The Heiress They Destroyed

My parents died in a plane crash. The company went bankrupt. My older brother lost his mind from the shock.

To keep from losing my last family member, I worked myself half to death.

Three years.

I was drugged and held captive by my brother's sworn enemy. Passed around like a toy by the men Hudson once called friends. Used in ways I couldn't speak of.

None of it mattered.

As long as they paid. As long as Hudson could get treatment. I would have crawled on all fours and barked if that's what it took.

But that afternoon, when I finished my shift and headed to visit my brother, I stopped outside a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Through the window, I saw Hudson Sanchez sitting at a table.

With our parents.

The ones who died in the crash.

"Hudson, this whole charade—faking your death, pretending to be insane—it's gone on long enough." My mother's voice drifted through the glass. "Your sister's wasted away to nothing. This punishment game needs to end."

Hudson smiled.

"She deserves it. She's the one who kept insisting Eliana should go back to her real family. Eliana got so depressed she nearly killed herself."

"But fine—three years is enough. On Harper's birthday, you two come back. Tell her the crash caused amnesia, that Eliana found you and brought you home. I'll 'recover' my sanity." He laughed softly. "She'll be so grateful she'll grovel at Eliana's feet. And our family will be whole again."

My father frowned. "There are holes in that story."

"Harper isn't exactly bright." Hudson waved a dismissive hand. "She never even went to school until she was eighteen. Fooling her won't be hard."

——

I stood frozen on the sidewalk.

Something cracked open in my chest—a hollow space filling with slow, thick drops of blood.

I wanted to cry. But my body was too exhausted to produce tears.

Inside, the three of them continued their meal. Laughing. Planning.

Then a new voice cut through.

"Well, well. Long time no see, Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez. Tired of playing dead already?"

Every muscle in my body locked.

I knew that voice.

Noah Delgado.

My brother's mortal enemy. The man who'd had me drugged, locked in a basement, and broken over three days and nights.

"Poor Harper Sanchez." Noah's tone dripped with mock sympathy. "Comes home after eighteen years, doesn't even get a week of peace before she's out there hustling to keep the family afloat. Selling herself like a dog for scraps. She should've stayed lost."

Hudson's expression darkened. "Don't be dramatic. She's doing odd jobs. Part-time work. Hardly 'selling herself.'"

Noah's smile sharpened.

"Oh, of course. My mistake."

He leaned back.

"I was thinking of someone else. There was this girl—her family went under, and I found her so... pitiful. Fed her a little something to take the edge off. We spent a few very affectionate days together."

His eyes glittered.

"And when she finally woke up? No tears. No screaming. She just asked how much."

He was talking about me.

After Hudson's "accident," Noah had been the first to strike.

I'd just finished paying Hudson's hospital fees and hiring a caregiver when Noah's men grabbed me off the street.

They threw me in a basement. Stripped me bare.

Noah drugged me. Forced himself on me. Filmed every moment.

"Your brother thinks he's untouchable, doesn't he?" He'd whispered it against my ear while I lay pinned beneath him. "Let's see how untouchable he feels watching his baby sister scream under me."

I bit through my own tongue to keep from making a sound. I wouldn't give him ammunition to use against Hudson.

When silence didn't break me, he found other methods.

By the time he was done, there wasn't an inch of skin below my neck that wasn't bruised, burned, or bleeding.

Now, in the restaurant, my brother's face had gone cold.

"She only wanted money?" Hudson's lip curled. "How is that different from whoring herself out? Disgusting."

He picked up his wine glass.

"Women like that are a dime a dozen. God knows what diseases she's carrying." His gaze slid to Noah with thinly veiled contempt. "But I suppose you've never been picky about what you put in your mouth."