1 I built an empire from the ground up right alongside Henry. But just weeks before our wedding, he looked me in the eyes and confessed he had fallen in love with my younger sister. I agreed to break off the engagement, but on one condition: he had to help me seduce his biggest corporate rival, Collin Sterling. "Are you insane? You spent ten years chasing me, and now you are pulling this stunt just to get revenge?" Henry's handsome face twisted in disbelief. I lifted my chin, speaking out of pure, spiteful spite. "Collin is taller than you, and he is better looking. I stopped loving you a long time ago. Now, I want him!" Henry scoffed, looking at me like a toad trying to swallow a swan. "Everyone knows Collin Sterling is totally untouchable. No woman has ever managed to catch his eye." "That is exactly why you need to figure out a way to make it happen! If you help me get him, I will sign a legal agreement waiving all of my inheritance rights. I will hand over the multi-billion dollar family empire to you and my sister on a silver platter." I spun around, pretending to be utterly detached and cool. But the second my back was turned to him, hot tears flooded my eyes. Of course I knew my chances of actually landing Collin Sterling were absolute zero. I was just using this mutually assured destruction tactic to vent the agonizing, suffocating love I still felt for Henry. But I never, in a million years, expected Collin Sterling to step forward in front of a massive crowd, take my hand, and ask me, "What day are we getting married?" ... "This is my former fiancée, Cathy. She has a massive crush on you, Mr. Sterling." "She loves your movie-star looks. She loves your ruthless, decisive charm in the boardroom. She is deeply captivated by the mature elegance you have cultivated over the years..." Henry's jaw was clenched tight, his handsome face dark and stiff as he read the embarrassing love letter addressed to Collin. Henry had written the letter for me. The massive diamond necklace and designer gown I was wearing were all paid for with his black Amex. He had actually bailed on a multi-national board meeting just to drive me to the most exclusive, expensive restaurant in the city. He personally arranged this extravagant candlelight dinner, all to help me confess my "love" to Collin Sterling. Collin let out a low, icy laugh. "Is this some kind of April Fools' joke?" Henry's jaw muscle twitched. He tried his hardest to look completely unfazed. "I assure you, I am not joking. Cathy is genuinely interested in you, and I am simply acting as the middleman to help her." "You can leave now. Stop ruining my private evening with Collin." I dismissed Henry with a cold, dismissive wave of my hand, watching him turn and walk out into the pouring rain. His silhouette was lean, broad-shouldered, and striking. He looked even more mature and captivating than the day I met him ten years ago. Back then, he was just a broke college freshman working a summer internship at my father's conglomerate. He wore faded blue dress shirts. His eyes were clear, bright, and fiercely stubborn, and he worked harder than anyone else in the building. I saw his brilliant potential and his impeccable character. I personally pulled him out of the mud, guiding him step-by-step until that broke intern became the youngest Vice President in the company's history. "He says you are into me, but the way you are looking at him right now... it is painfully obvious you still love him," Collin commented, his voice flat and detached. His face was flawlessly handsome, his eyes impossibly deep and unreadable. He sat behind a thin veil of smoke rising from a burning stick of agarwood, looking like an untouchable god observing the mortal world. Right at that moment, through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, I saw Henry stop on the sidewalk below and look back up at our table. Without caring about my dignity or boundaries, I immediately stood up, walked around the table, and dropped directly onto Collin's lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him close so that from the street, it looked like we were intimately whispering against each other's lips. "I am so sorry, Collin. I had to lie and tell him I wanted to date you, because that was the only way I could get you in a room alone. My actual intention is purely business. I am begging you to drop Henry's project and invest your capital in me." I didn't know if it was just my imagination, but for a split second, a flash of deep disappointment seemed to cross Collin's eyes. "You do realize I am scheduled to sign a fifty-million-dollar investment deal with Henry's division next week, right?" Of course I knew! I was completely out of time. I frantically pulled a sleek leather binder from my bag and started rapid-firing my pitch, breaking down the stealth startup I had been building in secret. "...I have partnered directly with top PhD researchers at the university. Our proprietary tech is leagues ahead of whatever Henry's team is pitching. We have a one hundred percent viability rate for commercial scaling..." Collin slowly flipped through the pages, a faint, amused smirk touching the corner of his lips. "Everyone