The Jilted Heiress's Contract Marriage

“For ten years, Eleonora devoted herself to Julian Sterling, waiting for the day she would finally become his wife. But at the grand ball, just three months before their wedding, Julian walked in with her cousin Isabella on his arm. In front of the entire high society, he publicly broke their engagement, announcing he would marry Isabella instead. Worse, he arrogantly declared that Eleonora would become his "treasured mistress" so he could still use her massive dowry to fund his army. When she looked to her father for defense, Lord Reginald actually agreed. Her entire family-her father, her uncle, the elders-all demanded she accept this humiliating arrangement, eager to drain her mother's fortune to secure their own parasitic ambitions. Ten years of quiet devotion and her late mother's dying wish were trampled into the mud. She finally realized her family was nothing but a nest of greedy vipers, and they fully expected her to kneel and accept her utter ruin. But she refused to be their sacrificial lamb. Taking the secret ledgers of her vast inheritance, Eleonora walked straight into the fortress of the most ruthless and feared man in the empire. "I will fully equip three legions of your heavy cavalry." "In exchange, I require a title. I wish to become the Duchess of Vanderbilt."”