All Chapters of He Chose the Fake Heiress, I Married a Billionaire: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Before I could answer, my stepmother, Catherine, called from the hall in a warm voice.My father was still in London handling an acquisition for the Bennett Group.Catherine was in charge of tonight's family dinner.She hurried out, hugged Vanessa first, then took Nathan's hand in both of hers."You're finally back."Nathan, the whole city is talking about your wedding."When she turned to me, her smile thinned."Evelyn's here too. Come on in."Vanessa waved her assistant over to carry the gifts into the living room.Wine from a French chateau. The commemorative watch Nathan had worn the day he rang the bell at Nasdaq.And the paperwork for a five-million-dollar donation from Cole Technologies to the Bennett Foundation.Catherine held the documents and nodded, pleased."Vanessa, you married the right man."Vanessa leaned into Nathan's side."Nathan insisted on all of it."He said the Bennett family raised me for twenty-two years, so of course he wanted to say thank you."Then she looke

"I'm not divorcing Julian."Catherine's hand tightened around her phone, and every trace of warmth left her face."Evelyn, do you understand what you're doing?""I do.""Your father isn't in New York. I wasn't planning to step in for him."But you've clearly lost the ability to think straight."I picked up my bag."Then we'll wait until he's back and I'll explain it to him myself."I made it two steps before Nathan moved into my path."Do you really have to take it this far?""Move."He didn't."Evelyn, I know what you're worried about."I looked at him and waited for the rest."You're afraid that now that you've married Julian, I won't want you anymore. Right?"Don't worry. The Manhattan apartment is still yours."Everything I promised you, I'm not taking any of it back."I looked at him."So... you want me to leave my husband and be the other woman?"Nathan's brows pulled together."Don't make it sound so cheap."Vanessa is my wife."She's the Bennett heir. She has her own foundation

"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

"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

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