in the industry says you are a brainless girl obsessed with love. But this company you have built... it is incredibly solid." I let out a bitter, exhausted laugh. "My father is a massive misogynist. He doesn't have a son, and he would rather hand his entire empire over to his nephew than let me sit in the big chair." "Originally, I poured all my time and resources into grooming Henry. I honestly believed that once we got married, we would run the conglomerate together as a power couple. But then he had to go and fall in love with Claire. My father's bastard daughter from his mistress!" Collin looked at me, his expression perfectly calm. "The mistress you are referring to is now legally your father's wife. Claire is currently the beloved, golden child of your family. If Henry marries her, he gets the exact same keys to the kingdom." And that was the exact thing that made my blood boil with sheer, unadulterated rage! I poured my absolute heart and soul into building Henry up, and in the end, I was basically just polishing the crown for Claire. Years ago, Claire and her home-wrecking mother had aggressively barged into our lives. The stress and humiliation had triggered a massive heart attack that killed my mother. I hated them with every fiber of my being! Henry falling in love with Claire was the most vicious, agonizing betrayal I could possibly imagine. "I am going to destroy them. And right now, you are the only person on earth who can help me do it. Drop Henry. Invest in me." I stared at Collin, my eyes burning with desperate intensity. But his gaze remained chillingly detached. He firmly grabbed my waist and effortlessly lifted me off his lap, placing me onto the chair next to him. "I absolutely despise people who mix emotions with business. Come find me when you actually have your head on straight." 2 Collin stood up and gracefully exited the restaurant. I stumbled out of the private dining room and chased after him, only to be completely stunned to see Henry still standing in the freezing rain by the entrance. "I watched you literally throw yourself onto his lap, Cathy. I never realized you were this incredibly desperate and cheap!" His eyes looked like they were literally on fire. I let out a cold, sharp laugh. "What? Are you jealous? You stood down here freezing in the rain for an hour just to wait for me so you could insult me?" Before he could even open his mouth to reply, Claire's sickeningly sweet, high-pitched voice drifted out from the VIP club across the street. "Oh, Cathy, you are so confused! Henry was waiting for me. He wasn't waiting for you." She was wearing a skin-tight, sequined mini dress that highlighted every curve of her body, looking like a total knockout compared to my stiff, conservative business suit. Henry looked at her, his voice instantly softening into pure, sickening devotion. "Baby, aren't you freezing?" He quickly stripped off his expensive tailored overcoat and draped it over her bare shoulders. She pouted, leaning into him. "It isn't enough! I need my big strong Henry to warm up my hands." Henry immediately grabbed her hands, bringing them to his lips and gently blowing hot breath over her fingers. Once, while crying hysterically, I had begged him to explain why he fell for her instead of me. His answer? He said I was always so obsessed with working and grinding that I acted like a bitter, exhausted old man. He said that only a delicate, dramatic, high-maintenance girl like Claire could actually make him feel like he was in love. "I had a little too much champagne. Henry, you have to drive me home." Claire happily slid into the passenger seat of the bright red Ferrari idling by the curb. I flared with anger. "Get out of that car! Henry drove that car here to drop me off for my date with Collin, which means he is responsible for driving me home! And for the record, I was the one who bought that car for him years ago!" "Let Henry choose who he wants to drive," Claire pouted. As she leaned past me to close the door, she dropped her voice to a vicious, venomous whisper. "You lose again, you pathetic tomboy. You can throw all the money in the world at Henry, but you can't buy his love. And honestly? Even if you stripped naked and threw yourself at Collin Sterling, he still wouldn't touch you with a ten-foot pole." And just like she predicted, Henry chose her. He slid into the driver's seat, revved the engine, and peeled out into the night. Right at that exact second, three massive, heavily tattooed bouncers burst out of the club across the street. They grabbed me roughly by the hair and demanded payment for a massive bar tab. "Your little sister skipped out on her bill! She told us to come find you! Pay up right now, or else..." They flashed disgusting, predatory smiles, their filthy, heavy hands violently gripping my arms and shoulders. I immediately started screaming. "Let go of me! Henry! Help!" Henry's Ferrari hadn't made it very far down the street. I knew for an absolute fact that he could clearly see me being assaulted in his rearview mirror. But he didn't hit the brakes. He slowed down for a fraction of a second, and then aggressively stomped on the gas and disappeared. It was exactly