Hidden Heiress: The Maid You Betrayed

Hidden Heiress: The Maid You Betrayed

I. HAWKINS

5.0
Comment(s)
1.5K
View
25
Chapters

For five years, I was the invisible glue holding Damien Crawford together. I was the one who pulled him from a burning car until the skin melted off my back, and I was the one who donated bone marrow when he was on death's door. I even gave up a full-ride scholarship to MIT just to be his nurse. Yet, he believed his mistress, Hadley, was his savior. To him, I was just the maid's daughter who changed his bedpans-a piece of furniture he could abuse while he planned his wedding to another woman. But his cruelty didn't stop at verbal abuse. When my father suffered a massive heart attack, Damien refused to let me use the car, choosing to comfort Hadley over a fake panic attack instead. His mother even slashed the tires to ensure I couldn't leave. While my father died cold and alone, Damien stabbed a needle into my hand just to teach me a lesson about "respect," oblivious to the fact that the scars on my skin were the receipt for his life. He didn't know he was torturing the only person who had ever truly loved him. But the girl who begged for crumbs of affection died along with her father that day. I picked up my phone and dialed the number saved simply as a dot. "He's dead," I whispered to the man on the other end-Anderson Morrison, the city's most feared Don and my sworn protector. "I'm coming," he replied, his voice lethal. "And I'm bringing the army." It was time to show Damien that he hadn't just mistreated a maid; he had declared war on a Queen.

Hidden Heiress: The Maid You Betrayed Chapter 1

For five years, I was the invisible glue holding Damien Crawford together. I was the one who pulled him from a burning car until the skin melted off my back, and I was the one who donated bone marrow when he was on death's door. I even gave up a full-ride scholarship to MIT just to be his nurse.

Yet, he believed his mistress, Hadley, was his savior. To him, I was just the maid's daughter who changed his bedpans-a piece of furniture he could abuse while he planned his wedding to another woman.

But his cruelty didn't stop at verbal abuse. When my father suffered a massive heart attack, Damien refused to let me use the car, choosing to comfort Hadley over a fake panic attack instead.

His mother even slashed the tires to ensure I couldn't leave.

While my father died cold and alone, Damien stabbed a needle into my hand just to teach me a lesson about "respect," oblivious to the fact that the scars on my skin were the receipt for his life.

He didn't know he was torturing the only person who had ever truly loved him. But the girl who begged for crumbs of affection died along with her father that day.

I picked up my phone and dialed the number saved simply as a dot.

"He's dead," I whispered to the man on the other end-Anderson Morrison, the city's most feared Don and my sworn protector.

"I'm coming," he replied, his voice lethal. "And I'm bringing the army."

It was time to show Damien that he hadn't just mistreated a maid; he had declared war on a Queen.

Chapter 1

Aliana POV

I was standing on the wind-swept steps of City Hall, clutching a marriage license application for the ninety-ninth time, when a photo of my fiancé's hand sliding up another woman's skirt lit up my phone screen.

The timestamp was two minutes ago.

The caption, sent from a burner number, was simple: *He's busy.*

I stared at the image. The grainy resolution didn't matter; that hand belonged to Damien Crawford. I knew that hand better than I knew my own face. I knew the jagged white scar on his knuckle-a souvenir from the time he'd punched a mirror three years ago because his soup was cold.

I knew the way his fingers curled, heavy with the intent of possessing something he thought he owned.

And I knew the woman attached to the skirt. Hadley Stuart. The woman who had abandoned him when he was paralyzed, only to return the second he could walk again.

The wind whipped around the limestone pillars of City Hall, biting through my thin coat. I looked down at the paper in my trembling hand. *Application for Marriage License: Damien Crawford and Aliana Rodriguez.*

It was wrinkled. It was the ninety-ninth copy.

For five years, I had been the invisible glue holding Damien Crawford together. I was the one who pulled his broken body from the burning wreckage of his McLaren when the car bomb went off. My skin had bubbled and melted off my back while I dragged him to safety, but I never screamed.

I was the one who donated bone marrow when the infection nearly took him. I had lain in a hospital bed next to his while he slept in a coma, stealing my own recovery time just to sit by his side and hold his hand.

He didn't know.

His mother, Cecil, had told him Hadley saved him. She told him I was just the maid's daughter who changed his bedpans. And I let them lie. I let them lie because I was eighteen, stupid, and desperately in love with a boy who looked at me like I was furniture.

