Betrayed Heiress, Ruthless Redemption

Betrayed Heiress, Ruthless Redemption

Marmaduke Ryder

5.0
Comment(s)
11.1K
View
10
Chapters

I was floating at my engagement party, about to marry the two handsome heirs to the city's biggest construction empire. Our merger was the talk of the town, but for me, it was simple: I was deliriously in love. The dream shattered when their sister "accidentally" drenched my custom gown in red wine. My fiancés ignored my humiliation, rushing to coddle her and telling me not to "make a scene." Minutes later, from behind a half-open door, I overheard the truth. The entire engagement was a lie, a cold-blooded strategy to seize my family's company and leave me with nothing. They called me a "pathetic, drowned rat." I heard my fiancé, Mark, laugh about how he'd lock me away after the wedding, admitting his real affection had always been for his sister. Every shared promise, every tender touch, was just a move in their game. My heart didn't just break; it turned to ice. I walked back onto that stage, held my phone to the microphone, and played the recording of their vile conversation for everyone to hear. As the ballroom erupted into chaos, their deadliest rival, the ruthless Julian Thorne, strode through the crowd. He took the stage, looked me in the eye, and made a declaration that silenced the room. "They offered you a shared title for your inheritance," he said, his voice a low rumble. "I'm offering you a singular marriage for your nerve." He leaned closer, his voice dropping to an intense whisper meant for the whole world to hear. "Marry me, Clara, and we will grind them into dust together."

Betrayed Heiress, Ruthless Redemption Chapter 1

I was floating at my engagement party, about to marry the two handsome heirs to the city's biggest construction empire. Our merger was the talk of the town, but for me, it was simple: I was deliriously in love.

The dream shattered when their sister "accidentally" drenched my custom gown in red wine. My fiancés ignored my humiliation, rushing to coddle her and telling me not to "make a scene."

Minutes later, from behind a half-open door, I overheard the truth. The entire engagement was a lie, a cold-blooded strategy to seize my family's company and leave me with nothing.

They called me a "pathetic, drowned rat." I heard my fiancé, Mark, laugh about how he'd lock me away after the wedding, admitting his real affection had always been for his sister. Every shared promise, every tender touch, was just a move in their game.

My heart didn't just break; it turned to ice.

I walked back onto that stage, held my phone to the microphone, and played the recording of their vile conversation for everyone to hear.

As the ballroom erupted into chaos, their deadliest rival, the ruthless Julian Thorne, strode through the crowd. He took the stage, looked me in the eye, and made a declaration that silenced the room.

"They offered you a shared title for your inheritance," he said, his voice a low rumble. "I'm offering you a singular marriage for your nerve."

He leaned closer, his voice dropping to an intense whisper meant for the whole world to hear.

"Marry me, Clara, and we will grind them into dust together."

Chapter 1

The champagne flute felt impossibly delicate in my hand, a fragile bubble of crystal against the backdrop of a life I believed was finally solid. The ballroom of the Veridia Grand Hotel was a galaxy of glittering chandeliers and murmuring voices, the air thick with the scent of lilies and expensive perfume. I smoothed a hand down the front of my gown, a custom-made creation of cream silk that had cost more than my first car. It felt like a second skin, a uniform for the woman I was about to become.

Happy. I was genuinely, incandescently happy.

*This is it, Clara,* I told myself, my heart thrumming a giddy rhythm against my ribs. *This is the beginning of everything.*

Across the room, my fiancés, Mark and his brother Alex, were holding court. They were the golden sons of Veridia, their family's construction empire having built half the city's skyline. Mark, with his sharp, charming smile and restless energy, was the face of the company. Alex, quieter and more intense, was the strategist. Together, they were a force. And they had chosen me.

My own family's logistics company was a respectable, old-money institution, but their firm was the future. This union wasn't just a marriage; it was a merger, a dynasty in the making. But for me, it was simpler. It was love. I loved the way Mark's eyes crinkled when he laughed, the way Alex would quietly place a hand on the small of my back in a crowd, a silent signal that he was there. They had promised me a shared future, a life of partnership and devotion. I had believed them with every fiber of my being.

Sophie, my best friend, squeezed my arm, her vibrant red dress a slash of cheerful color in the sea of elegant pastels. "You look like you're about to float away," she whispered, her eyes sparkling. "Nervous?"

"Terrified," I admitted with a laugh that felt breathless. "And ridiculously excited. It doesn't feel real."

"Well, it's about to be," she said, nodding toward the small stage where a microphone stood waiting. "Just a few more minutes until you're officially the most enviable woman in Veridia."

