The Billionaire Heiress's Unforeseen Marriage

TESS WHITE

Billionaires | Completed

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I am the sole heiress to a Texas oil empire. To protect me, my father adopted seven boys who were meant to be my future, and I was in love with their leader, Jax, my intended fiancé. But it was all a lie. I overheard them confess they were only playing along to secure my fortune for Daisy-Mae, the girl Jax truly loved. The humiliation was relentless. Daisy-Mae orchestrated a cattle stampede at our annual rodeo, nearly getting me killed, and Jax saved her first. He publicly shamed me at a charity gala, stealing my family's honor and a hospital wing dedication for her after freezing my funds. The final blow came at my birthday party, where a doctored video was broadcast to hundreds of guests, painting me as a violent, unhinged monster and her as the innocent victim. He did it all for her. Even when I was about to expose Daisy-Mae's plot, he confessed to her crimes to protect her, then offered to marry me as a bribe to buy my silence. He thought he still had power over me. But in front of everyone, I looked him in the eye and delivered the killing blow. "I stopped loving you a long time ago, Jax." Then I turned to the one man who had defended me, Sterling Prescott, and announced, "The man I'm going to marry is him."

Betrayal Revenge Drama Billionaires Kickass Heroine

Chapter 16

01-06 21:39

Chapter 1

I am the sole heiress to a Texas oil empire. To protect me, my father adopted seven boys who were meant to be my future, and I was in love with their leader, Jax, my intended fiancé.

But it was all a lie. I overheard them confess they were only playing along to secure my fortune for Daisy-Mae, the girl Jax truly loved.

The humiliation was relentless. Daisy-Mae orchestrated a cattle stampede at our annual rodeo, nearly getting me killed, and Jax saved her first. He publicly shamed me at a charity gala, stealing my family's honor and a hospital wing dedication for her after freezing my funds.

The final blow came at my birthday party, where a doctored video was broadcast to hundreds of guests, painting me as a violent, unhinged monster and her as the innocent victim.

He did it all for her. Even when I was about to expose Daisy-Mae's plot, he confessed to her crimes to protect her, then offered to marry me as a bribe to buy my silence.

He thought he still had power over me.

But in front of everyone, I looked him in the eye and delivered the killing blow.

"I stopped loving you a long time ago, Jax."

Then I turned to the one man who had defended me, Sterling Prescott, and announced, "The man I'm going to marry is him."

Chapter 1

Scarlett POV:

"Dad, I've decided. I'm going to marry Sterling Prescott."

The words hung in the air of my father's study, thick and heavy as the Texas heat. The scent of old leather and his expensive cigar filled my lungs, a smell that had always meant safety. Now, it just felt suffocating.

Cormac O'Connell put down his crystal glass of whiskey, the ice clinking softly. His weathered face, carved from years of commanding the Golden Thorn Ranch and a vast oil empire, was a mask of confusion. "Scarlett, honey, what are you talking about? You love Jax. You've loved him since you were a girl."

He gestured vaguely towards the window, as if the seven men he'd adopted for me were standing right outside. "And if not Jax, there are six others out there who would walk through fire for you."

A bitter laugh almost escaped my lips. Walk through fire? They wouldn't even walk across the yard for me unless it served their own purpose.

My mind flashed back to last night. The memory was a shard of glass in my gut. I'd been heading to the stables to see my horse, Midnight, when I heard their voices drifting from the open window of the cowboys' bunkhouse. Laughter, low and cruel.

Wyatt Miller's voice was the clearest. "She's such a fool. Still thinks I jumped from the hayloft that time to impress her." He snorted. "I was just trying to scare her off so she'd stop following me around like a lost puppy."

Another voice, Colt's, chimed in. "Works like a charm. Just act like the biggest jerk you can be. She hates loud music, so I blast it. She hates dirt in the house, so I track it in. The more she hates me, the better. It keeps things fair for the rest of us."

Fair. The word twisted inside me.

"Fair for what?" I had whispered, my hand pressed against the rough wood of the bunkhouse wall.

"For Daisy-Mae," someone else said, and the tone shifted. "She's the only one who actually sees us, you know? Not just what we can do for the ranch. Jax is the only one not playing the game. He has to marry the princess so our sweet Daisy-Mae can keep her place here. Poor bastard."

The pieces of my life, the ones I thought were a beautiful mosaic of love and family, shattered into a million ugly fragments. Years ago, grieving my mother, my father adopted seven promising boys from foster care. They were meant to be my protectors, my future, the heirs to my empire. Jax Braxton, the smartest and wildest, insisted they also adopt his "sister," Daisy-Mae, the girl who'd been with him through it all.

All those years, every time I felt a spark of jealousy towards Daisy-Mae, they had ganged up on me, calling me petty and spoiled. They'd made me believe I was the problem. They had gaslighted me into thinking their coldness was a challenge, their indifference a test of my love.

A noise from the garden had pulled me from my frozen shock last night. I followed it, my heart a leaden weight in my chest, towards the old stables. And there, silhouetted against the pale moonlight, was a sight that burned itself onto the back of my eyes.

Jax had Daisy-Mae pinned against the stable wall, his hands tangled in her blonde hair, kissing her with a desperate, consuming passion I had only ever dreamed of receiving.

I heard his voice, a low growl meant only for her. "Even if I have to marry her, you know you're the only one for me. She'll get a ring and a title. But my heart, my love... that will always be yours. I'll never give her any of it."