I looked down at the shoes on my feet. They were designer heels Damien had bought me. They were two sizes too small.

"Wear them, Ali," he had commanded this morning, shoving the box into my chest. "I like the way your calves flex when you struggle to walk."

I wiggled my toes. They were slick with blood.

My phone buzzed again. It wasn't the anonymous number this time. It was *Him*.

The contact name was just a period. A dot.

I answered.

"You are standing on the steps," the voice said. It was deep, like gravel wrapped in velvet. It was a voice that commanded armies, a voice that brought grown men to their knees.

Anderson Morrison. The Reaper. The Don of the rival family that controlled the port, the guns, and half the politicians in the state.

"I am," I whispered.

"He isn't coming, *Tesoro*."

"I know."

"He is at the bistro on 5th. With her." Anderson's voice was devoid of pity. He didn't do pity. He dealt in facts and violence. "Say the word, Aliana. Say the word, and I burn the bistro to the ground with them inside."

I looked at the marriage license.

I thought about the acceptance letter to MIT I had hidden under my mattress five years ago. The full-ride scholarship I had turned down to wipe Damien's brow and take his verbal abuse while he learned to walk again. I thought about the scars on my back that looked like melted wax, the ones I hid under high-necked shirts so he wouldn't be disgusted by the sacrifice I made for him.

I had given him my future. My skin. My marrow.

And he gave me shoes that made me bleed and a wedding date he never intended to keep.

"No," I said into the phone. "Don't burn it down."

"You are mercy, Aliana. It is your weakness."

"I am not mercy," I said, my voice cracking before hardening into something new. "I just don't want you to waste the gasoline."

I took the marriage license in both hands. The paper was thick, expensive. Just like everything in the Crawford world-pretty, heavy, and ultimately flammable.

I ripped it.

One tear down the middle. Then another. I shredded it until it was nothing but white confetti raining from my hands.

I opened my palms and let the wind take it. The pieces swirled around me, dancing like snow, before falling into the dirty gutter water at the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm done, Anderson," I said. "I'm taking my father. We're leaving tonight."

There was a pause on the line. A heavy silence that felt like a blood oath.

"I will have a convoy ready," he promised. "If anyone tries to stop you, they die."

"Just get me out."

I hung up. I kicked off the heels.

My bare feet hit the cold concrete. The pain was sharp, immediate, and grounding. I left the thousand-dollar shoes on the steps of City Hall, right next to the gutter where my dreams were dissolving in the mud.

I walked to the curb to hail a cab. I wasn't going to the bistro to scream. I wasn't going to cry.

I was going back to the Crawford estate to pack my father's medicine and watch their empire crumble in my rearview mirror.

Continue Reading

Other books by I. HAWKINS

More
A Painter's Revenge: Love Redeemed

A Painter's Revenge: Love Redeemed

Romance

5.0

This was my third wedding. Or, it was supposed to be. The white dress felt like a costume for a tragic play I was forced to perform in again and again. My fiancé, Damian Avila, stood beside me, but his hand was gripping the arm of Eileen Brandt, his "fragile" friend. Suddenly, Damian was leading Eileen away from the altar, away from our guests, away from me. But this time was different. He came back, pulled me into his car, and drove me to a remote clearing. There, he tied me to a tree, and Eileen, no longer pale, slapped me. Then, Damian, the man who promised to protect me, hit me, again and again, for upsetting Eileen. He left me tied to the tree, bleeding and alone, in the pouring rain. This wasn't the first time. A year ago, Eileen attacked me at our wedding, and Damian cradled her while I bled. Six months later, she "accidentally" burned my best friend and me, and Damian broke my friend's wrist and then my painting hand to appease Eileen. My career was over. I was left in the woods, shivering, losing consciousness. No. I can't die here. I bit my lip, fighting to stay awake. My parents. Our family business. It was the only thing that kept me holding on. I woke up in a hospital, my mother by my side. My throat was raw, but I had to make a call. I dialed an international number, one I had memorized long ago. "It's Alana Myers," I rasped. "I agree to the marriage. All of my family's assets transferred to your accounts for protection. And you get us out of the country."