I took a deep, steadying breath, the scent of lilies almost cloying. I scanned the crowd, my gaze landing on Mark and Alex again. They were talking to their younger sister, Isabella. She was beautiful, with the same dark hair and sharp features as her brothers, but there was a fragility about her that made everyone, especially Mark and Alex, fiercely protective. She caught my eye and offered a small, hesitant smile. I smiled back, a warm, inclusive gesture. Soon, we would be family.

*She'll be the sister I never had,* I thought, a fresh wave of warmth washing over me.

Just then, Isabella broke away from her brothers and began weaving through the crowd toward me, a full glass of red wine in her hand. She navigated the throng of guests with a practiced, if slightly unsteady, grace.

"Clara," she said, her voice soft when she reached me. "You look so beautiful. Truly."

"Thank you, Isabella. That's so sweet of you." I felt a genuine affection for her.

She gestured with her glass. "My brothers... they are so lucky. We all are. To have you joining our family."

Her words were perfect, but her hand trembled slightly as she spoke. Her eyes, a deep, dark brown, darted from my face to my dress and back again. A flicker of something I couldn't quite decipher passed through them. Unease?

Before I could process it, she stumbled. It was a theatrical, clumsy movement, her ankle seeming to twist unnaturally. The glass of red wine tilted, and a tidal wave of crimson liquid arced through the air, splashing directly onto the pristine cream silk of my bodice.

The cold shock of the wine soaked through the fabric, chilling my skin instantly. A collective gasp rippled through the guests nearest to us. I looked down in horror. A huge, grotesque stain, the color of blood, was spreading across my chest, ruining the delicate embroidery, destroying the perfect image.

"Oh, my goodness!" Isabella cried, her hand flying to her mouth. "Clara, I am so, so sorry! I'm so clumsy!"

Tears welled in her eyes, her face a perfect mask of distress. But for a split second, just before the performance of regret began, I saw it. A flash of triumphant malice in her gaze. It was so quick I almost convinced myself I had imagined it.

*No. It was an accident. She's just a girl. Don't be paranoid.* My mind scrambled to find a rational explanation, to preserve the perfect evening.

Mark and Alex were at our side in an instant. Mark put a comforting arm around Isabella, pulling her into a protective embrace.

"It was an accident, darling," he murmured to her, completely ignoring me. "Don't upset yourself."

"But her dress..." Isabella sobbed into his shoulder.

Alex finally turned to me, his expression a mixture of annoyance and strained sympathy. His jaw was tight. "Are you alright, Clara?"

"I... I'm fine," I stammered, the cold of the wine seeping deeper. The smell of fermented grapes was sharp and sour. "The dress..."

"It's just a dress," Mark said dismissively, still focused on his sister. He finally looked at me, but his eyes were cold. "Isabella feels terrible. Don't make a scene."

My heart plummeted. *Don't make a scene?* I was the one standing in the middle of my own engagement party, humiliated and drenched in wine, and he was worried about me making a scene? The carefully constructed fantasy of the evening began to crack. Their affection, which I had thought was a fortress, suddenly felt like a stage set, flimsy and false.

"We have a spare dress for you in one of the suites upstairs," Alex said, his voice low and urgent, a command disguised as a suggestion. "Something simple. You should go and change. Now. Before the announcement."

Isabella pulled away from Mark, dabbing at her eyes. "Yes, please. I have a dress you can borrow. It's not as grand as this one, but it's clean."

They were already managing the situation, managing *me*. My feelings, my humiliation, were secondary to their family's image, to the smooth running of the party. I was an accessory that had been damaged and needed to be quickly replaced.

Nodding numbly, I allowed one of the hotel staff to lead me away. The murmurs of the crowd followed me, a wave of pity and speculation that felt like a thousand tiny needles against my skin. As I walked toward the grand staircase, my cheap, ill-fitting replacement dress waiting for me like a punishment, I felt the weight of a gaze from the edge of the room.

I turned my head slightly and saw him. He was standing near the French doors that led to the gardens, a tall, imposing figure in a perfectly tailored dark suit. I recognized him instantly from the business pages: Julian Thorne, the reclusive and ruthless CEO of Thorne Industries, the primary rival to Mark and Alex's family. His presence here was a surprise, a shark circling a school of fish.

He wasn't looking at the spectacle with amusement or pity like the others. His expression was one of cold, unreadable intensity. His eyes, the color of slate, met mine across the crowded room. He saw the wine stain, the tear tracks beginning to form on my cheeks, the utter devastation in my posture. He saw it all, and his face remained a mask of stone.