like our relationship. He abandoned me without a second of hesitation. He chose Claire, my absolute worst enemy in the world, leaving me to cry myself to sleep and become the laughingstock of everyone who hated me. "Stop screaming. Why don't you come inside and play with us for a bit..." The bouncer's breath smelled like stale beer and vomit. He leaned his repulsive face aggressively close to mine, his greasy hands refusing to let go of my suit jacket. My patience completely shattered. I reached into my designer tote bag, pulled out the heavy, hard-cover leather binder holding my business plans, and started violently smashing it into their faces. The sharp edges of the heavy paper sliced into their skin. My sudden, explosive burst of adrenaline and pure rage forced them to stumble backward. When I finally turned around, panting and shaking, I saw Collin's matte black Rolls-Royce parked silently at the end of the block. The exact second I fought the bouncers off, the Rolls-Royce quietly pulled away and merged into traffic. He had sat there and watched the entire thing happen, and he actively chose to do absolutely nothing. A crushing wave of exhaustion and total defeat swallowed me whole. I finally accepted the brutal reality. I simply did not possess the kind of charm required to make a man like him fall for me. But I still desperately needed to use this fake "crush" as a Trojan horse to secure his venture capital. If I could just convince him to drop Henry and back my stealth startup, I could violently flip the board. I could crush Henry, crush Claire, and step directly on my father's neck. But I never expected my violent street brawl with the bouncers to be caught on camera by a bystander. The video was uploaded to Twitter, and within hours, it was trending at number one. #BillionaireHeiressGoesRabid, Allegedly Dumped By Fiancé# The tabloids were absolutely tearing into my history with Henry. They wrote dramatic articles about how the wealthy princess groomed the poor boy, only for the poor boy to strike it rich and dump her because she was a boring, washed-up hag... Smack! Henry slammed a massive stack of printed tabloid articles onto my desk. "The front pages, the trending hashtags, every single outlet is calling me a heartless, gold-digging bastard! Cathy, you know we are in the middle of a massive funding round to take the company public! Did you seriously pay PR firms to launch a smear campaign against me?!" I let out a loud, mocking laugh. "If you don't want people to call you a monster, maybe don't act like one. The tabloids are spot on. I bled myself dry for ten years to build you up. What exactly did you give me in return?" Henry knew he was entirely in the wrong, but his face remained perfectly cold and arrogant. "You asked me to help you seduce Collin, and I agreed. But he isn't interested in you. What exactly do you want me to do about it?" "It means you aren't trying hard enough! You need to step it up." I grabbed him by his expensive silk tie, aggressively pulling him down to my level. "At the spring charity auction tomorrow, I am going to buy him a gift. If I see something I want, I don't care if you have to bankrupt yourself bidding against the entire room, you are going to win it for me." 3 The charity auction was packed with the city's absolute elite. And Collin Sterling was there. He was seated high above the crowd, occupying the center VIP box on the second floor. I was sitting in the very front row, flanked by Henry and Claire. Because of my prime seat, I had a perfect view of the stage. And when the very first item was brought out, I completely froze. It was a piece of jewelry designed by my mother thirty years ago. "...The late Mrs. Cathy Senior was an internationally renowned master jeweler. Her early pieces are fiercely hoarded by global collectors. Tonight, we are incredibly honored to auction a vintage pair of her butterfly earrings..." I started bidding like an absolute madwoman. But every single time I raised my paddle, Claire instantly threw out a higher number, clearly doing it just to antagonize me. "Help me!" I shot a desperate glare at Henry. "You promised! You said you would bid until the room burned down to get me what I wanted!" Henry glanced nervously at Claire, who was looking at the earrings with greedy, obsessive eyes. He lowered his voice, rejecting me. "I promised to help you buy a gift for Collin. Do you really think Collin is going to wear vintage diamond earrings? Stop being ridiculous." I was burning with anxiety. Every single drop of liquid cash I had was tied up in running my secret startup. I didn't have the personal funds to survive a bidding war. In the end, Claire won the auction and took home my mother's masterpiece. "Ugh, the wings on this butterfly are way too big. I hate it." Claire pulled a pair of tiny cuticle scissors from her designer purse. Without a second of hesitation, she violently snipped the delicate, hollowed gold filigree. Two massive, flawless diamonds snapped off and rolled across the carpet. I jumped up, horrified. "Are you out of your mind?! That is a museum-quality piece! Why the hell did you destroy it?!" "I bought it with my own money. I can do whatever