last flicker of hope in June's chest sputtered and died.
She finally understood that her three years of bleeding devotion were nothing but a pathetic joke to them.
She dropped her silverware, the sharp clatter silencing the entire room. She wasn't going to be their punching bag anymore. It was time to finalize the divorce papers, reclaim her hidden identity as the world-renowned artist 'mr.sun', and make them all regret it.
8.8
On the eve of my glamorous Waldorf Astoria wedding, I went to the penthouse to surprise my fiancé, Hugh, wearing my late mother's heirloom pearls.
Instead, I heard my stepsister's familiar laugh and caught them tangled together on the sofa.
Through the cracked door, I heard Hugh slur that he was only marrying me for my family's financial backing.
"As soon as I secure my inheritance, she's the first thing I'm getting rid of," he promised her.
Floy giggled and asked for my mother's pearl necklace, my only legacy. Hugh agreed without hesitation, mocking my dead mother's naivety and my desperate dreams of building a family.
Every sweet word he had ever said was a lie, a knife he had been patiently sliding between my ribs for years. They planned to strip me of everything the moment I signed the prenup.
I didn't cry or scream. The crushing weight of their betrayal hollowed me out, leaving behind a terrifying, absolute calm.
Why should I be the one to lose everything while they stole my future and insulted my mother's memory?
I calmly walked down the hall, set the prenuptial agreement on fire, and vanished into the rainy night.
If Hugh wanted to play dirty for the Maxwell empire, I would play for keeps.
Using a forgotten, century-old family covenant, I was going to marry Hugh's uncle-the comatose, paralyzed war hero, Fleet Maxwell.
I would return not as a naive bride, but as their worst nightmare: his aunt, and the new lady of the house.
8.2
My ex-boyfriend of three years, Axel, married a perfect wealthy heiress.
I attended his wedding, not to mourn our relationship, but because he had spent the last three years bleeding me dry.
He left me with absolutely nothing but a final notice from the hospital for my dying brother's life support.
Instead of feeling guilty, Axel cornered me in the church hallway, crushing my wrist.
"I'll set you up with an apartment. You won't have to work another day in your life."
He thought he could buy my silence with spare change, while leaving my seventeen-year-old brother, Julian, to die when his treatments were cut off the very next day.
When I refused to be his dirty little secret, Axel used his power to utterly destroy my acting career.
He had my talent agency terminate my contract under a fake morals clause, publicly humiliated me on set, and blacklisted me across the entire industry.
I was shoved out into the freezing rain, left with a torn dress and absolutely no way to pay the five hundred thousand dollar medical bill.
He actually believed he could step on my brother's dying body to build his own fake empire.
He thought I was just a weak, pathetic victim who would eventually crawl back to him on my knees.
But he forgot about the one monster he was absolutely terrified of: his legitimate, ruthless billionaire half-brother, Jace Bauer.
Looking at the three positive pregnancy tests hidden in my drawer, I stepped right in front of Jace's armored Maybach.
"Marry me, and I'll give you the heir you need to secure your empire."