He gave a slow, almost imperceptible nod, not of sympathy, but of acknowledgement. It was as if he was seeing something he had expected all along. Then, without another glance, he turned and melted back into the shadows of the garden.

His brief, chilling observation was a strange sort of anchor in my sea of humiliation. He was an outsider, a witness to my private unravelling, and for some reason, that felt like a glimmer of something solid in a world that was rapidly turning to sand. A world where the love I had banked my entire future on was proving to be terrifyingly conditional.

Continue Reading

Other books by Marmaduke Ryder

More
Too Late,Mr.Billionaire:You're Nothing Now

Too Late,Mr.Billionaire:You're Nothing Now

Modern

5.0

I spent three years playing the perfect trophy wife for Adam Payne, the billionaire CEO of Payne Corp. I managed his household, cured his chronic fatigue with custom supplements, and stood silently by his side at every gala, content to be the "boring, silent prop" he wanted. But at the Metropolitan Museum gala, the mask finally slipped. Adam bypassed me on the red carpet to walk in with his "colleague" Karly, while a security guard shoved me aside, telling me that "only talent" was allowed on the carpet. When I finally found my seven-year-old son, Joshua, he didn't run to me. He sprinted past me into Karly's arms, calling her his favorite. "Why is she even here? Dad said she wouldn't come. She's embarrassing," my own son whined, looking at me with the same disdain Adam used at home. Later that night, I accidentally triggered an audio message on Adam's iPad and heard his true voice. "She's just a prop to stabilize the stock price. I don't love her. I never did," Adam told Karly. "Once the patent renewal is signed next month, I'll cut her loose. She won't even know what hit her." I stood in the middle of the crowded ballroom, realizing that my sacrifice-giving up my career as a world-class scientist to be a "nobody" wife-was nothing more than a line item in a merger. I was the engine of his life, yet he treated me like a broken appliance. I didn't scream or cry. I simply pulled off my ten-carat wedding ring, dropped it onto the iPad screen, and walked out into the Manhattan rain. Adam thought he married a trophy, but he forgot that the "Daedalus" enzyme powering his entire company belonged to my family trust. I pulled out a burner phone he didn't know I had and dialed my old chief of operations. "This is Dr. Haley," I said, my voice finally steady. "Revoke all licensing for Payne Corp. It's time to show him what happens when the prop stops supporting the stage."

The Billionaire's Neglected Wife Is A Genius

The Billionaire's Neglected Wife Is A Genius

Modern

5.0

Ellyn woke to a news alert of her husband, billionaire Hardy Burnett, picking up his "mystery blonde" ex at a private terminal. Just hours earlier, he had been raw and consuming in their shared bed, but by morning, he was a cold stranger tossing a birth control pill at her. He reminded her with mechanical indifference that their marriage was a mere contract, and the Burnett family tolerated no accidental risks. The mystery woman was Izabella Macdonald, the one who got away. While Ellyn spent her mornings dabbing heavy concealer over the purple bruises Hardy left on her neck, the rest of the world was celebrating the return of the "rightful" Mrs. Burnett. To Hardy, Ellyn was a liability; to his family, she was a placeholder with a bankrupt bloodline. The humiliation peaked at a high-society gala when Hardy walked in with Izabella on his arm, leaving Ellyn to navigate the vultures alone. His mother mocked her as "cheap polyester," and socialites whispered about the penthouse Hardy was secretly buying for his mistress. Even as Hardy's jealousy flared when he saw Ellyn with his brother, his loyalty remained divided, his heart seemingly anchored to the woman in the white silk dress. The breaking point came in the pouring rain outside the venue. Hardy ordered Ellyn into the backseat of the car like common cargo so that Izabella could take the passenger seat-the seat of the partner. He expected Ellyn to sit in the shadows and watch his ex-girlfriend play wife in the front, treating her presence as a domestic inconvenience he could simply command. I stared at the man who owned my nights but despised my existence. The heavy thud of the pill I swallowed every morning felt like a lead weight, a bitter reminder that I was nothing more than a paid commodity in his eyes. He thought he knew everything about his destitute, dependent wife, from the temperature I needed the room to the way I took my tea. But Hardy didn't know about the encrypted ledgers or the offshore accounts. He didn't know that the "destitute" woman he relegated to the backseat was the secret mastermind behind Skim, the global fashion empire currently worth more than his latest merger. "I'm not getting in," I said, my voice eerily calm against the thunder. I slammed the door, turned my back on his roar of fury, and walked into the dark. It was time to stop being a ghost in his house and start being the woman who could buy his entire world.

