The Ruined Heiress Makes A Comeback
I attended a high-stakes tech gala in a rented designer gown, desperate to secure a marketing contract to save myself from bankruptcy.
But the new billionaire CEO turned out to be Carlisle, the penniless ex-boyfriend I had brutally dumped four years ago.
He still thought I left him because he was poor, completely unaware I did it to protect him from my family's sudden ruin.
Terrified of his revenge, I stayed up all night writing a business pitch. But my old laptop froze, and I accidentally emailed him my secret, highly explicit NSFW fan-fiction about him instead.
He summoned me to his penthouse and accused me of prostituting myself for the contract. When I slipped and fell into his indoor pool, he violently shoved me away.
"Save your cheap tricks. My bed isn't for women like you."
Soon after, I received a formal sexual harassment warning from HR. He threatened to publicly bankrupt and blacklist me if I didn't present a flawless pitch at the executive dinner.
I was crushed by the absolute humiliation. I packed my bags, ready to resign and run away just like I did four years ago.
But then he sent one last email, mocking me.
"Lumina doesn't need a coward who only knows how to pawn bags and run."
That insult set my blood on fire. I wasn't a coward.
I deleted my resignation, brewed black coffee, and started typing. Tomorrow night, I was going to shove the most brilliant marketing pitch straight down his arrogant throat.
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Chapter 8
The freezing morning air of Manhattan hit Cierra like a wall of ice.
She stumbled out of the revolving doors of Carlisle's building, her bare feet slapping against the freezing concrete pavement.
Her white blouse and black skirt were plastered to her skin, dripping wet. The wind cut right through the soaked fabric, chilling her straight to the bone.
Pedestrians in heavy wool coats stopped and stared. Whispers broke out. A businessman in a suit gave her a look of utter disgust, clearly assuming she was a drunken mess walking home from a wild night out.
Cierra wrapped her arms tightly around her chest, her teeth chattering so violently her jaw ached.
She dragged herself to the corner of the intersection and leaned against a cold brick wall. Her hands were shaking so badly she could barely unzip her wet clutch.
She pulled out her phone. The screen was smeared with water droplets.
She tried to open the Uber app, but her numb fingers wouldn't register on the glass.
Suddenly, the screen lit up with an incoming call.
Julian.
Cierra hit the green button and lifted the phone to her ear.
"Cierra?" Julian's voice came through the speaker, sounding cheerful. "Did you crush the meeting?"
Cierra opened her mouth, but a violent, broken sob tore out of her throat instead.
"Cierra?" Julian's tone instantly dropped, shifting into sharp panic. "Where are you? What happened?"
"I'm... I'm at the corner of 5th and 58th," Cierra choked out, sliding down the brick wall until she was crouching on the freezing sidewalk. "Please. Just come get me."
"I'm five minutes away. Don't move."
Exactly four minutes later, the screech of tires echoed down the avenue.
A silver Porsche 911 violently pulled up to the curb, the hazard lights flashing.
Julian threw his door open and sprinted around the hood. When he saw Cierra shivering on the ground, soaked to the bone and barefoot, his face turned pale with shock.
"Jesus Christ," Julian muttered.
He ripped off his heavy cashmere overcoat and wrapped it tightly around Cierra's trembling shoulders. He scooped her up by her waist and practically carried her to the passenger side, shoving her into the leather seat.
Julian slammed the door, ran to the driver's side, and got in. He immediately cranked the car's heater to the maximum setting.
Hot air blasted Cierra's frozen face. She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
Julian pulled the Porsche into the flow of traffic. His hands gripped the steering wheel so hard the leather creaked.
"Did he touch you?" Julian asked, his voice deadly quiet. "Did Carlisle do this to you?"
Cierra shook her head frantically. "No. I slipped. I fell into the pool."
She grabbed a fistful of the cashmere coat. "He hated my pitch, Julian. He said it was cheap. He said I belonged in the red-light district."
Julian let out a vicious curse. "He's a sadistic bastard. He's just torturing you because of what happened in college."
Julian reached over and squeezed her knee. "Listen to me. I'll pay the penalty fee. I'll wire you the million dollars today. You are going to terminate that contract and never look at that man again."
