After the Divorce, I Became the Billionaire's Lost Heiress

Stuart pulled out his phone with a sheepish look and opened the saved articles on my social account. "Babe, I noticed a few days ago you'd bookmarked some skincare pieces, so I asked a nutritionist and a dermatologist, and they both said oysters help. I know you don't like seafood, but I already cleaned it so there's no fishy smell." There wasn't a single flaw in anything he said. Stuart was the heir to the most powerful family in all of New York. Every day there were endless files and meetings waiting for him, and still, the moment I was unhappy, he would push everything aside and come to me. Sometimes I couldn't bear to drag out his work, so I'd tell him not to bother staying with me, and he'd hold me with that wounded look, his head buried against my neck. "How could work ever matter more than my wife? Your stomach's bad, so I'll come home every day and cook for you." This time was no different. He remembered every request, every preference of mine, and he cooked for me. I held back the smell and didn't bolt right away. He reached out and touched my face, worried. "You're not feeling well, are you? I'll throw it out right now." In the instant his hand touched me, I caught a faint milky scent. But before I could be sure, his phone rang. The moment he picked up, his brows knotted and his voice went tight. "I'll come right now." He grabbed the car keys by the door, his voice clipped with urgency. "Rosalie, something's come up at the company, I have to get back and handle it immediately. I'll make it up to you tonight, your favorite roses." The instant he stepped out the door, the room went silent. The thread had rooted itself in my mind. My hands clenched the blanket, and the unease only grew. Stuart's behavior, his explanation, all of it was the same as always. The same tenderness. But every little detail kept whispering that something was wrong. Fighting back the nausea, I went through the coffee table cabinet, the bookshelves, even the bathroom trash can. Everything was normal. Nothing but the traces of the life Stuart and I shared. Had I really just imagined the smell? I gave my head a shake and went to sink into the beanbag chair to rest, and that was when I found something wedged in the cushion. My hand stopped. Slowly, I pulled it out. A piece of lingerie, stained with a milky-white fluid and that same milky scent. And for the past two months, Stuart and I hadn't been intimate at all. In that moment, a roar went off inside my skull. I went cold all over, my hands shaking as I took out my phone and saw the update under that top comment. "Bro, I just used seafood to cover it, and my wife didn't suspect a thing. Works every time! She didn't catch it last time either. Last time I went at it with her best friend right there in the bedroom, what a rush! Right now my little lover and I are getting ready for tomorrow's birthday party." The thread starter replied instantly: "Already got the seafood going, man, you eat well! You got any photos of you two going at it?" The top comment didn't answer him with words. He attached a picture instead. Two hands in the photo, fingers laced together. I knew Stuart's hand the second I saw it, and on the woman's wrist was a distinctive red string bracelet. The one I'd prayed for, to keep Luna Pruitt safe through her delivery. So Stuart really had cheated, with my best friend Luna Pruitt. And they had a child together. The vasectomy was a lie. Wanting only me was a lie too. He'd even brought Luna into our bedroom, left the marks of the two of them all over our home. It felt like a giant hand tearing my heart in two, the tears blurring everything in front of me. My chest felt crushed, the pain so sharp I couldn't breathe. Stuart remembered I loved roses, remembered my favorite cake, remembered to cook for me, remembered to come home and give me a kiss. But he'd forgotten the one promise between us.

When someone betrays you, the other person leaves for good. I couldn't help the bitter little smile that pulled at my mouth. Stuart could love me down to the bone and still bring Luna Pruitt into our home, into our bed, and have a child with her on the side. I sat there working my fingers together, helpless, desperate to know exactly when the two of them had started. Had every bit of his love for me before this just been an act? He came home to cook for me every day. The moment anything happened to me, he dropped everything to be at my side. That kind of love, holding nothing back. How much of it had really belonged to Luna? My arm slowly went numb. I sat on the couch and said nothing. That night, tears soaked into the cushions. I sent the lingerie from the bedroom off to a testing lab, to have them analyze the fluids on it. The next day, something occurred to me. I grabbed the car keys off the nightstand, my chest burning with urgency. I made it to my parents' house fast. "Rosalie? What brings you home today? Stuart didn't come with you?" My mother came forward and pulled me inside the house, her voice full of surprise. In that moment, everything I'd been holding in came pouring out. I buried my face against her and choked out the truth, that Stuart had cheated. "Rosalie, could you have gotten it wrong?" My father sat on the couch, still holding two reports in his hand. "How could I be wrong? The forum post mentioned seafood, and the next thing I know there's seafood in our house. There's no mistake." "Men are all the same. Fickle, never satisfied. And that little tramp's even gone and had a baby!" "I thought Stuart would be the one exception. I never thought he'd give in and stray too. The promises he made back then, that he cherished you, respected you, that we never had to have kids. It's only been three years, and he's already out chasing his thrills!" My mother stroked my back, aching for me, and spat the words out in fury. My father set the reports down, frowning. "Everyone knows Stuart loves Rosalie more than anything. To marry her he took the family's punishment head-on. It cost him his leg." "So what? A bad leg didn't stop him from cheating. A man like that knows how to put on a show. Maybe all that devotion back then was an act too." My mother fired back angrily, glaring at him. I wiped my eyes, but my heart was full of doubt. It was exactly what everyone said. All these years, Stuart had spoiled me beyond reason, treating me as if I'd melt if he held me too close. He was the heir to the Webb family, the man half the young women in New York dreamed about. The night before our wedding, the daughter of the Dickerson family, the most powerful family in New York, had kidnapped me and locked me in a warehouse soaked in gasoline, trying to force him to marry her instead. Stuart turned her down flat. He pinned her down, frantic, pressed a knife to her throat, and made her tell him where I was. But it was already too late. By the time he reached me, flames were roaring up all around me. He didn't hesitate for even a second. He ran straight into the fire, through the smoke and the falling beams, and dragged me out with everything he had. His back was covered in burns from it. He even cracked three ribs. And all he did was hold my hand, still shaken, his warm tears falling on my shoulder. "Rosalie, I can't lose you. Only when you're here can I feel my heart beating." It was because I'd seen him give himself like that, completely, that none of this made sense. Was it really just because I didn't want children? What did Luna have that moved him, that turned his heart? The next moment, my phone started buzzing wildly. I put it on speaker. Stuart's cold voice came through. "Rosalie, where have you hidden Luna?" "What are you talking about? I have no idea where she is!" I frowned, and a mocking smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. "Rosalie! How can you be this jealous? You'd actually believe some baseless gossip off the internet! Where is she?" My father suddenly clutched his chest and crumpled to the floor, mumbling. "Luna? Luna's... gone?" My mother and I rushed him to the hospital in a panic, but not one doctor there would step forward to treat him. "Rosalie, your father gets his surgery the moment Luna comes back." Stuart's icy voice echoed in my ear through the receiver. "Stuart, the Webb family cares about nothing more than its reputation. If word gets out that you cheated and left your own father-in-law to suffer without treatment, you know exactly what that does to you." "The doctors can keep him alive. But your father wakes up the moment Luna shows up." After the call ended, my mother had already dissolved into tears. "Didn't you all hear me? Get over here and save him!" The doctors swarmed in and started CPR on my father. "There's no time, Mom. We're going to bring her back, and we'll get evidence of the affair right where it's happening." I quickly opened my phone, found Luna's social media account and her location, then pulled up a car GPS tracking app.