the hell I want with it." Claire giggled maliciously. She grabbed the remaining pieces of the earrings, violently bent the gold out of shape, and tossed the mangled metal onto the floor like garbage. Quiet, mocking laughter rippled through the surrounding rows. "Claire is doing that on purpose to put Cathy in her place." "Exactly. Cathy's mother stubbornly refused to divorce the old man, forcing Claire to grow up as a bastard child. Her mother was a notorious home-wrecker." "Well, Claire is the one on top now. Ask anyone in the city who the favorite daughter is, and they will tell you it's Claire. Word on the street is Henry is obsessed with her too. The second they get married, Cathy is going to be kicked out of the family empire permanently." "Cathy is so pathetic. She doesn't even have the cash to bid, so she just has to sit there and watch her dead mother's jewelry get turned into scrap..." My heart was bleeding out. I sat there, completely paralyzed, watching the masterpiece my mother had spent countless sleepless nights hand-crafting be reduced to absolute trash. Up on the stage, the auctioneer brought out a new item. "An early nineteenth-century Breguet tourbillon pocket watch. Bidding starts at one million..." From the second-floor VIP box, Collin threw out the very first bid, instantly raising the price to three million. It was obvious he actually wanted the watch. I immediately raised my paddle. Collin and I went back and forth, driving the price all the way up to twenty million. Sitting next to me, Henry's face was turning black with rage. Claire, completely oblivious to the arrangement, sneered at me. "Stop pretending to be a big shot. Do you even have the money to pay for that?" Just as Collin casually threw out a bid for thirty million, I stood up and screamed at the top of my lungs: "Whatever he bids, I will double it!" The entire ballroom erupted into chaotic gasps. No one could believe I had the kind of financial firepower to aggressively outbid Collin Sterling, the wealthiest man in the city. My next sentence pushed the absolute insanity of the room into overdrive. "Put it on Henry's tab. I am buying this watch for Collin." Jaws literally hit the floor. The entire crowd watched in stunned silence as I pulled Henry's matte black Amex from my purse, swiped it for the watch, and commanded the auction staff to hand-deliver it to Collin's VIP box on the second floor, along with a massive bouquet of red roses. By sunset, the story of me using Henry's money to aggressively court Collin Sterling had completely nuked the high society gossip channels. That evening, I was dressed to kill. But the second I stepped into the sprawling, marble-floored garage, Henry lunged out from the shadows and blocked my path. "Do you have any idea what people are calling me right now?! They are calling me the ultimate, pathetic cuckold! They say I am literally funding my fiancée's affair!" I gave him a slow, sideways glance. "It's still a massive upgrade from being called a heartless bastard. I just took the heat off you by making the entire city think I am the one cheating. Shouldn't you be on your knees thanking me?" Henry ground his teeth together, forcing out a cold, venomous sneer. "You spent thirty million dollars of my money. Did it actually work? Is he happy?" I unlocked my phone screen and lazily waved it in front of his face. "Take a look. Ten minutes ago, Collin sent me a text. 'Tonight. 8:00 PM. The Presidential Suite at the Grand Plaza Hotel.'" All the color violently drained from Henry's face. He looked like a corpse. I reached out and arrogantly patted him on the cheek. "What are you standing around for? Get in the driver's seat. You have to drop me off for my date with Collin." 4 I was absolutely convinced that Collin had been moved by my grand, thirty-million-dollar gesture. I had spent the afternoon putting together an incredibly aggressive, highly detailed business prospectus. I was going to convince him to fund my startup tonight. Sitting in the driver's seat, Henry kept violently shifting his eyes to the rearview mirror to glare at me. Suddenly, he snapped, "Why the hell did he pick the Grand Plaza Hotel?" I froze for a second. Then it hit me. The Grand Plaza was the exact hotel where Henry and I were supposed to hold our wedding reception. Our wedding date was scheduled for next Thursday. The invitations had already been mailed out. I had spent hundreds of thousands on artisan wedding favors and dropped over a million dollars customizing the ballroom decor. And right now, the groom was driving me to that exact hotel so I could sleep with another man. I let out a cold, empty laugh. "Why do you even care? The beach right under this overpass is where we had our first real date. Five years ago, I almost drowned trying to save those two kids who got pulled out by the riptide." "The paramedics literally pronounced me dead on the sand. But you refused to accept it. You did CPR and chest compressions until your hands were bleeding, and I actually came back to life." "When I opened my eyes, the very first thing I saw was you sobbing. I swore to myself right then and there that I would love you until the day I died..." Back