Cierra stared blankly at the dashboard. Julian's money could save her. But taking it meant she was exactly what Carlisle thought she was-a parasite who relied on rich men to survive.
Before she could answer, her phone buzzed loudly against the center console.
Cierra picked it up.
It was an email from K.C. The subject line was flagged with a bright red exclamation mark: [URGENT: OFFICIAL WARNING].
Cierra's stomach plummeted. She tapped the screen.
The email was formal, cold, and stamped with the Lumina legal department logo.
Ms. Holcomb,
This serves as an official corporate warning regarding your highly unprofessional conduct and inappropriate sexual harassment toward the CEO during this morning's meeting.
Cierra stopped breathing. Sexual harassment?
She forced her eyes to keep reading.
Mr. McLean has graciously decided to give you one final opportunity. You will present a revised, data-driven marketing pitch at the Lumina Executive Dinner tomorrow night. He expects you to publicly demonstrate your 'capabilities' in front of the entire board of directors-an open execution to prove exactly what you are.
If you fail to attend, or if you present another inappropriate document, Lumina will formally press charges for sexual harassment and initiate an industry-wide blacklist.
Cierra stared at the words until they blurred.
Sexual harassment. Inappropriate document.
Julian glanced at the screen. "What does it say?"
Cierra slowly lowered the phone. The blood roared in her ears.
Carlisle wasn't just insulting her. He was building a legal case to destroy her life. And she still had absolutely no idea why he thought she had sexually harassed him.
"Take me home, Julian," Cierra whispered, her voice completely hollow. "Just take me home."
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7.2
In the roaring flames of the abandoned warehouse, my skin blistered and peeled.
Through the crackling fire, my sister Elara's malicious voice echoed. She told me my husband, Damien, was dead, and it was all my fault.
For years, I had treated Damien like a monster. I fought him, threw tantrums, and desperately tried to escape our marriage, all because I blindly followed Elara's advice.
"Remember, the harder you fight, the more disgusted he'll get."
She texted me things like that, telling me to smash vases over his head and run away, claiming she was protecting me.
In reality, she was poisoning my mind, stealing my valedictorian spot at university, and plotting to crawl into my billionaire husband's bed.
My foolish rebellion cost me everything, ultimately leading to Damien's tragic death and my own fiery end.
As the massive explosion tore my consciousness to shreds, I finally understood who truly loved me and who the real monster was.
I died suffocating on my own agonizing regret, wishing I could tear Elara apart.
Then, a rush of freezing air punched into my lungs.
I opened my eyes to the crisp scent of cedar and mint. I was back seven years ago, on the very night our marriage was supposed to go to hell.
This time, looking at Damien's flawless, unscarred face, I didn't push him away.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and made a silent vow: I would make every single person who ever hurt him bleed.
9.5
On the day she discovers she is pregnant, Amara is handed divorce papers by the man she loved for three years. Betrayed by her husband and her best friend, she walks away with nothing-except the secret growing inside her.
But what Ethan Cole doesn't know is that the woman he abandoned is not weak... and not alone.
When Amara returns as a powerful heiress, no longer the woman he could control, Ethan begins to regret everything. But as secrets unravel and the truth about her pregnancy comes closer to light, one question remains-
When he finally finds out the child is his... will it already be too late?
7.1
I waited a year for my mate, Alpha Justin, to return from the border war. While he was gone, I used my ten-million-dollar dowry to keep his crumbling pack afloat and buy life-saving elixirs for his mother.
But when he finally walked through the door, he reeked of another female's scent.
He brought back Gamma Brenna and a Royal Decree, coldly announcing she would be his "Co-Luna."
His family, who survived entirely on my wealth, immediately turned on me. They mocked me for being a wolfless orphan since my father and brothers were slaughtered defending the kingdom.
"You're just a fragile woman who belongs hidden away," Justin told me.
They demanded I accept this humiliation, step aside for his new warrior mate, and continue funding their luxurious lifestyle. Justin even arrogantly offered to sleep with me just once to give me a pup as a "consolation prize," declaring his heart and body belonged entirely to Brenna.
They thought my ruined pack meant I had no backing. They thought I was a pathetic victim who would cling to their scraps and accept a polluted mate-bond just to avoid being cast out into the woods as a Rogue.
