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Chapter 3

Author: Chelsea
"Married?"

Nathan repeated the word slowly.

Vanessa's head snapped toward me too.

"Who?"

I picked up my wine glass and said calmly, "The deadweight you were talking about a minute ago. Julian Cross."

Nathan's face darkened immediately.

"Is this a joke?"

"It isn't.

"Three days ago, while you and Vanessa were getting married, I was signing my own paperwork."

Nathan stared me down.

"That day, you said you'd accepted someone's proposal. You meant Julian?!"

"I did."

He shoved his chair back and stood.

"Evelyn, how long have you even known him?"

I took a slow sip. The wine was very good.

"Long enough to decide to marry him."

Vanessa drew in a breath.

"But Julian isn't..."

She let it hang.

"Everyone says the injury was bad, and the Cross family hasn't let him near its core business in two years."

I turned to her.

"Is that why you turned down the arranged marriage?"

Her face went stiff for a beat.

Two years ago, the Cross family had actually discussed an arranged marriage with the Bennett family.

Everyone assumed Vanessa would be the bride.

Then Julian had his accident.

Before either side had even mentioned the idea aloud, Vanessa turned down a marriage that hadn't yet been proposed.

When I asked Julian about it later, he thought the whole thing was ridiculous.

Nathan heard all of that and actually relaxed.

"So you married Julian to get back at me."

"Excuse me?"

"Because I chose Vanessa, you turned around and married the man she didn't want.

"Evelyn, revenge like that doesn't get you anywhere."

Vanessa took his hand.

"Nathan, don't blame her.

"She just needs time to process our marriage."

She looked at me.

"Evelyn, if you regret it, there's still time.

"You've only been married for three days. A lawyer can sort it out."

Catherine chimed in, "Vanessa's right.

"Your father brought you home to give you a good life, not so you'd marry out of spite."

I put my napkin down and said plainly, "I didn't marry him out of spite."

Nathan tried another angle and asked, "Then why didn't Julian come back with you tonight?"

"I already told you. Board meeting."

Nathan leaned back in his chair.

"The Cross Group called every board member in today to decide who's in charge.

"Julian's been sidelined for two years.

"If he can't even hold on to that last seat today, are you planning to leave the Cross family with him?"

Catherine's face went dark too.

"Your father is in London right now.

"The Bennett Group just entered the critical phase of an acquisition. I won't let one impulsive decision of yours drag this family into whatever is coming for the Cross family."

I looked at her.

"My marriage has nothing to do with the Bennett Group."

"You carry the Bennett name. That makes it our business."

She picked up her phone right there.

"I'm calling our family attorney over right now."

Nathan asked again, "Did the two of you sign a prenup?"

"No."

"That makes it easier."

He nodded to himself, his brows furrowed as he worked it out.

"Just file for divorce as soon as you can."

I stared at him, genuinely baffled.

"Who told you I was getting a divorce?"

Nathan looked at me.

"Stop holding out.

"You've made your point. I know how angry you are.

"That's enough now."

Vanessa added gently, "Evelyn, nobody's going to laugh at you.

"Just leave Julian, and everything can go back to the way it was."

I stood up.

"I don't want it to go back to how it was."
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  • He Chose the Fake Heiress, I Married a Billionaire   Chapter 11

    A year later, Julian and I held another wedding ceremony.The first time had been far too rushed.No guests, no press, and even my father had to watch me sign the paperwork over video.This time, Julian chose Long Island for the ceremony.When I got up that morning, my father was already waiting outside my door.He was in a black tuxedo, and his eyes went red when he saw me."If your mother were still here, she'd have given anything to be here today."My hands stilled on my veil, and then I took his arm."Then you'll have to see it for her."A lot of people came to that wedding.Nearly all the board members from the Cross Group and the Bennett Group were there.The same people who, a year earlier, had been guessing when Julian would be pushed out of the Cross family now greeted him politely as Mr. Cross.And I was no longer the girl the Bennett family had brought home seemingly out of nowhere, the one hardly anyone could place.My father had formally stepped down as chairman.Every imp