You'll also like

While I Was Bleeding Out, He Lit Lanterns For Her

While I Was Bleeding Out, He Lit Lanterns For Her

Katie Oettgen

As I lay on the floor of our manor, bleeding out from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, I used my last ounce of strength to call my husband, Cole. I begged him for help, my vision blurring. But the only thing I heard was the clinking of champagne glasses and his mistress's giggle in the background. "Stop the drama, June," Cole snapped, his voice cold. "We're about to go on stage. Don't call again." He hung up, leaving me to die alone on the Persian rug while he accepted an award with another woman on his arm. I woke up in the hospital days later. My baby was gone. They had removed my fallopian tube. Cole finally arrived, smelling of expensive scotch and his mistress's perfume. He didn't hug me. He didn't cry. Instead, he leaned over my hospital bed, pressing his knee into the mattress until my fresh stitches tore open and bled. "You embarrassed me by calling an ambulance," he hissed. "My mistress, Alycia, says you're faking it. Clean yourself up." He left me bleeding again to go announce a $10 million donation to Alycia's "groundbreaking" medical research. I stared at the TV screen, numb. The research Alycia was taking credit for? It was mine. I wrote that patent years ago under a pseudonym. They thought I was just a poor, orphan housewife who needed Cole's money to survive. They had no idea I was actually a billionaire scientist hiding my identity. I pulled the IV needle out of my arm. A drop of blood fell onto the divorce papers I had been hiding. I didn't wipe it off. I signed my name right over it. Then I walked into the bank, reactivated my dormant account with $128 million, and bought the penthouse directly overlooking Cole's house. The mourning widow is dead. The avenger is born.

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

Xiao Xiaosu

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Roderic Penn

I stood at my mother's open grave in the freezing rain, my heels sinking into the mud. The space beside me was empty. My husband, Hilliard Holloway, had promised to cherish me in bad times, but apparently, burying my mother didn't fit into his busy schedule. While the priest's voice droned on, a news alert lit up my phone. It was a livestream of the Metropolitan Charity Gala. There was Hilliard, looking impeccable in a custom tuxedo, with his ex-girlfriend Charla English draped over his arm. The headline read: "Holloway & English: A Power Couple Reunited?" When he finally returned to our penthouse at 2 AM, he didn't come alone-he brought Charla with him. He claimed she'd had a "medical emergency" at the gala and couldn't be left alone. I found a Tiffany diamond necklace on our coffee table meant for her birthday, and a smudge of her signature red lipstick on his collar. When I confronted him, he simply told me to stop being "hysterical" and "acting like a child." He had no idea I was seven months pregnant with his child. He thought so little of my grief that he didn't even bother to craft a convincing lie, laughing with his mistress in our home while I sat in the dark with a shattered heart and a secret life growing inside me. "He doesn't deserve us," I whispered to the darkness. I didn't scream or beg. I simply left a folder on his desk containing signed divorce papers and a forged medical report for a terminated pregnancy. I disappeared into the night, letting him believe he had successfully killed his own legacy through his neglect. Five years later, Hilliard walked into "The Vault," the city's most exclusive underground auction, looking for a broker to manage his estate. He didn't recognize me behind my Venetian mask, but he couldn't ignore the neon pink graffiti on his armored Maybach that read "DEADBEAT." He had no clue that the three brilliant triplets currently hacking his security system were the very children he thought had been erased years ago. This time, I wasn't just a wife in the way; I was the one holding all the cards.

One Night With My Billionaire Boss

One Night With My Billionaire Boss

Nathaniel Stone

I woke up on silk sheets that smelled of expensive cedar and cold sandalwood, a world away from my cramped apartment in Brooklyn. Beside me lay Ezra Gardner-my boss, the billionaire CEO of Gardner Holdings, and the man who could end my career with a snap of his fingers. He didn't offer an apology for the night before; instead, he looked at me with terrifying clarity and proposed a cold, calculated business arrangement. "Marriage. It stabilizes the board and solves the PR crisis before it begins." He dressed me in archival Chanel and sent me home in his Maybach, but my life was already falling apart. My boyfriend, Irving, claimed he had passed out early, yet his location data placed him at my best friend's apartment until three in the morning. When I tried to run, I realized Ezra was already ten steps ahead, tracking my movements and uncovering the secret I'd spent twenty years hiding: my connection to the powerful Senator Grimes. I was trapped between a CEO who treated me like a line item on a quarterly report and a boyfriend who had been using me while sleeping with my closest friend. I felt like a pawn in a game I didn't understand, wondering why a man like Ezra would walk up forty flights of stairs on a broken leg just to make sure I was safe. "Showtime, Mrs. Gardner." Standing on the red carpet in a gown that cost more than my life, I watched my cheating ex-boyfriend's face turn pale as Ezra claimed me in front of the world. I wasn't just an assistant anymore; I was a weapon, and it was time to burn their world down.

