My Uncle Owns Everything You Stole

My mother had said that whichever son got into a top university would inherit the company. I got my acceptance to Harvard, exactly as I'd hoped, and she kept her word: the company would be mine.

But the moment I went to sign my name as heir, the big screen above the banquet stage lit up with footage of me selling company secrets to our biggest rival.

The whole room erupted. One mouth against hundreds. I never stood a chance.

My fiancée, her face flushed with fury, dragged me out and demanded an explanation.

By the time my friend showed up to clear my name, proving the video was an AI fake, my mother had already lost her temper and named her adopted son as heir instead.

My father let out a sigh.

"There's nothing I can do. Once the heir's name is written down, it can't be changed, or I'll never be able to keep the staff in line."

I clenched my fists so hard they ached, then turned and walked out.

After that I stopped speaking to my mother, and she took it so hard she fell ill.

I couldn't bear to see her like that. I'd made up my mind to forgive her. Then, standing outside her hospital room, I heard:

"You clever woman. There's no beating experience."

My mother laughed softly. "Neal Lambert isn't as sharp as Myron Delgado. Even without the company, Myron got into Harvard, he'll never end up badly. But Neal can't get into a top school, and if he doesn't have the inheritance too, people will walk all over him."

"And we have Phyllis to thank for this. Without her help, we could never have used that AI video to smear Myron and give Neal his opening."

1

Standing in that doorway, I felt the blood in my body turn to ice.

My mind went blank. All that was left was her voice, playing over and over in my ears like a curse.

And the people inside weren't finished. There was something crueler still to come.

"Oh, right, you haven't told Neal yet, have you?"

"Told him what?"

"The Harding daughter only marries the Delgado heir. The inheritance is Neal's now, so it only follows that Phyllis Harding marries my Neal."

My mother went quiet for a moment. She seemed to have forgotten about that part.

Something flickered across her face, a trace of guilt, of wanting to make it up to me.

The last time had been a misunderstanding, one that left me slandered and stripped of everything I was owed.

So this time, I told myself, there was no way she would deal me another killing blow. She would want to make it right.

After all, before my father died, he had gripped her hand and made her promise to take care of me, to never let the eldest son of the Delgado family be cheated of what was his.

I stood there, heart in my throat, praying she wouldn't stray off course again.

But then Neal shook her by the arm.

"Mom, there's actually something I never told you. Phyllis and I have already been together. It's done."

I went rigid. It hit me like a bolt of lightning and left me frozen.

My mother stared at Neal, wide-eyed.

"What are you saying?"

"Doesn't Phyllis have feelings for Myron? And they've been engaged for so long now..."

"Mom, please, just calm down and listen."

"The truth is, Phyllis loves me. It's only that the elders forced her to marry my big brother, and it hurt her so much she had no choice but to go along with what the family arranged."

"We've been in love for a long time, and we couldn't have each other. You two, of all people, should understand how that feels."

"It's not that we did something to wrong my brother. It's that he threw his weight around as the eldest Delgado son, pushing me down at every turn, forcing Phyllis to marry him."

I forced Phyllis to marry me? I forced her? At that, my mother's anger drained away and turned to pity.

"If that's really how it was, then Myron has gone too far. How could he treat my son like this?"

Father and son fell into each other's arms and wept.

My mother sighed and picked up the phone, calling Phyllis over to explain herself.

I wanted to hear it too, with my own ears, how Phyllis would describe me behind my back.

It wasn't long before she arrived. I ducked out of sight fast.

She was wearing the dress I'd given her the night of her eighteenth birthday.

If she didn't love me, why still wear it? I didn't understand her. I couldn't make sense of a thing she did.