Madeline is the black sheep of the family. Her father hated her since the day she was born because the day she was born, her mother died. Her father is to call her a murderer. Her biggest dream was to become the best chef in town, and when she went to culinary school, she returned with the hope of being a chef in her father's restaurant. However, her father made her marry her high school crush. The marriage did not last six months when his first love returned. Kicked out of the house with nowhere to go. She went to her father's house, but he kicked her out, making her sleep in her car that night. Little did she know that her fortunes would change the next day. Her grandfather gave her inheritance. Enough to start her restaurant. However, she went up at night and celebrated with her friend. She hooked up with one of her brothers and her ex-husband's friend. And he did not know that she was already divorced. They were both drunk and had sex. But he told her he is furious with her for sleeping with him while married to his friend. He told her never to contact him again, and she never did, although she walked out of that relationship with a package. Now, seven years later, she is returning home. her family and ex-in-laws' biggest enemy in the restaurant business, and she is her to take revenge! She is here to bankrupt them and tell them GAME OVER!
View MoreMadeline's POV
I stand in front of the window of my office. I look over this city. The sun is busy setting. I love this city. It was my home for seven years. That is how long it took me to build up a restaurant group. We specialise in making pasties, and our desserts are genuinely exceptional. The last seven years were not easy for me. However, my life was not easy overall. Ever since I was a child, I was born into hatred. The day I was born, my mother died, and my father could never forgive me. Sean, my brother, who is a year older than I, is everything to him. I was only a disappointment to my father. Not only did I murder my mother, according to my father. I begged my father to send me to culinary school. And he did it to get rid of me and get me out of the house. My father was the head of the biggest restaurant group, and his only competition was the Micheals' family. The restaurant groups were called Bella and Rosa. Both were named after the wives of the CEOs. When I returned home from culinary school. I wanted to become the head chef in one of my father's restaurants. I wanted to be a pastry chef in one of the Bella coffee shops.
My father promised me that I could become a chef if I married Roman Michaels. The marriage will combine the two restaurant groups, and they will no longer compete with each other. I did as my father asked, but it was all lies! Roman never wanted to marry me. He never loved me. Roman was always in love with Celest, his high school sweetheart. After marrying Roman, I wanted to go and work as a chef, but my father informed me that I would be a housewife and a good wife to Roman. For six months, Roman treated me like a maid. After six months, he came home one day, and I was surprised to see him home during the middle of the day. He told me that it is over. He wanted a divorce. He and his lawyers forced me to sign all the papers and everything, leaving me with nothing. I had nowhere to go, and I did not even have a penny in my pocket. I went home, but my father chased me away, telling me that I was not even good enough to keep my husband. Of course, he did not care that Michael and I were divorced. My father got what he wanted. The new restaurant group was called Bella Rosa. Sean and Roman were running it.
I still remember that night. It was the worst day of my life. I had nowhere to go. So, I slept in my car. Crying and cold, lying in the back seat of my car. I didn't know what the next day would bring. I did not know that my fortune was going to turn the next day. I woke up the next morning, went to a public restroom and washed myself as well as I could. I put on new clothing and was about to go and ask for a job at a fast food restaurant when my phone rang. It was my grandfather's lawyers. They asked me to come to their office. I was curious because my father had always been searching for my grandfather's will. He could never find it, and he could never lay his hands on the money. My grandfather was quite wealthy. I went into their office, and the lawyer told them that I am the only heir to my grandfather's fortune. That is where my luck changed. Well, there was one minor incident that I would rather not think about. However, this is my story, and I have to think about it.
Mary, my best friend, and I got drunk that night. We were celebrating my good fortune. That is where I met Logan Stevens again after not seeing him since school. He is about two years older than I. He is also one of my brother's friends and a billionaire playboy. Well, we ended up in bed that night. I don't know how it happened, as I don't remember much of that night. However, I remember the following morning when he kicked me out of his apartment and told me never to bother him again, because he was furious that I could sleep with him while I was married to one of his best friends.
I tried to explain to him that I was divorced, but he did not want to listen to me and told me to get lost. Not many people knew I had divorced Roman at that stage. I did not care about Logan. He could go to hell for all I care. He even accused me of being a gold digger and that I slept with him because he was wealthier than Roman, and I must be looking for a richer man. He told me to never come near him or bother him again. Aside from being a little ashamed about what happened the night before, I had nothing to be embarrassed about, and if he asked me, I would have told him I do not want his money as I have money of my own. I told him to go to hell and walked out of his life for good. I did not know that I was walking out of the room with a package that morning. Nine months later, my babies were born, Connor and Carmen. I never bothered their father, as he had asked me not to. I was a virgin. Roman never touched me because he was never in love with me. And the only woman he wanted was Celest.
Now it is seven years later, and my children are six years old. I am returning to New York. I am ready to play the games that people play when competing against each other in business. I can only smile because I feel proud. My restaurant here in Houston has been awarded three Michelin Stars. Something my father always wanted, but could never get. I am Bella Rosa's biggest competition, and they cannot compete with me because they are so outdated. I am ready to take revenge. After all, the saying goes that revenge is a dish served cold.
