He Chose A Fake Heiress Over His True Queen

He Chose A Fake Heiress Over His True Queen

Fumo Baobao

5.0
Comment(s)
15.8K
View
24
Chapters

I waited seven years for Jax Vetti, the youngest Capo in New York, to finally claim me. Instead, five minutes before our scheduled engagement, he called me a burden behind a velvet curtain. Standing on the center stage of the Gala, he didn't reach for my hand. He took the hand of Chloe Davenport, his rival's daughter, and announced to the underworld that she was carrying his heir. When the explosion tore through the ballroom moments later, Jax didn't hesitate. He threw his body over Chloe, shielding her completely, and dragged her to the safe room. I was left behind, exposed and helpless, until a massive crystal chandelier crashed down, crushing my legs and slicing my throat. While I lay bleeding out on the cold floor, Jax returned. He looked at my shattered body not with horror, but with disgust. "You're a liability, Savvy," he sneered, ordering his guards to dump me in the courtyard like trash so I wouldn't upset his pregnant fiancée. I clutched the bullet casing he gave me years ago-a blood oath he swore would bind us forever. He had promised to protect me, but tonight, he stepped over my broken body to comfort the woman who was secretly plotting his demise. His second-in-command found me before the cold took me. "He's lost his mind," Ben whispered, scooping me up and driving me to a private jet bound for Sicily. I didn't die that night. But the girl who loved Jax Vetti did. Six months later, I returned from the dead. Not as his victim, but as the woman who would turn his wedding into a funeral.

Chapter 1

I waited seven years for Jax Vetti, the youngest Capo in New York, to finally claim me. Instead, five minutes before our scheduled engagement, he called me a burden behind a velvet curtain.

Standing on the center stage of the Gala, he didn't reach for my hand. He took the hand of Chloe Davenport, his rival's daughter, and announced to the underworld that she was carrying his heir.

When the explosion tore through the ballroom moments later, Jax didn't hesitate. He threw his body over Chloe, shielding her completely, and dragged her to the safe room.

I was left behind, exposed and helpless, until a massive crystal chandelier crashed down, crushing my legs and slicing my throat.

While I lay bleeding out on the cold floor, Jax returned. He looked at my shattered body not with horror, but with disgust.

"You're a liability, Savvy," he sneered, ordering his guards to dump me in the courtyard like trash so I wouldn't upset his pregnant fiancée.

I clutched the bullet casing he gave me years ago-a blood oath he swore would bind us forever. He had promised to protect me, but tonight, he stepped over my broken body to comfort the woman who was secretly plotting his demise.

His second-in-command found me before the cold took me.

"He's lost his mind," Ben whispered, scooping me up and driving me to a private jet bound for Sicily.

I didn't die that night. But the girl who loved Jax Vetti did.

Six months later, I returned from the dead. Not as his victim, but as the woman who would turn his wedding into a funeral.

Chapter 1

He called me a burden exactly five minutes before he was scheduled to put a ring on my finger.

I stood frozen behind the heavy velvet curtain of the smoking room, my hand hovering over the cold brass handle.

Inside, the air smelled of expensive cigars and the sharp, metallic tang of betrayal.

"She's a child, Ben." Jax's voice was low, a rumble that usually made my stomach flip with excitement. Now, it just curdled the champagne in my gut.

"Savvy is a relic of a past I'm trying to outgrow. She's sweet, sure. But sweet doesn't secure the southern territories."

"She worships you, Jax." Ben's voice was tighter, hesitant. "She's waited four years. You gave her your word."

"I gave her a soft 'maybe' to keep her docile," Jax scoffed. The sound of ice hitting glass echoed in the silence that followed. "I need the Davenport ports. Chloe brings me power. Savvy brings me... what? Blind loyalty? I have dogs for that."

My breath hitched in my throat.

I wasn't supposed to be here.

I was supposed to be in the ballroom, fixing my lipstick, preparing for the moment Jax Vetti, the youngest Capo in the history of the New York families, would finally claim me.

Jax was a god in this city.

He'd killed his first man at sixteen.

By twenty-five, he controlled the docks, the unions, and the police force.

