lla's

and appraising for the first time in months. My navy suit was custom fit to my body, and its simple yet sophisticated look was a silent protest against

ss of the Ashcroft Empire, Comes Home to Claim Her Birthright!" The words scrolled across the screen, bold, below a photo of me from my press conference last night. San Francisco was stunned - everyone assumed I'd died. When my f

'd acquired, or about the six months I'd spent behind bars to save Ethan Blackvale, the man I'd loved. The man who had slept with my step

e little act of defiance. When I did speak, his voice came out thundering. "Isabella, what the fuck are you

d by his betrayal and razored with my contempt. "I went to jail for you. I fell for you on your corporate leak, signed your NDA and spent si

n't know what you're talking about, Isabella. This

nate. "You believed you could control me, you thought you could have your broken little fiancée at your beck and call to prop

ing it all away," he gr

na tell me what to do anymore. I'm not your puppet, Etha

rillion dollar titan that made Blackvale, its biggest competitor, look like a pipsqueak. I had loved

t I embraced the only daughter, to the Blackvale's

same color as my eyes, I slipped on my heels and grabbed my bag as I headed to the headquarters of the Ashcroft empire, a high-rise glass fortress in the center of San Franc

reverence and shock. "Miss Hartman, welcome back!" a senior exec declared, shaking my hand hard but looking a little as if I'd risen from the dead. To them, I had. No stranger to death, Isabella Hartman disappeare

e in my absence, their envy palpable. They had never imagined the Ashcroft heiress would come back, much less to take the thr

O. The pen was heavy in my hand, every stroke my personal declarat

cuments. Then another. There was a low hum in the room as staff checked the

h Fiancée's Stepsister!" My heart raced as I clicked a link. The footage of my surveillance, Ethan and Lillian

been replaying in my mind: Ethan's precison, Lilian's smirk. Now the world saw it too. San Francisco's elite, Blackvale's investors, they were all witnes