Cheated On Me? I Married a Tycoon

Cheated On Me? I Married a Tycoon

Rum Runner

I spent three years building my husband, Axel Farrell, into Silicon Valley's ultimate "family man." As his lead PR strategist, I carefully managed his public image, making sure the world saw him as a perfect, devoted husband while I worked in the shadows of our estate. The illusion shattered when he came home one night smelling of sandalwood and roses, with three deep fingernail scratches carved into his back. When I tried to check his phone, the passcode we had used for years-our wedding anniversary-had been changed. The betrayal got worse the next morning when his mother called me a "defective product" and tried to force me into a fertility clinic. Axel didn't defend me; instead, he shoved me against a marble bar at a public gala to protect his mistress in front of the world's elite. By the time I tried to leave, Axel had frozen my bank accounts and filed a forged legal petition to have me declared mentally incompetent. He planned to have me legally kidnapped and locked in a private psychiatric ward just to stop me from filing for divorce. He even blocked every major law firm in the city from taking my case, leaving me with no money, no identity, and no one to turn to. I couldn't understand how the man who "saved" me from the mud years ago could be the same monster now trying to legally erase my existence. Was our entire marriage just a grooming process to exploit my genius for his billion-dollar empire? As the deadline for my forced commitment approached, I stopped crying and opened my laptop. I leaked the video of his affair to every tech journalist in the country, watching his stock price crash in real-time. "Axel thinks starving me out will make me crawl back to him," I whispered as I walked into the headquarters of his biggest rival. "But he forgot that the most valuable part of his company is in my head." I was no longer the abandoned wife; I was the one who was going to take his throne and burn it to the ground.

The Scars She Hid From The World

The Scars She Hid From The World

REGINA MCBRIDE

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Hidden Heiress: The Maid You Betrayed Hidden Heiress: The Maid You Betrayed I. HAWKINS Modern
“For five years, I was the invisible glue holding Damien Crawford together. I was the one who pulled him from a burning car until the skin melted off my back, and I was the one who donated bone marrow when he was on death's door. I even gave up a full-ride scholarship to MIT just to be his nurse. Yet, he believed his mistress, Hadley, was his savior. To him, I was just the maid's daughter who changed his bedpans-a piece of furniture he could abuse while he planned his wedding to another woman. But his cruelty didn't stop at verbal abuse. When my father suffered a massive heart attack, Damien refused to let me use the car, choosing to comfort Hadley over a fake panic attack instead. His mother even slashed the tires to ensure I couldn't leave. While my father died cold and alone, Damien stabbed a needle into my hand just to teach me a lesson about "respect," oblivious to the fact that the scars on my skin were the receipt for his life. He didn't know he was torturing the only person who had ever truly loved him. But the girl who begged for crumbs of affection died along with her father that day. I picked up my phone and dialed the number saved simply as a dot. "He's dead," I whispered to the man on the other end-Anderson Morrison, the city's most feared Don and my sworn protector. "I'm coming," he replied, his voice lethal. "And I'm bringing the army." It was time to show Damien that he hadn't just mistreated a maid; he had declared war on a Queen.”
1

Chapter 1

07/01/2026

2

Chapter 2

07/01/2026

3

Chapter 3

07/01/2026

4

Chapter 4

07/01/2026

5

Chapter 5

07/01/2026

6

Chapter 6

07/01/2026

7

Chapter 7

07/01/2026

8

Chapter 8

07/01/2026

9

Chapter 9

07/01/2026

10

Chapter 10

07/01/2026

11

Chapter 11

07/01/2026

12

Chapter 12

07/01/2026

13

Chapter 13

07/01/2026

14

Chapter 14

07/01/2026

15

Chapter 15

07/01/2026

16

Chapter 16

07/01/2026

17

Chapter 17

07/01/2026

18

Chapter 18

07/01/2026

19

Chapter 19

07/01/2026

20

Chapter 20

07/01/2026

21

Chapter 21

07/01/2026

22

Chapter 22

07/01/2026

23

Chapter 23

07/01/2026

24

Chapter 24

07/01/2026

25

Chapter 25

07/01/2026