Burned by My Own Father, I Rose as a Billion-Dollar Heiress

I took out a loan to open a restaurant, and to my surprise, business exploded overnight.

Once I had a steady livelihood, my boyfriend proposed. But before the ring even slid onto my finger, a fire burned my restaurant to the ground.

I wasn't just left with nothing. I owed the bank a million dollars.

The double blow was too much. Grief pulled me under, and I lost consciousness.

When I opened my eyes again, everyone who should have been at my side was gone.

Carrying that grief, I went alone to find my fiancé, only to end up outside his private room, listening through the door as he talked with his friends. "Holy crap. Celine Henson's restaurant was burned down by her own father?"

"Yeah. But the idea was mine."

"Cecily's business tanked while Celine was doing great for herself. I was worried Celine's success would crush her, so I suggested her father torch the place."

"What? Why would Celine's father listen to you?"

"You all only know Cecily's the family's adopted daughter. What you don't know is that she's actually the daughter of Celine's father's first love. Love the man, love his child, I guess."

"Damn, Celine really got the worst of it. Last night you were sleeping with Cecily behind her back, and her father was out setting fire to her restaurant."

"You people are ruthless."

...

1

Standing outside the door, I felt the blood in my veins go solid, my mind a blank sheet.

The conversation inside blurred until I couldn't make it out, nothing left in my ears but a roaring.

So it was my father who set fire to my restaurant. A thing I could not have imagined even on my deathbed.

Just because Cecily was his first love's daughter, he'd let that fondness spill over onto her and destroyed my life's work.

But I was the one who was good to him. When he was sick and in the hospital, I was the one who nursed him through the whole thing.

My money was his money. If I went broke, he'd have nothing to spend either.

And still he'd rather be poor than watch my restaurant keep thriving. Was he that afraid of bruising Cecily's pride?

My hands clenched into fists, a surge of blood rising and jamming in my throat.

Before I could cough it out, another bombshell landed.

"I'm starting to regret it a little. Wasn't this too cruel to Celine?"

His friend shot him a look. "You mean because Cecily's carrying your kid?"

The words set the whole room buzzing with confusion again.

"What? I thought you two only slept together last night. She got pregnant that fast?"

"Damn, maybe they'd already been at it for a while. You've got some nerve."

"But I think there's something wrong with you. Why would you do all this?"

Guy Gilbert took out his wallet, opened it, and looked at the photo of the two of us.

The next second, he slid another photo out from behind ours.

It was him and Cecily. In the picture, they were still in college.

"I didn't even like Cecily at first. But one afternoon, out of nowhere, she just walked right into my heart."

"She fought off some thugs for me. Saved me a few times."

"Seeing her covered in cuts and bruises, I ached for her, and I ached even more for the kind of life she'd had."

"From then on, whenever I said I was going to see Celine, the truth was I just wanted to see her."

"I never thought she'd become my one regret. But I couldn't just abandon Celine either. So the two of us started a relationship in secret, one that could never see the light of day."

The whole room went quiet in an instant. No one said a word.

"Her father knew too. He never stopped us. Sometimes he'd even quietly help cover for us."

Hearing that, my heart felt like it was being carved apart, sliced away one thin strip at a time by the sharpest knife.

Only my back pressed hard against the wall kept me from crumpling.

I'd always sensed my father favored Cecily a little more, but because of what she'd been through, I gave way at every turn.

Because I honestly believed I was the luckier one. I had a boyfriend as good as Guy, and I had family who cared.

I never imagined that overhearing his secret would show me it was all fake, the happiness I'd been so proud of.

If that was how it was, then I wanted none of it.