then, Henry and I had literally survived death together. But talking about it now just left a disgusting, rotting taste in my mouth. "Whatever. It doesn't matter anymore. You forgot about it years ago. The rock we used to sit on has probably eroded into the ocean by now anyway." Henry had been dead silent. Suddenly, he violently slammed his foot onto the gas pedal. He whipped the steering wheel, launching the sports car off the highway exit and speeding directly toward the beach underneath the overpass. I panicked. "Are you insane?! I am going to be late! Take me to the hotel!" Henry's dark eyes were wild and unhinged. "Didn't you just say you wanted to visit the beach and take a walk down memory lane? If you didn't want to go, why the hell did you bring it up?!" The radio was blaring emergency weather alerts. A massive Category 4 hurricane was scheduled to make landfall in less than an hour. The authorities were begging people to stay off the roads. I screamed at him. I told him he was a complete psychopath for driving to the ocean in the middle of a hurricane. He drifted the car onto the wet sand, slammed it into park, and violently dragged me out of the passenger seat, demanding that we go look for the rock where we fell in love. The sky above the ocean was a suffocating, bruised purple. Massive, terrifying waves were crashing onto the shore. The hurricane sirens in the distance began to wail. "You're right! I am a psychopath! Why are you pulling these disgusting, twisted games just to trigger me?! When you told me to help you seduce Collin, I wanted to take a knife and gut him!" he roared over the sound of the wind. I sneered at him, my voice dripping with venom. "Stop acting! The only reason you agreed to help me is because I promised to sign away my inheritance rights!" "Your ultimate fantasy is for me to get permanently exiled from the family empire. You are just waiting for my father to drop dead so you and Claire can swallow the entire conglomerate..." "Shut up!" Henry's eyes were practically bulging out of his skull. He grabbed my face with both hands, pulling me so close I could feel his frantic, desperate breath on my lips. It felt like pure agony mixed with terrifying obsession. "You don't understand me at all. The truth is, I... I actually..." "You actually what?" For some reason, my heart started to race. Right at that exact second, his phone started ringing. The name Claire-Pad flashed brightly across the screen. Henry hesitated for barely a second before he answered the call. The heavy, intense, suffocating tension between us instantly evaporated into the freezing wind. I knew it. I knew this was exactly how it was going to play out. And the next thirty seconds were painfully predictable. Claire was crying, saying she was absolutely terrified of the thunder, demanding that Henry come over immediately to hold her. "You can't. Your job right now is to drop me off at Collin's hotel." I spoke loudly, making sure she could hear me. The second Claire heard my voice, she started sobbing hysterically. "Henry, I am so scared! Oh my god, I just fell down! I think my leg is broken! Henry, you have to come take me to the emergency room, please..." Her acting was offensively terrible. But Henry bought it instantly. He turned toward the car, preparing to speed off to her apartment. "What about me?! Collin is waiting! How the hell am I supposed to catch a cab out here in a literal hurricane?!" I screamed at him, furious. Henry stopped and looked me dead in the eyes. His voice was completely serious. "I am done playing this pathetic game with you, Cathy. You are never going to get Collin." "The women who throw themselves at him are A-list celebrities, Miss Universe winners, foreign royalty... Cathy, you don't stand a chance in hell. You are a complete zero to him." "Besides, the only reason you are doing this is to make me angry, right? Congratulations, you did it. Now drop it. I am absolutely not letting you see Collin tonight." He gave me one final, dark look. And then, he actually abandoned me on the beach. He got into the Ferrari and sped off to save Claire's "broken leg." The hurricane was moving in incredibly fast. The freezing wind sliced through my thin silk dress, chilling me to the bone. My heart turned to pure, dead ash. From this moment forward, the only emotion I would ever feel for Henry was absolute, unadulterated hatred. The wind was deafening. If I stayed on the beach, I was going to die. But the gale-force winds were so strong I couldn't even stand up straight. I couldn't move a single inch. Just as I accepted that I was going to freeze to death on the sand, a massive, black helicopter cut through the storm, flying aggressively against the hurricane-force winds directly toward me. It looked like a tiny, violently shaking boat in a massive tsunami. Terrifying, but incredibly resolute. The side door slid open. A man leaned out and extended his hand toward me. The violent wind whipped his hair around, but I could clearly see his striking, elegant features and piercing eyes. It was Collin Sterling. He looked down at me and said, "I accept your offer. Now get in."
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