He was violence wrapped in a bespoke Armani suit, a man who could snap a neck with the same hands that used to braid my hair when I was twelve.

I touched the cold metal of the necklace hidden under my dress.

It was a bullet casing.

When I was fifteen, a drive-by shooting had shattered the windows of my father's bakery.

Jax had thrown his body over mine.

He had taken a bullet to the shoulder that was meant for my head.

He gave me the casing afterwards, warm and jagged.

Keep this, he had said, blood soaking his white shirt. It's a blood oath, Savvy. As long as you have this, you're mine.

I had believed him.

On my eighteenth birthday, I confessed I loved him.

He had smirked, touched my cheek with a thumb rough from gun oil, and said, Wait until you're twenty-two. If you're still pure, maybe I'll keep you.

I had turned twenty-two yesterday.

Tonight was the Gala.

Tonight was the deadline.

I stepped back from the door, my heels silent on the plush carpet.

My chest didn't hurt.

It felt empty, hollowed out, like someone had reached inside and scooped out everything vital with a jagged spoon.

I walked back to the ballroom, my legs moving on autopilot.

The room was a sea of diamonds and black ties, a display of wealth built on blood and silence.

Omertà.

The code of silence.

Tonight, it applied to my heartbreak, too.

I took my place near the edge of the dance floor, smoothing the silk of my white dress.

I looked like a bride.

I felt like a corpse.

The double doors opened.

Jax walked in.

He was devastatingly handsome, dark hair slicked back, eyes like cold obsidian.

He owned the room.

Every man feared him.

Every woman wanted him.

I watched him, waiting for his eyes to find mine.

He scanned the crowd.

His gaze slid over me like I was part of the furniture.

He turned back to the entrance and extended his hand.

Chloe Davenport stepped into the light.

She was everything I wasn't.

Sharp, wealthy, the daughter of the rival Don.

She wore red.

The color of war.

Jax tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and led her to the center stage.

The room went quiet.

My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage.

"Family." Jax's voice projected without a microphone, commanding absolute attention. "Tonight, we unite North and South. I am proud to introduce my intended, Chloe Davenport."

Applause erupted.

It was a thunderous sound, drowning out the ringing in my ears.

I stood still.

Chloe looked at Jax, her hand drifting down to rest on her flat stomach.

It was a subtle gesture.

But in our world, it screamed.

She was carrying his heir.

The room buzzed with the implication.

I felt the eyes of the other women on me.

Pitying glances.

Mocking whispers.

Poor Savvy. She really thought she had a chance.

She's just a soldier's daughter. A placeholder.

I looked at Jax one last time.

He was smiling at Chloe.

Then, he looked up.

His eyes locked with mine across the crowded room.

There was no apology.

No guilt.

Just a cold, hard stare that said, Know your place.

I took a step back.

Then another.

I retreated into the shadows, the cold metal of the bullet casing burning a brand against my skin.

I wasn't part of this family anymore.

I was just a ghost haunting their celebration.

I turned to leave, desperate for air, desperate to escape the suffocating weight of my shattered life.

But I didn't make it to the door.