They had no idea I had already visited the Alpha King.
I wasn't going to cry, and I certainly wasn't going to share my mate. I packed up every last cent of my ten million dollars, secured a Royal Severance Decree, and prepared to watch their arrogant pack starve to death.
8.7
I woke up from a coma in the hospital, universally condemned as the vicious daughter who pushed the beloved fake heiress, Georgina, down the stairs.
My ruthless billionaire brother, Angelo, stood over my bed with cold eyes, ready to destroy me for hurting his precious sister.
But as I looked at him, a terrifying prophecy from my coma flooded my brain. Our entire family was doomed.
In the original timeline, Georgina would team up with corporate rivals to bankrupt the company, frame Angelo, and send him to federal prison, while our parents would abandon me to die miserably.
Lying there, I didn't dare speak. I just desperately cursed my idiot brother in my head.
"This stupid brother is still yelling at me for that fake heiress. He doesn't even know he's going to be framed and sent to prison next month!"
I just wanted to stay quiet, let them ruin themselves, and run away from this toxic family.
But strangely, Angelo didn't strangle me. Instead, his attitude took a shocking turn.
He abruptly fired the driver plotting to kill him, destroyed the abusive fiancé of a family ally, and publicly humiliated Georgina at a high-society gala.
He even shielded me from our abusive parents, declaring to the world that I was the only sister he would ever protect.
I was completely terrified and confused. Why was the tyrant brother suddenly acting like a protective beast?
It wasn't until he flawlessly crushed a massive corporate attack using the exact financial secrets I had just complained about in my mind that a horrifying realization hit me.
He could hear my inner thoughts!
7.1
Bonnie Galvan woke up to the suffocating scent of lilies, staring at the mirror in the exact same seven-figure wedding dress she had worn seven years ago.
In the doorway stood her so-called best friend Itzel and her secret lover Erwin, desperately urging her to elope.
They warned her that her soon-to-be husband, the billionaire Arlington Townsend, was a crippled monster, and marrying him would ruin her life forever.
In her previous life, she blindly believed their lies and ran away from the altar.
Because of her public betrayal, the ruthless Townsend family completely bankrupted her father's company in retaliation.
Erwin and Itzel swooped in as her saviors, only to steal whatever was left of her family's wealth and power.
When she was finally stripped of her value, Erwin pushed her down an icy mountain slope during a brutal blizzard.
With a shattered ankle, she could only watch as Itzel smirked and Erwin coldly walked away, leaving her to be buried alive under the freezing snow.
As her lungs burned and her heart gave out in the agonizing cold, she was consumed by hatred.
Why did the man who swore to protect her and the friend she trusted with her life plot so meticulously to destroy her?
Opening her eyes again, Bonnie was back in the bridal suite, minutes before the ceremony.
This time, she didn't run.
She walked straight down the aisle, looked the terrifying Arlington Townsend in the eye, and firmly said her vows.
"I do."
9.7
Charity woke up in a hellish, acid-rain-soaked slum, trapped inside a bloated body covered in festering, toxic sores. She was the exiled Grand Princess of the Empire.
But the real nightmare wasn't her ruined body. It was the fact that the original owner had used her royal authority to force genetic marriage contracts onto four top-tier, powerful men.
Now, she was bound to them, and they absolutely loathed her.
Hjalmar, chained to a bed in her filthy room, smiled like a feral beast and promised to rip her head off the second his chains snapped.
Braden, a ruthless military officer, saved her from a mutated rat only to look at her with pure disgust.
"If you want to die, go die somewhere else. Don't dirty my patrol sector."
Even the locals mocked her fallen status, and a wealthy heiress publicly framed her for stealing a hundred-thousand-coin energy core just to see her rot in a dark cell.
She was universally despised, physically repulsive, and a lethal biological toxin gave her exactly 59 days left to live. How was she supposed to survive this absolute hell when her starting affection with her partners was at negative 100?
Then, a mechanical voice echoed in her skull, activating a survival system. To purge the poison, she had to harvest emotional energy by making these four men fall for her. Charity accepted the mandate, unlocked a top-tier culinary skill, and grabbed a rusted meat cleaver to start her counterattack.