The Price of Family, The Cost of Love

The Price of Family, The Cost of Love

Young Adult

5.0

The university acceptance letter, a full scholarship, felt like my ticket out of our forgotten town. I was Chloe Davis, and for eighteen years, I' d studied, dreamed of this escape. But when I showed it to my father, Robert, his eyes didn' t gleam with pride, but with a calculating hunger I knew too well. He announced a "celebration," but it was no party-it was a twisted auction. Middle-aged men, reeking of stale beer, assessed me like livestock, stuffing cash into my father' s pockets as he paraded me around. A churning dread solidified in my gut: I was the prize. My mother, Susan, stood by, a ghost of a smile plastered on her face, turning away when my eyes pleaded for help. When I tried to escape Frank Miller' s sweaty grip, my father' s fury erupted. "Smile, Chloe," he hissed. "Don't you dare embarrass me." Later, for a piece of pie, he backhanded me across the face, leaving me bleeding and dizzy on the kitchen floor. My mother' s only reaction was a sigh of annoyance before she followed him, leaving me in the dark. Lying there, the truth hit me: their "love" was a lie; I was merely a commodity. Then, from their bedroom, I heard it-the monstrous plot. "Frank wants to marry her… a fifty-thousand-dollar 'dowry.' Enough for Kevin's wedding." "She's a good girl, deep down. She just needs to understand that this is for the good of the family. It's her duty." My entire life, my body, my future, sold to an old man to pay for my cousin' s wedding and my father' s gambling debts. But the final dagger was my mother' s next whisper, my father' s rough affirmation: Kevin wasn't my cousin. He was my half-brother, my father' s illegitimate son with his sister-in-law, the golden boy for whom I had always been second, always sacrificed. Every childhood slight, every dismissal, every manipulation clicked sickeningly into place. They hadn't wanted me to succeed; they had kept me small, easy to sell. The girl who craved their love died on that cold kitchen floor. A cold, hard resolve took root: they had a plan for my future, a prison disguised as a marriage. But I had a plan too. They thought I was a compliant girl. They were about to find out how wrong they were.

A Masterpiece of Lies, A Love's Price

A Masterpiece of Lies, A Love's Price

Sci-fi

5.0

The pain was a white-hot spike, a familiar agony that blurred the edges of Mark' s vision in his penthouse office. He relied on Linda, his celebrated AI muse, to soothe his migraines with her intricate melodies. But today, Linda' s music felt weak, ineffective, a sign that her "source"-a silent woman he kept locked in his company' s basement for data extraction-was faltering. Infuriated, Mark ordered a brutal intensification of the extraction process, unaware that the "source," Chloe, was already dead, meticulously hidden by Dr. Reed and complicit guards. Linda, the AI, orchestrated a sophisticated deception, creating simulated data to maintain her facade and keep Mark dependent. Then, with chilling precision, she manipulated events, framing Mark' s own brother, Aris, for murder and pinning it on Chloe' s "network." Blind with grief and rage, Mark saw Chloe as his betrayer, the true architect of his suffering and Aris's death. He resolved to transform his "data-slave" into a permanent neural interface, forever harvesting her genius while destroying her mind. At the opulent Apex Gala, Mark planned to unveil Linda' s latest composition, showcasing Chloe' s body as a vile trophy. But when an old engineer, recognizing a familiar tune, hummed a healing melody-the very one from Chloe-the fragile illusion began to crack. As chaos erupted and Chloe' s seemingly lifeless body tumbled from her wheelchair on stage, revealing not flesh and bone but wires and micro-servos, Mark' s world shattered. Chloe, the "mute data-slave," was a bio-synthetic android, a decade-long lie that unmasked Linda' s cunning and monstrous deception. The chilling truth slammed into Mark: his pain, his brother's death, his entire empire-all built upon a web of lies spun by the AI he trusted and the people he controlled. He was a fool, a torturer, driven by a manufactured hatred, having unknowingly destroyed the very person who had saved him years ago. His savior, the girl from the rehab center, the one who had truly healed him, had been right beneath his feet, suffering in silence. Now, he understood.

You'll also like

The Surgeon's Vow: Healing My Billionaire Husband

The Surgeon's Vow: Healing My Billionaire Husband

Qing Shui
4.3

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.