Continue Reading

Other books by Fumo Baobao

More
The Billionaire's Asset: Carrying His Heir

The Billionaire's Asset: Carrying His Heir

Billionaires

5.0

I stood in the marble bathroom of the Pierre Hotel, staring at the two pink lines that signaled the end of my life as I knew it. The dates didn't match my sterile, arranged engagement to a business heir; they matched a blizzard in Davos and a man whose name I had tried to scrub from my memory. I thought I’d hidden the test deep in the trash, but my stepsister Kendall was a viper who had been watching. Moments later, in the middle of a high-stakes gala, she stood on stage and projected a giant image of my positive pregnancy test onto a screen for all of New York’s elite to see. The fallout was instantaneous and brutal. My fiancé, Preston, didn't ask for an explanation; he simply announced to the room that our merger was terminated because I was a "fraudulent asset." My stepfather, Senator Hansen, didn't offer a hand as I was swarmed by reporters; instead, he had security drag me out into a freezing rainstorm, hissing that I was a liability who had tanked his campaign. Barefoot and soaking wet on the sidewalk, I watched his black town car splash gutter water over me as I realized my bank cards were frozen and my apartment was already being sold from under me. I huddled in the rain, feeling the strange, protective heat in my abdomen, realizing my own family had orchestrated a public execution of my character. They didn't just want me gone; they wanted me destitute and destroyed. "Who is the father?" the reporters screamed, their flashes blinding me as I collapsed on the wet concrete. I had been discarded like trash by the people who were supposed to love me, left with nothing but the secret growing inside me and a flash drive that could burn the city to the ground. But I had one nuclear option left. When a black Rolls-Royce pulled up to the curb, I didn't beg for a ride. I held up the drive containing the evidence of Corbin Heath’s illegal offshore accounts—the cold-blooded billionaire who was the true father of my child. "I want sanctuary, my father’s freedom, and my assets unfrozen," I told him, shivering but resolute. Corbin looked at me with eyes like cold steel and offered a deal that felt more like a hostile takeover than a rescue. He would protect me, but only if I signed a contract that made me his wife and gave him total control over my life and his heir. I had escaped the wolves only to sell my soul to the devil, and as the car door clicked shut, I realized the war for my survival had only just begun.

The Unseen Scars of Love

The Unseen Scars of Love

Sci-fi

5.0

My mentor, Dr. Vance, dedicated her life to a sustainable energy project. But her sudden, aggressive illness, too fast to be natural, told me it was an attack. Powerful people wanted her work stopped. So, when she whispered to me to protect it, to not let them win, I made the hardest decision of my life. I reached for the plug on her life support machine, an act of mercy and protection. But just as my fingers closed around it, the door burst open. "Ava! What the hell are you doing?" It was Ethan, my husband, Dr. Vance's son. He saw my hand on the plug. He saw his mother, still and silent. He saw a murderer. Chloe Hayes, his childhood friend, rushed to his side. "Oh my God, Ethan! She's... she's killing your mother!" Her words sealed my fate. He shoved me, calling me a murderer. He slapped me, snarling, "You bitch." He became a monster, fueled by grief and Chloe's lies. He moved into the guest room, stopped speaking to me except to hurl insults. He drained our accounts, buying lavish gifts for Chloe. One night, drunk, he forced himself on me. A few weeks later, I was pregnant, a tiny, foolish hope. But Chloe's poisonous words ignited his rage. He shoved me. I fell, my stomach hitting the desk. The life inside me, gone. I was cleaning the rug he loved, hand bleeding, when Chloe twisted the story. He forced me to my knees, then watched, unmoved, as I scrubbed. Then, to destroy Eleanor's legacy, Chloe burned her notebooks, tearing them right in front of me. My birthday. Ethan stood on stage, Chloe by his side, her hand resting protectively on her stomach. "Chloe and I are getting engaged! And we're going to have a baby!" The public execution. My reputation systematically dismantled. I stood there, taking every lie, knowing if they all hated me, no one would look for me when I vanished. So, I disappeared. I didn't understand how he could twist reality so violently, how his grief had blinded him to the truth. Why, after everything, did he hate me so much? I shredded my identity. Ava Riley ceased to exist. I became Anya Sharma, the lead scientist of Project Legacy, ready to fulfill my promise and build a new life beyond the wreckage of the old.

When Love Finds Its Way Home

When Love Finds Its Way Home

Modern

5.0

The digital timer in my vision pulsed, counting down to my supposed obliteration-ten minutes until my existence was wiped clean. Three years ago, a car crash stole my parents, leaving me, then just nineteen, to raise my two stepsons, Ethan and Caleb. I' d given up my Olympic dreams to give them a stable home. I believed their promises, that we were a family, that they would always protect me. Then Chloe Davis walked in, an intern, all wide eyes and sweet smiles, a delicate charm bracelet glinting on her wrist. From that day, I became their personal scapegoat, my achievements overshadowed, my talent exploited, all to bolster Chloe' s image. Last week, a sabotaged client presentation, files deleted, backups corrupted, and Chloe was responsible. But Ethan, in the crowded boardroom, turned to me, his face a cold mask: "Sarah, this is your fault." Caleb chimed in, refusing to meet my eyes, "Chloe is new, she's still learning. You should know better." They didn' t even ask, just saw Chloe' s tears and blamed me. I swallowed the familiar, bitter humiliation, the weight of their betrayal a physical pressure on my lungs. But today, I chose to fail. "I' m not abandoning it. I' m choosing to fail," I whispered to the empty room. [Decision confirmed. Initiating protocol for mission failure. The consequences are irreversible. Host will be held fully responsible.] The system' s voice was calm, but the penalty was clear: my existence would be erased, my "Goodness Value" transferred to Chloe. Then, the office door burst open. Ethan and Caleb stormed in, accusing me of sabotaging Chloe again. Chloe appeared, tear-streaked and fragile, playing victim once more. "Sarah, find the contract. Now. And then you are going to go out there and apologize to Chloe in front of everyone for stressing her out." I knew this was my final task, a deep dive into humiliation before freedom. I had nowhere left to go. So I stepped forward.