Third person’s POVThe door to the classroom clicks softly behind Owen, leaving the faint trace of his cologne and that bitter, smoky smell from the cigar he must have been hiding somewhere lingering in the air. For a moment, it feels like the room has paused, the usual chatter of the classroom fading into a kind of muted quiet. But the quiet doesn’t last, because Connor and Carmen both know better than to trust something that seems too convenient, too shiny, too friendly. Carmen folds her arms across her chest, her little jaw tight, her eyes narrowing as she studies the space where Owen had been moments ago.“Connor… he’s not really nice, is he?” Carmen asks, her voice low so the teacher won’t hear, though she doesn’t bother to hide the suspicion in her tone.Connor shake his head slowly, glancing down at the pile of toys he left behind. A small stuffed bear, a brightly coloured puzzle, a box of candy neatly wrapped in plastic, all of it innocent enough to the adults around them. But
Owen’s POVI park the car a short distance from the school, letting the engine idle as I watch the grounds through the tinted windows. The morning sun glints off the playground equipment, children running and laughing without a care, their voices carrying across the neatly trimmed lawns. A faint thrill curls in my chest as I remind myself why I’m here. These are my grandchildren, and though they do not know it, the key to reclaiming what has been stolen lies in their small, unsuspecting hands.I straighten my tie, exhaling smoke from the cigar tucked behind my ear, and step out, letting my movements appear unthreatening but deliberate, confident. The teachers glance up, nodding politely as I approach the front entrance. They know me, Owen O’Connor, father of Madeline, grandfather by blood, but they do not know the full measure of my intentions. They have no reason to. Appearances are everything.I enter the school with a warm, practised smile, holding a small bag of sweets and two car
Logan’s POVThe estate is quiet in that deceptive way that makes you think the world has paused, when in reality it’s just gathering its chaos for later. I step into the training room, Maddie at my side, both of us eyeing Connor and Carmen as they bounce on the balls of their feet, clearly trying to look tougher than they feel“Alright, today we’re going to work on awareness, reflexes, and protecting yourselves. And before either of you says anything, yes, this is necessary, yes, Mommy has you train with some of the best martial arts teachers, some of this already, but I will teach you other tactics… I expect you not to kick me in the shins. No dirty play,” I say. Carmen smirks.“I promise I’ll try not to, but I make no guarantees if you move too fast, Daddy,” Carmen says. Her eyes are twinkling. Connor leans against the wall, mock-rolling his eyes.“Yeah, I do not need to play dirty. I know how to fight,” Conner says, full of himself and his abilities. Maddie, arms crossed and lean
Owen’s POVI lean back in the worn leather chair, the faint scent of tobacco curling around me from the cigar I’ve just lit, watching Sean and Roman across the table with an expression that masks the full extent of my satisfaction. They don’t yet understand how much we have the upper hand, but they will, soon enough. Their excitement is palpable, the kind of thrill that comes from knowing that you’re about to take something that doesn’t belong to you but feeling entirely justified in doing so. Maddie has made this too easy. She walks around like she owns the world, showing off the twins, holding Logan Rossi’s hand.“They think they’re untouchable, don’t they? Maddie parades those children around in public as if the world could never reach them. As if Rossi would actually do something if anyone tried. They’ve made themselves careless, and that carelessness is going to be their downfall. Connor and Carmen are everything we need, the leverage we’ve been waiting for, and when we have them
Logan’s POVThe decision comes quietly but with the weight of inevitability, as though Maddie and I have both been circling it for days, waiting for the courage to say it aloud. We cannot keep the twins hidden behind estate walls forever. Connor and Carmen need a school, a place where they can learn and grow without being smothered by security or headlines. When I tell Maddie this over coffee, she doesn’t argue. She only presses her fingers to mine, her eyes flicking toward the children playing in the garden, and I know she has reached the same conclusion. We tell the twins together. I expect reluctance, maybe even tears, but instead they brighten with excitement, chattering about classrooms and new friends. Connor asks if he can sit by Carmen at lunch. Carmen spins in her new skirt when Maddie shows it to her. Watching them, I feel that ache in my chest again, the sharp mix of pride and fear. They deserve the world, and it’s my duty to keep it safe for them.The morning of their firs
Michelle’s POVThe apartment is silent except for the television, though inside me the silence has already curdled into something dangerous, something restless and unwilling to remain passive, because I am not the type of woman who folds beneath headlines or watches her life be rewritten by another woman’s ring, and as I stand before the floor-to-ceiling windows, the glittering skyline sprawled out beneath me like a jeweled battlefield, I know that the first strike must come from me, deliberate and devastating, because if there is one thing I have mastered in this life it is the manipulation of a story, the shaping of an image, and the ability to turn desire into inevitability with nothing more than a smile angled at the right camera.My phone vibrates on the marble counter, the screen lighting up with a notification from one of the tabloids I allow to orbit me like moths around a flame, and before I even swipe it open I know what it will say, the headlines practically writing themsel
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