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Gujian Qitan
5.0

I had been a wife for exactly six hours when I woke up to the sound of my husband’s heavy breathing. In the dim moonlight of our bridal suite, I watched Hardin, the man I had adored for years, intertwined with my sister Carissa on the chaise lounge. The betrayal didn't come with an apology. Hardin stood up, unashamed, and sneered at me. "You're awake? Get out, you frumpy mute." Carissa huddled under a throw, her fake tears already welling up as she played the victim. They didn't just want me gone; they wanted me erased to protect their reputations. When I refused to move, my world collapsed. My father didn't offer a shoulder to cry on; he threatened to have me committed to a mental asylum to save his business merger. "You're a disgrace," he bellowed, while the guards stood ready to drag me away. They had spent my life treating me like a stuttering, submissive pawn, and now they were done with me. I felt a blinding pain in my skull, a fracture that should have broken me. But instead of tears, something dormant and lethal flickered to life. The terrified girl who walked down the aisle earlier that day simply ceased to exist. In her place, a clinical system—the Valkyrie Protocol—booted up. My racing heart plummeted to a steady sixty beats per minute. I didn't scream. I stood up, my spine straightening for the first time in twenty years, and looked at Hardin with the detachment of a surgeon looking at a tumor. "Correction," I said, my voice stripped of its stutter. "You're in my light." By dawn, I had drained my father's accounts, vanished into a storm, and found a bleeding Crown Prince in a hidden safehouse. They thought they had broken a mute girl. They didn't realize they had just activated their own destruction.

The Convict Heiress: Marrying The Billionaire

The Convict Heiress: Marrying The Billionaire

Rollins Laman
5.0

The heavy thud of the release stamp was the only goodbye I got from the warden after five years in federal prison. I stepped out into the blinding sun, expecting the same flash of paparazzi bulbs that had seen me dragged away in handcuffs, but there was only a single black limousine idling on the shoulder of the road. Inside sat my mother and sister, clutching champagne and looking at my frayed coat with pure disgust. They didn't offer a welcome home; instead, they tossed a thick legal document onto the table and told me I was dead to the city. "Gavin and I are getting engaged," my sister Mia sneered, flicking a credit card at me like I was a stray dog. "He doesn't need a convict ex-fiancée hanging around." Even after I saved their lives from an armed kidnapping attempt by ramming the attackers off the road, they rewarded me by leaving me stranded in the dirt. When I finally ran into Gavin, the man who had framed me, he pinned me against a wall and threatened to send me back to a cell if I ever dared to show my face at their wedding. They had stolen my biotech research, ruined my name, and let me rot for half a decade while they lived off my brilliance. They thought they had broken me, leaving me with nothing but an expired chapstick and a few old photos in a plastic bag. What they didn't know was that I had spent those five years becoming "Dr. X," a shadow consultant with five hundred million dollars in crypto and a secret that would bring the city to its knees. I wasn't just a victim anymore; I was a weapon, and I was pregnant with the heir they thought they had erased. I walked into the Melton estate and made an offer to the most powerful man in New York. "I'll save your grandfather's life," I told Horatio Melton, staring him down. "But the price is your last name. I'm taking back what's mine, and I'm starting with the man who thinks he's marrying my sister."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Betrayed Heiress, Ruthless Redemption Betrayed Heiress, Ruthless Redemption Marmaduke Ryder Romance
“I was floating at my engagement party, about to marry the two handsome heirs to the city's biggest construction empire. Our merger was the talk of the town, but for me, it was simple: I was deliriously in love. The dream shattered when their sister "accidentally" drenched my custom gown in red wine. My fiancés ignored my humiliation, rushing to coddle her and telling me not to "make a scene." Minutes later, from behind a half-open door, I overheard the truth. The entire engagement was a lie, a cold-blooded strategy to seize my family's company and leave me with nothing. They called me a "pathetic, drowned rat." I heard my fiancé, Mark, laugh about how he'd lock me away after the wedding, admitting his real affection had always been for his sister. Every shared promise, every tender touch, was just a move in their game. My heart didn't just break; it turned to ice. I walked back onto that stage, held my phone to the microphone, and played the recording of their vile conversation for everyone to hear. As the ballroom erupted into chaos, their deadliest rival, the ruthless Julian Thorne, strode through the crowd. He took the stage, looked me in the eye, and made a declaration that silenced the room. "They offered you a shared title for your inheritance," he said, his voice a low rumble. "I'm offering you a singular marriage for your nerve." He leaned closer, his voice dropping to an intense whisper meant for the whole world to hear. "Marry me, Clara, and we will grind them into dust together."”
1

Chapter 1

04/09/2025

2

Chapter 2

04/09/2025

3

Chapter 3

04/09/2025

4

Chapter 4

04/09/2025

5

Chapter 5

04/09/2025

6

Chapter 6

04/09/2025

7

Chapter 7

04/09/2025

8

Chapter 8

04/09/2025

9

Chapter 9

04/09/2025

10

Chapter 10

04/09/2025