Back when the Webb family was caught in a war with their enemies, I lived in fear every single day, terrified that the man I loved most would die under someone else's gun. To put my mind at ease, Stuart installed a live car GPS tracking app on my phone. After that, I used it to pull him out of his enemies' hands more times than I can count. I always thought it was proof of everything we'd survived together. I never imagined it would become the tool that ended our marriage for good. I let out a bitter little laugh and lowered my eyes to the green icon crawling slowly across the map. "That's Stuart's location? Isn't that Rose Island, where the two of you went on your honeymoon?" I nodded and turned to tell the housekeeper to ready the private jet. My mother watched the icon stop moving, then hauled me onto the plane without another word. "Stuart has destroyed this family, and he still has it in him to go cheat!" Right before takeoff, the housekeeper pressed two reports into my mother's hands. "Mrs. Carter, Mr. Carter left these behind." My mother snatched them, her hand flying up. "I know. Take off now." She clutched the reports in a death grip, her eyes full of worry and fury. "I actually thought Stuart was a good man. And look at this. Not only did he cheat with your best friend, he put your father in a hospital bed." "How can anyone be so heartless? Your father is his father-in-law! And he wouldn't even let him into the operating room!" "My poor girl. How could he cling to you, swearing he loved you, while he couldn't keep his hands off another woman? I'll see them both ruined, run out of New York!" The tears slid down my mother's face, her cheeks flushed red with rage. My parents had never wanted me to marry into that family. They thought the Webbs were too far above us, and they were afraid I'd be made to suffer. But to bring me home as his wife, Stuart took ninety-nine strokes of the whip, until the family elders and my parents finally relented. I still remember that day. Covered in blood, he pulled me into his arms, grinning ear to ear, murmuring the same thing over and over. "I finally get to marry my Rosalie!" I reached out and held my mother close, saying nothing. After my mother had cried it all out against me, she sniffed and started reading the two reports. Then her brows drew together, her pupils shrank, and she went silent. Forty minutes later, the plane reached the little island where Stuart was. The moment I stepped off, I spotted his flashy sports car parked beside the island villa. Without a word, I grabbed my mother and rushed straight for the house. What I missed was how her face changed after she finished the reports and saw the villa. She reached out and caught my arm, stopping me before I could take another step. "Rosalie, are you sure Luna is in there?" I lifted my eyes to her frightened face, and something inside me said this was wrong. "Mom, you saw it too. The location on her social account lines up with this place." The reports were still in her hand. It shook as she forced an ugly smile. "Rosalie, let's go back. Your father's still waiting for us. We'll get the police to come arrest them, all right?" I frowned at her, confusion crowding in. "Mom, the only way to save Dad is to find Luna. You were just saying you'd tear that scumbag and that little tramp apart, and now we're almost on top of them. Why do you suddenly want me to leave?" My mother's tears dripped to the ground, and then she screamed. "Rosalie! Come home with me, and I'll still claim you as my daughter!" "Mommy really loves you. I'm only thinking of you." I didn't understand. Why my mother, who had ached for me on that plane, who had wanted to fight for me, would suddenly start blocking my way the instant she finished those reports and saw this villa. Was it the two reports? Or the villa itself? Or some secret Luna was carrying inside? The curiosity surged in me, and I pressed my lips together and unlocked the villa door with my fingerprint. "Beep!" The door swung open, and there on the sofa was Stuart, bending down to kiss a woman. When I saw her face, and the birthmark on her neck, my eyes went wide, and I felt like I understood everything.