The Charity Case's Crown

“The whiskey glasses clinked, and the air hung thick with cigar smoke at Ethan' s bachelor party. I was just bringing in another round, playing the supportive girlfriend I' d always been for the man I loved since high school. Then I heard my name. "Anya? She' s an artist. No family, no connections. Marrying her would be a liability for the firm." He laughed. "Besides, after all these years, who else would want her? She' s practically a charity case my family took in. She' s not going anywhere." The crystal tray in my hands shattered on the marble floor, but no one bothered to look up from their celebratory drinks and laughter. He even had the audacity to crawl into my bed that night, reeking of alcohol, whispering about keeping me as his "secret girl" after he married his fiancée. Marry his fiancée, Chloe, for a business merger to save his family. Then he actually asked me to be his mistress, offering me a life of comfort as if that erased the disrespect. "Ungrateful," he spat, calling me "an orphan with nothing" when I refused. My heart shattered, then hardened. How could I have been so blind, so stupid, to trade everything for someone who saw me as a pet, a liability, a charity case? The next day, as I stood by the bench where we' d carved our initials, I saw him and Chloe, his new initials gouged over mine. My love, my future, my very identity... all erased by him. But on that very day, receiving a call from a billionaire I' d once shown a small kindness to, I turned away from the Hamilton mansion for good. It was time to show them what this "charity case" could become.”