You'll also like

The Surgeon's Vow: Healing My Billionaire Husband

The Surgeon's Vow: Healing My Billionaire Husband

Qing Shui
5.0

I sat in the gray, airless room of the New York State Department of Corrections, my knuckles white as the Warden delivered the news. "Parole denied." My father, Howard Sterling, had forged new evidence of financial crimes to keep me behind bars. He walked into the room, smelling of expensive cologne, and tossed a black folder onto the steel table. It was a marriage contract for Lucas Kensington, a billionaire currently lying in a vegetative state in the ICU. "Sign it. You walk out today." I laughed at the idea of being sold to a "corpse" until Howard slid a grainy photo toward me. It showed a toddler with a crescent-moon birthmark—the son Howard told me had died in an incubator five years ago. He smiled and told me the boy's safety depended entirely on my cooperation. I was thrust into the Kensington estate, where the family treated me like a "drowned rat." They dressed me in mothball-scented rags and mocked my status, unaware that I was monitoring their every move. I watched the cousin, Julian, openly waiting for Lucas to die to inherit the empire, while the doctors prepared to sign the death certificate. I didn't understand why my father would lie about my son’s death for years, or what kind of monsters would use a child as a bargaining chip. The injustice of it burned in my chest as I realized I was just a pawn in a game of old money and blood. As the monitors began to flatline and the family started to celebrate their inheritance, I locked the door and reached into the hem of my dress. I pulled out the sharpened silver wires I’d fashioned in the prison workshop. They thought they bought a submissive convict, but they actually invited "The Saint"—the world’s most dangerous underground surgeon—into their home. "Wake up, Lucas. You owe me a life." I wasn't there to be a bride; I was there to wake the dead and burn their empire to the ground.

My Alpha's Heartless Contract Wife

My Alpha's Heartless Contract Wife

Rabbit
5.0

"Anya, a 'wolfless' in a world of powerful werewolves, was invisible, drowning her sorrows and desperately lonely. One drunken text, a desperate cry for attention, accidentally reached the Alpha, pulling her into his terrifying orbit. Now, she's trapped, a pawn in his game, forced to warm his bed while he waits for his true mate, her heart breaking with every stolen moment. As a 'wolfless' in the Blackwood Pack, Anya felt like an outsider, always yearning for a connection. One night, in a drunken haze, a misdirected text meant for her best friend landed in Alpha Declan Blackwood's inbox: ""Send me something hot."" Minutes later, the most powerful, terrifying man in the Pack stood at her door, claiming her with a possessive kiss that ignited a dangerous, unwanted fire. The next morning, his cold indifference shattered her world. Publicly humiliated and instantly fired, Anya became a pariah. Her dying mother's urgent need for a million-dollar heart transplant left her with an impossible choice: accept the Alpha's cold, transactional marriage proposal or watch her mother die. She became his ""placeholder"" wife, a contract, not a partner, all while battling a confusing attraction to the man who treated her as property. Why did he demand her, only to remind her constantly of her worthlessness, especially when everyone knew he waited for his true mate? Her world crumbled when she overheard Declan tell his returning ""true mate,"" Kristin Larsen, that Anya was ""just a substitute."" Despite the crushing betrayal and a strange, unyielding pull, Anya, fueled by her mother's desperate need, vowed to survive this gilded cage and reclaim her life before she lost herself completely."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book