  • He Chose the Fake Heiress, I Married a Billionaire   Chapter 10

    The evidence went to the police within days.The night my father learned the truth, he sat alone in his study until morning.The next day he formally filed for divorce from Catherine.The foundation audit was completed at the same time.Diverted donations, sham consulting contracts, doctored financial records, one after another.On top of that were the hospital records from twenty-two years ago.Catherine was formally charged.Vanessa was stripped of every position she held at the foundation.Nathan filed for divorce two months after that.She came to see me once.I had just come out of a Bennett Group board meeting that day.She was standing in the underground garage, so worn down that I almost didn't recognize her."Evelyn, are you satisfied now?"I stopped walking."Satisfied with what?""I have nothing left."The foundation is gone, the Bennett inheritance is gone, and Nathan wants a divorce."Her eyes were red."The moment you came back, you tore my whole life apart!"I looked at

  • He Chose the Fake Heiress, I Married a Billionaire   Chapter 9

    It didn't take long for Nathan and Vanessa's marriage to run into trouble.The financial press picked up on it fast.The newlyweds, once inseparable, had stopped appearing together at public events.Vanessa missed two Cole Technologies dinners in a row.As for me, I stopped paying attention to either of them.After Julian formally took over the Cross Group, we moved back to Manhattan.A month later, my father called and said, "The foundation audit turned up a problem."Over the past three years, close to twenty million dollars in donations had been paid out to a handful of so-called consulting firms.Every one of them traced back to Catherine.Stranger still, the person running one of those firms had once been an administrator at the hospital the Bennett family had used twenty-two years earlier.My fingers went still."What are you telling me?"My father was quiet for a few seconds."I've put people on it."The next afternoon a woman in her sixties came to our Manhattan apartment.Her

  • He Chose the Fake Heiress, I Married a Billionaire   Chapter 8

    "The only heir?" Nathan said under his breath, then turned to me like he still couldn't take it in. "Everything you told me back then was true? You weren't testing me?"I folded my arms and didn't bother looking at him."I had no interest in testing anyone. It's just a shame. The Bennett family's backing was right there for the taking, and you threw it away with your own two hands."Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him sink into a crouch and drag both hands through his hair.My father kept going. "I finalized the change to the trust three months ago."The Bennett family's fifty-one percent stake in the group will pass to Evelyn."Nathan's head came up fast.Half the reason he'd picked Vanessa was her supposed talent.The other half was that everyone took it for granted she would inherit the Bennett fortune.And now neither one of those things had ever really been hers.Vanessa had clearly worked that out too."Dad, you can't do this to me."I've lived in this house for twenty-two yea

  • He Chose the Fake Heiress, I Married a Billionaire   Chapter 7

    After a silence, Nathan turned slowly to Vanessa."Why did you lie to me?"She grabbed his hand immediately."Nathan, I didn't lie to you."Evelyn may have written those things, but I'm the one who has always run the foundation."She just handled the writing for me.""That's enough."Nathan yanked his hand out of hers.Vanessa went still."You're snapping at me?""Before I married you I asked you about the foundation. You told me you built it yourself."The color slowly drained from her face."Nathan, that isn't the only reason you married me.""Of course not," he said without thinking. "You're also the Bennett heir."I looked at him and smiled faintly. "The heir. Here we go again."Nathan's head snapped toward me."What exactly did you mean by that earlier?"Catherine immediately stepped in front of Vanessa."All right, that's enough. Tonight has been messy enough."The question of the heir can wait until Richard is back.""Why wait?"A low voice came from outside the door.We all tur

  • He Chose the Fake Heiress, I Married a Billionaire   Chapter 6

    "But my mother said..."Then Julian remembered."Ah. Your mother, Catherine, did reach out to the Cross family."His tone stayed flat. "She proposed an arranged marriage. I said no."Vanessa stood there like someone had unplugged her.Catherine looked like she wanted the floor to swallow her.Two years ago, she really had approached the Cross family on the Bennett family's behalf.After Julian's accident, she had quickly reframed it as a story about Vanessa walking away from a disabled heir.After hearing it often enough, even Vanessa had come to believe it.Nathan turned to her with his brows drawn in."You said you were the one who turned Julian down.""I..."Vanessa flushed all the way to her hairline."I just never expected him to recover."Nathan grew even colder.Julian couldn't be bothered to look at her again.He bent down and picked my phone up off the floor.The screen was already cracked."Who dropped this?"I glanced at Catherine, and her face shifted."It just got knocked

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