After You Broke Me, I Became the Billionaire's Bride

The fake heiress had always loved her little "pranks."

At my wedding, she swapped my bridal bouquet for funeral chrysanthemums and replaced my diamond ring with a soda-can tab.

My expression went cold on the spot, and I decided to call the police.

But my fiancé, Otto Sanchez, caught my hand and murmured low enough that only I could hear.

“She's just being childish. She doesn't know any better.”

Maria Henson didn't even flinch. She tilted her chin up, a smirk playing at her lips.

“It was just a joke. Can't you take a joke?”

“When Otto and I were sharing the same bed, you were still rotting in some slum somewhere!”

That was the seventh time my wedding had been ruined.

Two weeks later, confidential case files from a high-profile murder I was handling were leaked online.

The internet erupted. People called me shameless, accused me of selling out victims for money.

And all of it, once again, was just another one of her bored little “pranks.”

“Otto, if you cover for her again this time, we're done.”

But his voice stayed level, almost bored.

“Maria's just being playful. She doesn't mean any harm.”

“She just resents you for taking everything from her. Would it kill you to give a little?”

Something bitter climbed up my throat and lodged there.

This time, I shoved him away and dialed 911 without a second's hesitation.

You're wrong. Why should I give an inch?

Everything the Henson family had was mine to begin with.

And as for you, Otto, I would leave you behind in Harbor City along with every scrap of the seven years I wasted loving you.

……

1.

Inside the station, a settlement agreement sat on the table in front of me. I looked at it and said three words.

“I won't sign.”

Maria lunged forward and shoved me, her voice shrill enough to echo off the walls.

“It was just a prank! Do you seriously have to make this big a deal out of it?!”

“Ann Henson, is it because nobody loves you, so you have to make yourself feel important by coming after me?!”

My heart seized.

Otto watched me, his eyes unreadable.

He caught Maria's arm and spoke low.

“Maria, enough. This time you were in the wrong.”

That only made her louder.

“What did I do wrong?! She's the one who stole everything from me! She's the reason we can't be together!”

I turned my gaze to Otto. The light in my eyes had gone out.

Seven years, and in the end, I was the villain who tore the lovebirds apart.

The station doors swung open. A man strode into the lobby and cracked his palm across my face so hard my neck snapped sideways.

“Ann Henson, have you lost your mind?! Dragging your own sister to a police station!”

“She doesn't know better, but what's your excuse?!”

I pressed my hand to my stinging cheek, the ache settling somewhere far deeper than skin.

He wasn't a stranger. He was my biological father, and he treated me like one anyway.

I was abducted when I was five. He brought Maria home, raised her as his own daughter, and never once came looking for me.

It wasn't until I was twenty, working a shift at a restaurant, that I ran into my mother by pure chance and we finally found each other again.

In all the years since, Adam Swanson hadn't sent Maria away. Instead, he gave her a fake identity as my twin, and time after time, he treated me like a thorn in his side. I could never understand him.

“Dad, I want to ask you something. What if her 'not knowing better' gets me killed one day?”

There were tabloid reporters swarming the entrance right now. They had eyes. They could see the truth. And still, every single person in this room chose her side.

Adam Swanson said nothing. The fury on his face didn't waver.

The officer looked between us and spoke again.

“Ms. Henson, so you're deciding to press charges?”

“Yes.”

Otto grabbed my arm the instant the word left my mouth, his grip hard enough to bruise.

“Ann! You can't press charges. It'll destroy her!”

Adam Swanson slammed his cane against the floor.

“Ann Henson, what do you think you're saying?!”

I lowered my gaze and said nothing.

Then Maria's voice broke through, wailing.

“Otto, my chest hurts! It's my heart again, I know it is! Take me to the hospital, please! I don't want to stay here!”

Otto let go of me and rushed to her side, scooping her up in his arms.

I stepped forward. This was the last time I would try to hold on to him.

“Otto, if you walk out that door with her, we're getting a divorce.”

He glanced back, brow furrowed.

“Come on, Ann. Now is not the time for this.”

“You know Maria has a heart condition. Stop making a scene.”

Whether Maria actually had a heart condition, I couldn't say. But I knew this was how it always went.

Whenever Otto and I had a date, she'd clutch her chest and force him to come running back.

On my birthday, she'd call from a hospital bed and pull him away.

He never once said no. Maybe what passed between us had never really been love at all.

I stood frozen in place, unable to move, unable to think.

Adam Swanson walked over and stopped beside me. He was smiling.

“That boy Otto has been close with Maria since they were kids. If you hadn't come back, nobody would've had to break them up.”

“Ann, sometimes playing dumb is the easier way to live.”

Everyone kept saying I was the one who tore them apart. But what Otto and I had was real. I fell for him first, and I loved him with everything in me.

Even if I'd never returned to the Henson family, he and I should have lasted.

I finished the paperwork, stepped out of the station, and a wave of dizziness crashed over me. The world went black.

I hit the ground, and the last thing I heard was the sound of someone screaming.

“Ms. Henson!”